By Matthew Carter
Lots of letting agents are still questioning whether twitter is right for their business. The primary role of twitter for a letting agent is to connect with their local community, be more accessible to their potential client base, promote their latest properties and generate business leads. I started a twitter account for our business back in 2009, over the years I’ve picked up a few tips that you might find useful:
- If you’re new to twitter you might want to follow lots of people to start with to inflate your own follower numbers – you follow them they might follow you back – simple (remember the more followers you have the more people there are to see your tweets – potentially).
- But do your followers care what your business is saying? Possibly not, so after a few weeks start to be picky about who you follow and create you own niche/community this could include existing clients, potential clients, trade press, and competitors (why not keep an eye on them?).
- Make the most of lists – I utilise lists in twitter this way you can keep track of how many clients or potential clients are following you
- Get it on your phone – it can be difficult to tweet when you’re busy, so register your business profile to a mobile twitter App this way you can do it on the move! (You don’t necessarily need an iPhone)
- Keep it personable – relax a bit, use your tweets to get the more human side of your company or organisation across from time to time
- Show of your knowledge every now and then – You want your customers to know that you’re a thought leader so, comment on the latest industry news, flex your grey matter – show your customers what you know and why they should chose you
- Get your twitter feed on your website (not just a link!) – this can be great for Search Engine Optimisation, the content is constantly changing and you’ll be using keywords in your tweets that could help you float up in the Google rankings
- Link twitter to your facebook page, this way any facebook updates go straight out as tweets! (I usually use twitterfeed.com)
- You can also create a news feed in Google reader and link it to your twitter account, subscribe to stories and keywords that you customer base might find interesting in Google reader – ‘share’ a story and it appears on twitter (again you can use twitterfeed)
- Use tiny cc to shorten your links – more space to get across what you want to say! You can also chose the name of the link to make it more appealing
- Add a link on your email footers – let your customers and suppliers know that you’re contactable through twitter
- Make sure you link to any articles or PR that you might have been mentioned in to help spread the good word and give your PR more longevity (and hopefully more exposure)
- Get some conversations going, take the time to comment on your clients tweets and strike up a conversation
- Report the success of twitter – let your board know about twitter, don’t keep them in the dark! Who’s following you? How many referrals from twitter does your website have? How many people follow you? (You might also like twittergrader to keep track of your stats)
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