Intro to Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Filed Under Ask The Expert, Market Info, Real Estate Marketing · Tagged: intro to twitter, Intro to Twitter for Real Estate Agents, LinkedIn, social media for real estate, twitter for real estate
The golden rule of Twitter is if you engage with users in a positive manner and provide good content, they will follow. Just remember don’t – DO NOT – force your product or pitch down your followers TweetDeck – that’s sales not engagement!
Remember to put a # (called hash tags) in your Tweets like #CRE or #officespace #toronto – this is what Twitter uses for search terms. Follow people Tweeting about real estate in your area and start engaging them too. Also note whom they are speaking with to find other folks that may be of interest to you. Most people will follow you once you have engaged or interested them.
TIPS
Step 1 – Read this: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/the-ultimate-guide-for-everything-twitter/
Step 2 – Download TweetDeck – http://www.tweetdeck.com/desktop/
You can set up columns with keyword searches ie. I have mine set to search “office space Toronto” and “commercial real estate”. Any time someone mentions all those words in their tweet it appears on my Tweetdeck so I can note what they are speaking about.
Step 3 – use www.hootsuite.com to delay your tweets. I do this for some posts on the weekend so I don’t have to worry about it during the week and I’m constantly updating my Twitter status so people don’t get overwhelmed by tweet after tweet in a row.
Step 4 – Engage and follow the power users in your area – check out this site for some great contributors.
http://twitter.grader.com/location/?Location=toronto
Step 5 – Find users that are talking about your industry / specialty
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=office+space+toronto
Other similar tools
http://twitseeker.com/
http://www.twazzup.com/
Here’s another list of some Twitter sites that are highly recommended:
http://econsultancy.com/blog/3643-ten-twitter-search-tools
http://mashable.com/social-media/twitter/
Have any other sites you recommend or techniques you use? I’d love to hear them! Post a comment below!
Prospecting Game Plan in a Changing Market
Filed Under Business and Life, Market Info, Marketing Tools · Tagged: facebook, LinkedIn, prospecting real estate, social media for real estate, twitter, using social media as a real estate agent
Social Media and Commercial Real Estate
Social Media – lets get real!
Seems like the agent water cooler gossip is about social networks and how to use the various networks successfully these days. My take: they are rapidly increasing in popularity but won’t really pay off for a couple of years, at least on the commercial side. Just like Ebay – it took a while before you felt comfortable to enter your credit card online didn’t it?
I generate approximately 50% of my new clients from my blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts BUT if you want business that pays the bills today you have to continue your grass roots prospecting. That means getting in early to cold call, staying in touch with former clients for repeat business and referrals, canvassing or doing mail drops for your listings and actively meeting with clients to tour office space, no matter what size the requirement is. What social media has done for me is dramatically increase my prospect and client base and helped me to easily and consistently stay top of mind and informed.
If you are an agent in the commercial real estate industry my advice is to continue to focus on relationship, relationship, relationship and not the marketing. If you rely solely on social media to generate leads to pay your bills today you will be going through very difficult times. Don’t put all your eggs in the social media basket! Consider social media a useful development tool to prospect for future business and to increase your client base but do not expect it to pay off this quarter. Just remember, don’t start too late or you’ll be left behind with the other agent dinosaurs and it could be too late; the world of social media will become mainstream one day soon… just make sure you are ready for it!
When do you think social media will become mainstream? How far are we from the day a HR manager from fortune 500 companies will feel comfortable starting their search for new office space on Twitter?
