The key to impressing on popular social networks, such as Twitter, is to play on your strengths and promote the aspects of your real estate business that make you unique, while at the same time demonstrating your value within the online community.
With over 250 million users, it’s imperative you give the right message for your business.
[Tweet “With over 250 million users, it’s imperative you give the right message for your business.”]
When starting from the bottom, creating a real following is difficult and often very frustrating; getting the right balance of thought leadership and humor can be a struggle.
Here are five useful tactics that are sure to advance your real estate Twitter page:
1. Create clear and compelling content
An important step on your way to Twitter domination is to talk about what people are interested in: Find out the latest trends or hashtags in the real estate industry and link to it from your Twitter page.
Regularly check news publication, magazines, blogs or Google Trends for news stories and to see what everyone in your field is talking about.
A couple of things to avoid:
- Tweets should present a snippet of what your company is all about. Tweets with no clear message or irrelevant content can be ignored, or worse, damage your brand’s credibility.
- Don’t just talk yourself, as that’s likely to get boring very quickly. Talk about other things that could have relevance to your company. For every self-promotional tweet, write five others that might interest your target readers.
[Tweet “For every self-promotional tweet, write five others that might interest your target readers.”]
Colonial Capital, a housing investment company, based in Chicago, often shares other stories about its local area. This content keeps its Twitter page neutral and informative for its local users.
2. Use engaging images
When it comes to tweeting about real estate, the most important tool at your disposal are images.
Posts with pictures are 94 percent more likely to be retweeted, as they draw the user’s attention quickly compared to just text. Regular updates with images will encourage viewers to come back to your site and favorite or retweet your posts.
[Tweet “Posts with pictures are 94 percent more likely to be retweeted. “]
Lennar specializes in leading new homes and real estate. They include lots of beautiful images of homes, but they also include relatable imagines about satisfied customers.
3. Interact with your audience
The primary use of Twitter is to allow users to socialize, and businesses need to utilize this fact to help their company to be successful.
A method to consider is staying active: Studies show that updating tweets in the peak times of 1-3 p.m. on Monday through Thursday will help make your site more popular.
[Tweet “Studies show that peak times to tweet are 1-3 p.m. on Monday through Thursday.”]
Also, interacting with users is key — creating appropriate conversations will drive more traffic to your site. It is also important to use the right language.
Words including “follow,” “tweet,” “free” and “top” have been shown to generate more overall clicks and visits to a page. Hashtags are also essential. Using trending hashtags will create a lot of interest from users.
Other methods to having a positive audience interaction are:
- Ask people for their direct opinions.
- Ask for follows/retweets/favorites.
- Get involved in other user’s conversations; don’t wait for them to tweet to you.
4. Encourage cross-promotion
Linking to your other social channels, such as Facebook and Instagram, is vital. Linking builds your brand by allowing users to gain access to your other channels and gives them a more rounded idea of your company.
Promoting these other social media platforms in tweets will also make it more likely that viewers will click on them to find out more. It is essential that a direct link to the business Web address is available at all times for any user who might want to contact you.
5. Be personable and presentable
Businesses use Twitter to expand their client base by getting people interested in the company. Having a dull Twitter page is nonsensical.
Viewers will be put off by the business and be less likely to use your services in future. You need the following items to make a great profile page:
- A relevant profile picture — it’s most likely going to be a logo.
- Colorful and persuasive Twitter background — use appropriate images.
- A winning bio; this is the part where you have to sell yourself in only 160 characters — it might be harder than it seems.
- Website link; this is ideally where you want your followers to end up.
- Your location, which is fairly obvious for a real estate company.
TRD reports on real estate news, but it does it with a flourish. Having a sense of humor in its bio makes it more likeable, and the bright background imagine draws in the viewer.
As quite a traditional industry, utilizing new technology and getting to grips with social media can often be challenging for many real estate professionals. But by applying these few easy methods to your Twitter page, you’ll be sure to keep up with Joneses next door.
Twitter should be your chef’s kitchen: integral to your overall strategy of attracting and securing leads. It is an essential tool for connecting with your current client base and for forming relationships with influencers in the same field.
Lucie Simpson is a digital marketer working at Accuracast. You can follow her on Linkedin.
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