Twitter is more than three years old, (quite an oldy actually) and it’s been featured everywhere from the New York Times to ABC News and is being used for so so many uses its not funny. Now Peter this is why you should be using Twitter – here are four reasons, off the top of my head:
       Â
         It’s a great way to share your message Â
         It’s a great source for information and news about your industry Â
         It’s a great way to connect with potential customers AND potential partners Â
         It’s a great place to go to research your marketÂ
       Â
         …those are just a few of the benefits!
       But to get the MOST out of Twitter for YOUR business, you need to understand
how to find people to follow, how to get followed and how you actually interact in a way that will make the most out of your time.
       Here are three ways to look for people to connect with:
Â
                 Go to Twitter Search, and enter your keywords or words related to your product
or industry into the search bar. (in our case it could be Real Estate New Zealand or Auckland Real Estate or even narrow it down to Takapuna Real Estate) Twitter Search will then show you all the “tweets” that include those terms, and the people who wrote them – instant way to find clients talking about what you can give tem. You can then click through to their Twitter profiles, and see if they are someone you’d like to follow and then maybe you can contact them and talk business.
                 Look through the “Follows” and “Following” lists on anyone you follow to see
if you spot anyone interesting!
         Watch the conversations in your Twitter stream (You can tell who people are talking to from the “@TheirNameHere” in each tweet) and if you see people having an interesting exchange, follow them, or get involved in the conversation by using the @ function yourself! In fact, if you see an interesting tweet, you can reply automatically by clicking the little arrow within the tweet box.Â
       Â
       But it doesnt end just there. Once you have followed some people, here are four quick tips to make your Twitter experience more enjoyable – and to connect more effectively with other users!
      Â
                 Don’t ask people to follow you: People who request that others follow them usually don’t succeed at getting ANYONE to pay attention. Be interesting and engaged in each of your tweets, and be responsive to others and people will follow you (or follow you back) because you add value to THEIR  stream.
                 Focus on sharing information – not on making a pitch: As with any social media platform, you want to build credibility and relationships – instead of pushing for a sale.
                 If you see someone post a link you like, “re-tweet” it: It’s easy – just copy their whole message (including their name), paste it into a new tweet, and add RT at the beginning. This is a great way to show someone you value what the have to say enough to share it with your community.Â
                 Pay attention to how other people use Twitter: One of the best ways to figure out your place in a community is to follow in the footsteps of people you admire.
May 07 2009 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Ok. There has been a lot of fuss about Twitter over the last few days flowing around the Real Estate realm. There has been talk about it on the real estate.co.nz forum where a number of very smart real estate agents are starting to pick up on how it can be used for benefits of their business People such as Sharon James, Alistair Helm, Clive Bray, Ross Bradier, Brad Maxwell, Bryan Thompson are just a few that I know that are now starting to use twitter.
Here are some of the recent articles that have been made about twitter.
Realestate.co.nz industry website
Propertyadguru website
Business2 website
So what is twitter: Well wikipedia says
Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 bytes in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can send and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS (receive only), or through applications such as Tweetie, Twitterrific, Twitterfon, TweetDeck and Feedalizr. The service is free to use over the web, but using SMS may incur phone services provider fees.
As of March 2009, Twitter has received extensive visibility and popularity worldwide. Twitter is often described as the ‘SMS of Internet’ in that the site provides the back-end functionality (via its APIs) to other desktop and web-based applications to send and receive short text messages often obscuring the actual website itself. This extensibility of the service has earned it more popularity than it would have garnered if users had to visit the site to use the service.
I have been using Twitter for a while now and have built up a great network on there. My Twitter is Swiggs.
From using twitter I have learnt quite a number of things that the online world want and dont want. I am rated second in New Zealand as a twitter user. I love Twitter. When my job prospects in Real Estate changed I sent a tweet out to my network and instantly there were opportunities coming to me. Twitter is a directly engaging system that means you are in touch and broadcasting to the world and your followers directly and instantly. There are many different ways of using Twitter and here are a number of things listed below.
- Personal Branding. Twitter is a social media platform you can use to build your personal brand. It has the primary benefit of developing a casual persona and establishes you as a social personality that is connected and approachable. As Twitter adoption increases, new users will be drawn towards well established Twitter personas.
- Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on how a website looks or the right course of action to take? Blast out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used as fodder for articles or projects.
- Hire People. Need a good logo designer, marketer or programmer? Send out a message asking for recommendations. This is a very quick and easy way to hire freelancers or even companies based on familiar recommendations.
- Direct traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites or the sites of friends. If you ask your friends to tweet about it, the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up. There is a viral nature to all types of news, even on a site like Twitter.
- Read News. Twitter users often link to useful sites or articles and can be a source of scoops and alternative news. You can also subscribe to Twitter feeds for specific websites/conferences, which allows you to receive and view content quickly. This is very useful for active social news participants.
- Make New Friends. Like any other social network, Twitter has a built-in function for you to befriend and track the messages of other users. This is an easy way for you connect with people outside of your usual circle. Make an effort to add active users you find interesti
ng. A Twitter acquaintance can be developed into a long lasting friendship.
- Network for benefits. Twitter can be used as a socializing platform for you to interact with other like-minded people, especially those in the same industry. It can be used to establish consistent and deeper relationships for future benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.
- Notify Your Customers. Set up a twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new products come in. Customers can subscribe via mobile or RSS for instant notification. Twitter can also be used to provide mini-updates for one-on-one clients.
- Take Notes. Twitter provides you with an easy way to record important ideas or concepts you want to explore further. Include links relevant to ideas you want to explore. Note taking can also be done offline via mobile applications.
- Event Updates. Businesses can use Twitter as a means to inform event participants and latest event happenings/changes. This is a hassle-free way of disseminating information, especially when you don’t have the means to set up a direct mobile link between you and the audience
- Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on a twitter search and then follow users. Tweet about topics parallel to your product and close prospects away from public channels by using direct messages or offline communications. Discretion and skill is needed in this area.
- Time Management and Analysis. Twitter can simply be used to keep a detailed record of what you are doing every daily. This might be boring for others but this type of usage is useful when you want to analyze how you spend and manage your time.
As you can see Twitter is a versitile platform that can be used for all sorts of means. Here is a little tip.
Set yourself up an auto responder with your twitter account. I use Socialtoo. This means when someone follows you they get a personal message.. You soon learn what these are and look like because most of the time it reads.
Thanks for following me – now read my ebook or buy my product from this link………. OR
Thanks for following me, now look at my blog at ……………….
I learnt quickly that people hate this and its not a smart thing to do if you want to build the relationships. You dont want to force anything down the reader or followers throat. You should already have the link in your profile where they can look if you strike the right chord with them.
In your response in these situations what people appreciate is acknowledgment that you have followed them. A simple message with NO links in it along the lines of thank you and look forward to coersing with you or something like that is very very powerful. If you do this then you are building that trust relationship with the other person. This is what is key with twitter.
I hope you have fun. Have a look at the users that are using it from the list above and learn from what everyone else has to say.
Deon
March 24 2009 | Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Its official. Sales volume is the lowest it has been for 16 years 11 months and the market has never been harder to work. Sellers, Buyers and agents… We are all having to adjust, compromise and accept that the days of the boom are well and truly over. And property prices have in fact in some areas come back 10% and some places maybe more. Negativity is so easy to talk about these days when the markets are depressed. Every day we are all hearing about the Credit crisis, banks bailout, tougher lending, house prices and sales fall, car industry crashes, jobs been slashed, and I could go on for a very long time.
These of course are the reality of today but we have to look in hindsight at whats happened prior to bring this about and the fact of the matter is that too many of us are forgetting about is that from 2000 to 2007 there were 7 years where there was the biggest economic growth this world has ever seen. This created jobs in huge amounts businesses were making money without huge expense and effort, many people bought property and in 4 years sold it for double what they paid for it enabling them to buy bigger and better homes and allowing others to get into the market easily at the time. We were all living relatively good lifestyles and many of us were probably living at a level above where we deserved to be.
Reality has hit home but is this a reason to be scared, freak out and stop doing the economic activities we used to do? NO! It’s a time to consolidate definitely and a time to work smarter and stop being lazy. Do you want to be left behind and watch the ones who take action now prosper in ten years time. Are you going to be the one who says, dam I wish I took action when there was time. I sure hope not. There is no reason to worry, it’s time to start opening your eyes up and see whats happening around you. We have seen a major shift in the market place one which few people really expected, homes and property continue to be bought and sold at new levels every day of the year. There are always people who need to sell, and people who need to buy, and so long as there are these 2 people in the market, property will sell. It just won’t sell at prices that where around in 2007.Â
Housing prices today right now are in many places at a level that has made homes right across the board more affordable. And in my view the key to selling your property in 2009 will be in the ability to show that your home has the best value for money on the market, and attract the right buyers to it, and when you’re buying and selling on the same market you aren’t gaining or losing any of that market change. Don’t be afraid to step up to the mark and make a move.
There are some very good buys out there now. We don’t know if there will be better buys to come. All we can do is work with what we have now, and there are plenty of people wanting to sell. Plenty of people are wanting to buy. Enquiry on this blog has doubled in the past three weeks and the search terms are mostly about how to find a good buy. If you want to know where a good buy is, talk to a trusted real estate agent. In this market as a seller they are going to be your best help and also for a seller a real estate agent will be helpful in so many ways. Its bridging that expectation gap which the agents do in order to meet everybody’s needs which is so important.
I have a very large social network online and am in constant contact with them. Today I conducted an experiment. On Twitter I asked a simple question. ‘What are your concerns going into 2009?’ 70% of the response I received was positive and about the opportunities that they see coming into play now. The other 30% were concerned about the financial pressures of life. Which person do you think is going to take action and prosper from it.
Take action. Don’t sit by and let things happen before you. If you have a problem, for example you need a job transfer somewhere and you need to sell the house, take action and sell it. Maybe consider a part swap of a possession somewhere else or something else to sweeten the deal to the buyer. These things will work and you will see the results. I believe the time of opportunity is near. But the opportunity is lost if your too late. Be in. Don’t be scared and think of the long term goal. If your purchasing a home today, tomorrow or in the near future good luck. There are some great buys out there for you to snap up and they arent a trick. This is for real. People lived lives a step above what they earnt and now are having to take the hit. This is the opportunities for you.Â
Â
December 16 2008 | Buyers and Sellers and The Market | No Comments »
Well today is the last day of officially living in New Plymouth. I have been reflecting on what I have achieved and learnt with my time here in New Plymouth and all I can really say is it has been a steep and progressive learning curve. I came to New Plymouth after leaving the Navy to look after my sick father. I had my Real Estate Sales Persons Certificate and managed to land a position selling with Harcourts in New Plymouth. This was when the real education started.
When I started selling I was only 20, almost 21. It was the first time I had never had a paid income coming in every week since I was 15 and after a month of that really freaked me out. On top of this the capital outlay to set my brand and the business up in New Plymouth was massive. They say when you start Real Estate to not expect any income for at least 6 months. I was fortunate to have scored a little listing at a small apartment complex in town and after doing all the right things sold it after the first weekend of open homes. This was really the kick start that started my real estate career.
From here on it became interesting. I started in August 2007 and the peak of the market was about November 2007 and ever since then it has gone down and making sales has become very much harder. But through my time I worked hard and continually invested time into learning how to better myself and do the job I was meant to be doing. In 2007 I worked right through the Christmas period and held up the fort at the office while many others were away on holiday. And this is when 12 months ago I really started to make some good. In January 2008 I was Top Seller for the office, March I was top Lister for the office, In May was top Seller again, In August and October I was the in the top 50 Real Estate Agents for Harcourts in the Wellington Region, And in September was again top seller for the New Plymouth Office.
This was done by just hard work and dedication to what I do. There are a number of things I strongly believe in that I will share at a later date.
Today is the day that I leave all that behind and move on to other things. Tomorrow I will land in Christchurch officially and start the set up process again. The hard work begins now. Actually it started last week with the packing. I have just been chatting to some people from twitter asking them what they hate the most about moving and there are two very clear winners.
1st has to be the actual packing up part. For my own situation, I just cannot believe how much stuff I accumulated over the time. The other day I was going through the wardrobe and there are things in there that I had forgotten I had even had. I am one of these people that find it hard to part with things… what do you call that.. hoarders. Well in my defence I am a Kiwi and I think that a good part of our population is just the same. I think the salvation army will be happy with all the things I have given them, especially this close to Christmas.
The second thing that people find the worst about packing was the unpacking. Putting things away, finding new homes for all the items you just packed away. All those boxes all over the place, probably sleeping on the floor for the first couple of days, having none of your electronic gear set up…. Man it’s frustrating just thinking about it. Grr!! Moving is stressful, especially when you are moving into the unknown. I have some great ideas though…
Well to all my past clients, friends, followers and anyone who finds this blog from New Plymouth, please stay in touch I will be back from time to time and if you need any help or assistance at any time just ask. For the people of Christchurch, I hope to meet some of you some day, maybe help in some way. If your looking for a house to buy or have to sell one call me and I will have a chat to you about it. I look forward to the challenges that are going to pop up starting from tomorrow. Moving, as frustrating as it may be should be positive, but I cant seem to feel any of those positives right now (as I sift though boxes looking for my phone)……
December 07 2008 | Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
