From legitimate celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Spacey, and Dr. Drew to the cheesiest hosts on CNN, it seems that everyone is jumping on the Twitter band wagon. For those who are unfamiliar with the new social medium, Twitter is a kind of mini blogging platform where users post their thoughts in 140 character broadcasts or “tweets.” Many real estate professionals have joined the site and many others are wondering if they should follow suit. I recently sat down with James Dwiggins, Chief Strategy Officer for Realty World Northern California and Nevada; and Kevin Boer, Co-Founder of the Internet marketing consultancy firm, Domus Consulting Group, to get their opinions on Twitter.
The two had very different views about the latest player in the social media arena, but both have a lot of validity. James Dwiggins expressed his concerns about the platform. When I asked him about the marketing capabilities of Twitter, James said, “If it’s used correctly, Twitter could be beneficial in marketing online. It’s just that most people don’t use it properly. A majority of things posted by members are irrelevant or of no interest to consumers, which cause them to stop reading what your posting.” He was also concerned with the retention rate that Twitter has for new users. It’s been generally reported that only 40% of those who sign up return to Twitter. In relation to marketing through Twitter, James felt that, “if it’s relevant to tweet about, chances are the user would be better off writing a blog post on the subject because consumers would find the in-depth information more valuable.”
Kevin also expressed his worries about Twitter. Kevin commented that, “its simplicity makes it so that people who are in a marketing mentality flock to it as a spam platform. Also, there are a lot of scam artists charging aspiring Twitter marketers for followers that end up really being ghost accounts set up by the scammers.” Despite this, Kevin is a little more optimistic in his view of Twitter. When confronted with the retention numbers, Kevin, commented that, “those numbers could be flawed because they measure returns to the Twitter.com homepage. They don’t take into account mobile phones and the myriad of Twitter client applications available.” Kevin said the thing he likes most about Twitter is that it is a “serendipity multiplier,” explaining that, “so often in business and marketing, serendipitous meetings at trade groups and other functions are often a component in driving your business forward. The nature of Twitter is to do exactly that, just at an accelerated rate.”
I have my own opinions about Twitter as I use it daily, but I’m curious as to what your opinions are? Is it just another new thing with no relevance to real estate? Is it just another thing to waste your time? Or is it something that allows you to communicate with a mass audience in a more efficient way?
TJ Shanahan
Social Media Manager
tj@rwnc.net
Between regular e-mail, the blog postings and the web page, I have my hands full. And I do communicate on Facebook which seems to me a better platform simply because you can post longer messages – “Friends” there have become a new shere of influence.
Thanks for the comment, Corky. Everyone can’t be on every social media portal available. The important thing is finding sites that you like and will take the time to use and benefit from. Kudos to you, Corky.
It’s not how many people you actually have following you, but how many people actually care to read what you have to say.
No one wants to take time reading random text messages from someone saying “i’m at the airport picking up my daughter”
Such a waste of time.
If you want to twitter, you gotta be conservative on how often you post, and what you post about.
I stopped using it just because I got so annoyed of all the vibrations going off in my pocket from all the tweets.
Maybe I’ll get back into it in the future tho.. who knows…
Twitter didn’t make sense to me at first, but now it does. I have set up a site that streams twitter posts. Check it out- http://www.chicobreakingnews.com. It allows anyone to use their computer or mobile phone to post breaking news they see happening in Chico. I think this will be especially helpful in situations like the fires we encountered last summer.
Debbie, I know exactly what you mean. It takes everyone some time to figure out how Twitter works and how to interact with it. I didn’t include it in the article, but during the interview Kevin Boer told me about his humorous
“Twitter Age Quotient” theory which goes as follows:
Take someones age, subtract 20, and multiply that number by 1.5 and you will have how many days it will take someone to acclimate to Twitter. For example, a 30 year old person would take 15 days to get used to Twitter.
Kevin told me it took him quite a few days to understand Twitter himself, but would not comment on exactly how many. His business partner is the one who created the breaking news site platform you’re using in Chico. I think it’s very cool that you are taking local news viral in Chico.