I’m NOT DUMB!
“Twitter Is Dumb”. I hear this all the time when I meet with real estate professionals; real estate agents and loan officers here in Phoenix, Arizona. I laugh. I ask, “OK, Tell me WHY is Twitter Dumb?” “Well. . . because I just don’t get it”or “No one in my office is using Twitter” is what I hear 99.9% of the time.
The BLIND leading The BLIND
In our real estate marketing classes I often tell real estate agents “I think real estate agents should NOT hang out with other real estate agents”. Why? Well because some of them have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE how to market anything, especially not themselves as evidenced by the GLAMOR SHOT JUMBO, GLOSSY postcards I STILL receive at my home that say “For ALL Your Real Estate Needs!” They have not learned that the NEW RULES of real estate marketing are NOT about trying to be ALL things to EVERYONE, but instead, being SOMETHING to SOMEONE. So let me paint the picture for you…
“Dale”, a real estate agent, walks into his real estate company, GINORMOUS Realty, and sees “Dave” sitting in the bullpen. Dale walks up and upon a simple “How are you today?” Dale is bombarded with Dave talking about how BUSY he is, how many million dollar buyers he has and of course why everyone loves him. After Dave is done, Dale asks – “Hey, have you ever heard of this thing called, um… Twitter?” Dave looks up and says – “Twitter Is Dumb, just ask Justin over there…” Dale looks up to Justin, another real estate agent, nodding in agreement and saying, “Yeah, I just don’t get Twitter, I mean what do I care what someone had for dinner! Twitter Is Dumb”
Now, Dale thinks Twitter is Dumb. All because Dale asked the wrong real estate agent that probably doesn’t have any buyers, let alone the MILLION DOLLAR kind, who is really hanging out in the bullpen because he doesn’t have anything better to do…
Know WHO’s Behavior To Observe
Yeah go ahead and laugh, this scenario plays itself out over and over again all over the country. One real estate agent see’s another real estate agent DO something or NOT do something and all of a sudden it becomes a GOOD or BAD idea. Here is what I say: when it comes to real estate contracts and best practices surrounding selling and negotiating real estate, another real estate agent is who you want to ask. BUT when it comes to marketing, especially on the Internet, a real estate agent may be the last person you want to ask. Why? Because if you are trying to attract consumers, wouldn’t it be best to ask them? Where they go when. . . What they would do when looking for… Would they respond to… You do this by hanging out with more consumers than real estate agents. Skip the office and head to Starbucks. I bet you meet more potential buyers there than you would in your real estate office.
Well let me tell you that Twitter is certainly not dumb. In fact, Twitter, in my opinion, is so much more powerful than Facebook, in fact – Twitter is a place where you, yes YOU can generate leads right now. In the short video tutorial below I show you EXACTLY HOW to do it.
How To Use Twitter For Real Estate
So…. is Twitter still dumb? Twitter is an important part of an online strategy. It all starts with WordPress. Use tools like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, StumbleUpon, Linkedin, Flickr, Craigslist and more to drive traffic {consumers} to your sales pages, conversion pages and videos and after they are done watching your videos of value they can {wait for it} Search For Homes! Twitter is not about TALKING, it’s really about LISTENING. Fortune 500 and 100 companies are using Twitter to monitor their brands, find new business and engage with their customers. If you have a bad experience with a company and can’t get anywhere my calling customer service, a carefully crafted Tweet may get the phone to ring almost immediately. See how Techsmith, the makers of Camtasia and Jing used Twitter to improve customer service and brand experience.
What’s that? You don’t have a web strategy?
Consumer behavior has shifted to the internet. This is where a consumer will naturally turn when looking to gather information or solve a problem. This is where they would naturally look for what it is you do and the markets you serve, even if they don’t know you even exist – yet. I can guarantee you, they are not looking in their mailbox for a real estate agent.
So, what should you do? Well, after reading this, asking the real estate agent licking stamps in the bullpen every week (for his personalized sports schedule, magnetized business card, recipe) or PRINTING his monthly newsletter {that only goes out 2 times per year} doesn’t seem like the guy you want to ask about a web strategy. Who should you ask? You found this post didn’t you…. please fill out the form below.
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