Got Twitter?  Have you set up a free Twitter account yet?  If so, are you using it interactively or is it a mystery to you?  If not, why not?  Still think it’s about what somebody had for breakfast?

Let’s take a fresh look at Twitter from the perspective that it is a tool that connects people.  It does that by offering a way that users can utilize a phone, a desktop computer program or a web based interface.  No matter which way you connect to Twitter, you are given 140 characters to get your message across.  You can search Twitter within the web interface or search it by using any number of (mostly) free tools.  By doing a search, you can find people by what they say (a keyword search) or perhaps by their zip code, or city, or occupation.  The idea is to find people that you would like to get to know.  Once you have identified some people, you can “follow” them from your Twitter account.

When you follow someone, it means that you get to see their “tweets” without having to do a search for them.  They show up in your timeline (Twitter speak for the flow of information that you see when you sign on to Twitter).  Then you can reply to them either privately or publicly.

One of the accepted practices that happens on Twitter is that if you follow someone, they generally follow you back.  This means that they can see your Tweets.  (Of course, in theory everyone can see every one’s tweets, but in practice it doesn’t work out that way)

In order to raise your chances that you’ll get followed back you need to do a few things.

1. Have a picture.  Make it a close up of your face.  We all like to know who we are dealing with.
2. Fill out the bio portion.  Tell us a little about you.  Make it interesting…make me WANT to follow you
3. Have a custom background that contains a larger picture of you along with your contact info (Connect with me on Twitter and I will give you the name of someone who does that work…if you ask)

One of the best moves that you can make when getting started is to go to http://www.mytechopinion.com/niknik/p/ebook/ and download the FREE “Twitter for Real Estate Twits” by Nicole Nicolay, otherwise known as @nik_nik.  This FREE (did I mention that it is FREE?) PDF download is an easy read and will get you started in the right direction quickly.

One of the things that make me wince when I see agents doing it is constant self promotion.  This is not a homes magazine where you have tell everyone that you are the number 1 real estate agent in all of Upper Lower Township.  Nor does any one care how many bazillion dollars of real estate that you have sold.  Frankly, that doesn’t fly in print media either.  But here, it’s just regarded as noise and will get you un-followed or ignored in a heartbeat.

Instead, focus on writing useful things in your blog and use Twitter to post links to your blog posts.  Sell them on why they should click on the link you provide.  In other words, what’s in it for them to click on your link?  Find useful things that other Tweeters have said and promote them by using the RT or re-tweet command.

It’s ok to occasionally talk about your new listing or your open house, or the fact that you have recently sold something.  Just make it a VERY small portion of what you do.

Here is a partial list of real estate agents that I follow.  I suggest that you follow them and watch what they do for a while to get a sense of what I am saying.

@serkes
@tonylazz
@leslielambert
@anncummings
@gingerw

They all have different styles and they all let you know that they are real estate agents without being in your face about it.

So, get on over to http://www.twitter.com and sign up for a free account.  Get @nik_nik’s book and read it.  Follow me on Twitter, too.  I’d love to follow you back!  @JerryKidd