Twitter, Facebook and Wasting Time (REtechSouth)

Guilty. Not you - me. I am guilty of wasting time on Twitter and Facebook. In fact I have wasted so much time on Twitter and Facebook that I now waste even more time keeping up with at least a dozen new prospects every week. Then the closings that I am seeing are really cutting into my week - like the $300,000 FHA 203(k) loan I am doing because of a referral I got from a Twitter "friend".

Sure, I will back up just a bit. Twitter is a "micro-blog" and so named because users post messages called "tweets" of a maximum of 140 characters - including spaces. While at first thought 140 characters seems limiting just remember many of today's and most of yesterday's cell phone text messages are limited to 140 characters. This service, developed by a group of four men for the purpose of group communication related to development communication internally at Odeo in San Fransisco. From that point the service has grown to an estimated 6,000,000 users.

Twitter is also a social media networking site in that you can "follow" other users and other users can "follow" you. If you follow each other you are considered "friends". This is where we will concentrate during the first ever Mortgage Breakout Session at the lunch hour. Management of friends and followers can be handled through learning a few simple uses of the Twitter API (beginner skills required) and a number of tools developed for this purpose.

Facebook is nothing like Twitter but does have a feature similar to Twitter. While Twitter is limited to a stream of 140 character micro-posts Facebook is a robust social media service which is growing at an incredible rate with some estimates placing the growth trend at over 400,000 new users per day. It also allows "pages", groups, invitations, events, and all times of applications have been developed to run inside of Facebook.

While Twitter's user base of 6,000,000 members is very respectable and nothing to scoff at Facebook claims a user base of over 175,000,000 people. In case you are slow in math that is more than one-half the population of the United States. Certainly you can see how easy it would be to waste hours and hours building your global social media network of friends at Facebook.

So you ask, "why is this a topic of conversation at REtechSouth and what does it have to do with mortgages and real estate?" If you read my blog often you will know I am about to write, "I am so glad you asked." Since December of 2008 when my co-host Jason Crouch joined me on my Blog Talk Radio show which is now titled Twitter Tuesday we have heard from guest after guest about their successes in social media networking. In fact both Jason and I have had success from Twitter and Facebook.

We are now joined weekly on Twitter Tuesday by Mike Mueller for "Mike's Minutes" (or whatever we call it) where Mike introduces some technology to us and the listeners. Mike shows us everything from how to tie networks together to how to enhance our blogs with plugins and more.

Twitter and Facebook are the new golf course. It is where mortgage bankers, like me, meet developers like Ray Palermo, private investors like Wade Munday, insurance executive like Rick Abbott, and real estate brokers like Jason Crouch. Twitter and Facebook is a global handshake where you meet and interact with and really get to know the people you need and the people who need you.

During the Mortgage Breakout at REtechSouth I will be presenting a short series on how to use multiple social media networks for three purposes:

1. Building your list of contacts on a national or global scale
2. Providing a new level of contact for your prospect or client base
3. Sharing in up to the minute changes in your industry and company

This breakout session, for the majority, is not geared specifically to people in the mortgage industry. Anyone interested in learning how social media will, not can but will, enhance your business is encouraged to attend. We will have room for up to 75 people and you can eat during the presentation. We will also have a live demonstration of the power of social media and the more people we have in the session the more impact the demonstration will have.

Go to REtechSouth for full details and join me on March 20th (Friday) at lunchtime for this Mortgage Breakout Session regardless of what business you are in. The information will not be mortgage only but can be used for any business that needs reach.

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Tune in to Twitter Tuesday Radio live each week at Noon Eastern.