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Twitter Lists for Real Estate

09-08-10

Twitter lists are a great way to organize people on Twitter. When you’re following 500+ people on Twitter, it gets a little messy! At that point, it’s very easy to lose track of people you have followed and more importantly, people you should be monitoring and following up with.

I’m going to show you how to create Twitter lists and how to manage them with the least amount of time.

How to Create Twitter Lists

It’s very simple to create and manage Twitter lists. You can create Twitter lists in a few easy steps:

Login into Twitter and click “New List” in your sidebar.
Choose a name for your list.
Write a description for your list.
Choose whether you want the list to be public or private: keep in mind that when your list is public, the person added to the list as well as everyone else can see the name of your list and description. Don’t name a list “Annoying People that Don’t Say Yes!!!”

Twitter Lists

What Lists Should I Create?

Prospects: place people in this list if there are signs that they are interested in buying or selling a property soon. These are usually cold leads that may not know you yet. For this list of people, keep an eye on what they’re up to. When they mention a tweet about buying or selling property or looking for their next house, approach them in like you would want to be approached: “Hey Lisa. My name is Joe and help people like you buy and sell property in the Toronto area. Can I help?”
Clients: we all know it’s easier to close previous clients than get new ones. So, pay attention to them for important events in their lives. Are they posting pictures from their daughter’s high school graduation? Are they celebrating at their anniversary dinner? Did they just have a baby? These are all great opportunities to be part of their life and great conversation starters the next time you bump into them. They will love you for the effort you put in and think of you when they think real estate.
Colleagues: these can be your colleagues from surrounding areas to people you have met at conferences. The way to use this list is of people is to get a better understanding of how others in the industry are using tools online and also to keep in touch as necessary.
News/Updates: there is a lot of content that is published daily. With Twitter, you have the ability to share it with everyone! The way to use this list is by placing blogs and publications into this list, spotting high quality content and sharing it with your following. This isn’t restricted to newspapers and large blogs. If you have made friends with colleagues from Active Rain, add them in here as well to further share their wisdom.

I Created the Lists. Now What?

In my opinion, if you don’t plan on revisiting the lists, don’t bother creating the lists. The way these lists will work is by coming back every once in a while. You can revisit the lists every couple of days or you can visit the lists daily.

There is always the comment, “I don’t have time to sit on Twitter all day. How am I supposed to manage lists?” The purpose of these lists is to help focus on the people that matter. When revisiting these lists, scan over them to see what is relevant to you and what the action step is.

Examples of action steps are:

Reach out to comment on the tweet such as a “congratulations”.
Update client information on database
Call client to follow up

Follow me on my new Twitter account just for real estate here: @SecretsTREM

Your Turn: Have you tried Twitter lists? What did you think? Is it useful or pointless?

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Don’t Get Caught in the Social Media Hamster Wheel

08-11-10

Nehal Kazim

Ever felt you went through a whole week in a hamster wheel? I mean you got work done but there was a feeling that not that much was accomplished?

That’s how I would define the first week of August. Yet, this week was one of the most productive for me in 2010. Let me explain:

My weekly objectives were accomplished, each day felt smooth and I couldn’t be more satisfied with the quality of work produced. But the realization came when I did my weekly review. What did I really accomplish this week?

You see, the problem was that the short term tasks and deadlines didn’t match the long term objectives. For example, if a new website is being built, articles are almost pointless if wireframes aren’t being created. Looking back at it from this vantage point makes sense but when there are meetings, emails, Twitter mentions, etc flying by, it’s easy to get steered away from that.

Focus is key

By losing focus of the long term objective and taking action with short term tasks, there will be a lot of time wasted or worst, you’ll be stuck in the hamster wheel without even knowing you’re in their in the first place.

For your social media initiatives, sure you can keep messaging random posts here and there. But when is it time for tweaks, improvements and noticeable changes?

Getting off the hamster wheel

It’s very easy to keep pumping out meaningless tasks that you’ve assigned yourself. But how long can you just afford to be another “Mr. Me Too” in your market? What are you going to do differently?

Here are a couple ways to unshackle yourself from the vicious cycle:

Weekly reviews – the value of an effective feedback loop is invaluable. People from your marketing team can give you feedback but in my opinion, there are two groups that can provide even impactful observations:

People outside of the marketing team – talk to the accountant and ask what he thinks about the latest updates on the Twitter feed. If that person doesn’t care, you’ll get a “it looks good.” But if there’s a colleague that is truly interested, that person will give insights on subtle language that can be misinterpreted and other comments that can be valuable.
Ask colleagues in the industry – there perspectives vary as they aren’t part of the company’s culture. They aren’t aware of the voice, tone and perception your company plans to portray vs. the end result which is live on social media outposts like Twitter.

Watch other brands. How are brands currently innovating? We all have ideas but it’s important to see how innovation is being done currently. There are two groups you want to keep an eye on:

Your competitors: what are they doing which are earning them results? What are they doing where they’re falling flat on their face? Watching their updates unravel and monitoring reactions will give you a better idea of what’s working and what isn’t.
Other industries: If you’re a Realtor, check out how Sprinkles is selling muffins. Or if you’re a restaurant, see how Lululemon is keeping their fans engaged. Give yourself opportunities to make connections and promote think differently. After seeing ideas from other industries, you will learn strategies and concepts that can make slight differences that will pay dividends.

My one word of advice is take action. You may have heard this before but are you actually monitoring others in private lists? Are you asking others for help?

This was a real breakthrough for me because there are times where I’m heads down and don’t consider anything outside of my mind space. Learn from my experience and don’t let it happen to your social media initiatives and the damage it can potentially do for you brand.

Question: have you ever caught in the hamster wheel? When did you realize and what did you do about it?

Originally Posted on NehalKazim.com/Photo Courtesy of phyxiusone

Watch this 19:36 minute video on how you can REALLY start leveraging YouTube for your real estate business: Real Estate Marketing.

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How to Find Prospects Looking for Property on Twitter

08-06-10

Nehal Kazim

There are many opportunities to start conversations with your market on Twitter. To grow your business and to grow your presence online, you need ways to target more prospects online for your real estate business.

Here are three ways to discover more leads and open the floor to your market:

- Monitor keywords. There are keywords that your prospects will include on Twitter which are opportunities that are begging for conversation. Here’s an example:

@Sally says Looked at 4 different houses today and don’t know which one is right for my family.

One way you can start a conversation is by replying; “Buying a home starts with taking off the heels and getting into running shoes, lol. Anyone that really caught your eye?”That’s the way I would start it because I’m playful and attempt to make people laugh; notice the word attempt :/

Use your personality to your advantage and start conversation as if you would offline.

- Follow lists of influential individuals in your city. In every major city, there are individuals that are leaders of the pack online; they have the ability to influence their friends and colleagues. A few ways to determine influential individuals in your city are by simply following conversations; that’s the way I have found interesting people. You can determine if they are influential by a few factors such as follower to following ratio, how often they’re listed in Twitter lists and their level of engagement with others on their Twitter home feed.

There are also Twitter directories, like Twellow, which let you browse through Twitter profiles based on location, interests, etc. I personally like going through individual profiles vs. searching directories because I can get a better vibe of who they are and their activity.

- Leads will come to you. If you’re new to Twitter or haven’t been successful with it with the time you have been trying it, this may seem like a dream. But when you start having conversations without pushing the sale, others will see their friends having engaging conversations with you and get curious. These same people will be inclined to see what the conversation was about and follow you.

Note: It’s important to have a Twitter profile that doesn’t look like spam or cheesy. First impressions are important and Twitter doesn’t change that one bit.

These are a few ways to start conversations online and engage with prospects. I’ll be honest and up front with you: real results will come when you are consistent with your social media efforts. Start adding value for your followers and take these steps to start building a community.

Watch this 19:36 minute video on how you can REALLY start leveraging YouTube for your real estate business: Real Estate Marketing.

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