If you happened across this blog on the relationship between Twitter and real estate, then I hope you will chime in with your opinion on how the two go together. On the other hand, if you are a regular reader of the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog, then you might wonder just what the heck this “Twitter” is and why it made it here anyway.
Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that allows users to publish “tweets” or short blogs of 140 characters in length in order to pass a message on to the world. So what?
The Key Benefits Of Twitter
The 140 character limitation in twitter “tweets” seems to be the aspect of the system that made it go crazy on the internet. It has grown to be a dominant force in social networking and many people (even people you know) are using it to broadcast “what I’m doing” at multiple times per day. But where is the benefit of this in real estate?
Some of the key benefits of Twitter that might be of value in real estate (or any business for that matter) include:
- Immediacy – If you are trying to broadcast important information to the world, you can use Twitter from your cell phone, computer, or any internet device and publish your message. While you can do this with email, the information only goes to the group that you sent it to, whereas with Twitter it goes out to all of your followers.
- Retweeting – If you send a message that somebody else sees and like, they can easily send it to their followers. This is how information can go viral, quickly. It is how I found out the Silver Slipper (a landmark restaurant in Tallahassee) closed its doors forever.
- Public conversations – Since everybody following you can see your tweets, and you theirs, it’s like walking around in a gymnasium with everybody talking. If you find a conversation that interests you, you chime in (immediately) and nobody is offended by the interruption. If you want to know more about a current event, you can usually find it being discussed on Twitter.
- Brevity – Because each message is only 140 long, you have to make your point. Fast. So a lot of the “verbal vomit” that floats around on TV and the internet has to be reduced for value, or it will be ignored. I like that!
- Discovery – Many say that Twitter is super efficient at delivering information and that if you monitor Twitter on a regular basis, you will always be “the first to know.” I’m not so sure that is that important to me, but again, I did find out about the Silver Slipper through a tweet.
- Searchable – If you want to know what people are saying about something (like a business or maybe even yourself), their are tools that help you work through the millions and millions of tweets. You can even automate different searches and have them deliver information to you on a regular basis, so that you are informed on breaking news on the subjects of your interests.
Twitter and Real Estate
So, with all of the benefits, how do we see them helping or changing the real estate industry? The quick answer is … huh? Maybe data publication. Mayble product promotion. I’m not sure. I’d love to get your feedback. Here are a few tweets that I have published to the 2,100+ followers that I have on Twitter:
- Have you seen the new models at 830 East Park Avenue? 2BR: http://jijr.com/hrAR 1BR: http://jijr.com/hrAS, they are DowntownTallahassee!
- Lots of activity on the Tallahassee Real Estate Newsletter today http://tinyurl.com/c5q6ok
- Tallahassee Home Inventories Finally Dropping: See Graph http://tinyurl.com/cdbr5p
- need to build a cool volcano with my daughter for science class, any great web sites/sources out there?
- Florida Economic Forecast From UCF http://tinyurl.com/cn5md2
|
|
Please click here to tweet this to your friends! |
As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible. Additionally, if you would like to respond (leave a comment) to this article, you will need to “click through” to the blog site to post your feedback.
Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates on real estate in Tallahassee Florida.
Joe Manausa is a real estate blogger, a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.


{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I came across this article http://agentgenius.com/?p=239 and it gives three reasons real estate agents should use Twitter. 1) Education – real estate agents can get ideas from one another. 2) Networking – always a smart business and career practice 3) Reaching out to clients – notify them of new listings, open houses, share links.
Love your post here. I just had these types of questions yesterday at a Real Estate Tech Open House hosted by the Charlotte Regional REALTOR Association. I retweeted this on Twitter for my “students” to read. It’s hard to “get it” at first, but once you do, you realize what an incredibly powerful tool it is for developing relationships AND business. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Came across this article from a post on Twitter, I can’t agree more that Twitter is a great tool for real estate if used properly. It can also be abused if you post too much or don’t post interesting content.
Be sure to read about Twitter etiquette, RT good content, do Follow Friday to have your followers find other good Tweets.
Thanks Lori! I’m still working on “getting it” every day. I hope you followed my @HousingReporter.
Great article, it seems to be growing in NE Ohio among my fellow Realtors. Twitter on Garth!
@akronohiohomes
Thanks Jeffrey, I think we’re all still getting up to speed on Twitter.
Thanks David. I’ll look for you on Twitter. I hope you followed my @HousingReporter.
I like your key benefits of Twitter and I would add that it’s also fun!! It took me a while to get on it, but now I’m hooked.
Thanks Blanca. It’s amazing how quickly news spreads through Twitter (both accurate and inacurate).
Hey Joe-
I think people are really frightened by the speed with which things go by you in twitter- that makes the learning curve a little steeper than, say, Facebook. The twitter clients like Seesmic Desktop, TweetDeck or TwitZap help to turn that wide-open gymnasium (loved that analogy!) into a series of smaller rooms.
Nice post!
Thanks Diane and you are so right. The speed of the news stream is incredible.
Dont forget about hashtags
there like meta tage for twitter using those will allow your content to be indexed a lot more effectivly.