Heresy Talk: Why Realtors Should NOT Use Twitter

It seems like everyone these days is talking about Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and the 40 other social networking sites out there. As a Realtor I am bombarded everyday with articles about how to build your leads, using social media to find sellers, or driving traffic to your website using Twitter.

For some background, I am not one of those technology inept real estate agents that you often meet. I started working on a PET computer back in 8th grade and then onto the Apple IIc that my friend's dad had bought. Eventually I found Windows and my first job out of college was selling 386 and 486 computers for a PC clone vendor. Through the years I worked for software companies, ran the computer department for an airline and eventually left corporate America as Senior Director of Information Technology for Caribou Coffee. I know a lot about the power and importance of technology.

Over the last several years, I have built a portfolio of several real estate related Wordpress blogs where I write about things going on in that community.  I have a Facebook page that I keep updated somewhat, I have my Linked-In profile filled out and I even have a MySpace page (but I feel really old even having one and I haven't logged in for 9 months). I signed up for Twitter (@Scott_Ficek) about 12 months ago, but could never get the in the rhythm of using it.

This all changed about 60 days ago. I got a new HTC Eris phone that made it much easier to use Twitter on and more importantly, I was encouraged (maybe heckled) that I should be using Twitter more since I was a decent writer and maybe people wanted to hear what I would say. (I bet that guy regrets that decision of reading this article!)

I took up the challenge. I downloaded a desktop Twitter tool for Windows, started following some people and quickly got up to speed on all the syntax to Twitter (such as RT, @, #). I then attended a real estate seminar/camp called Rebar Camp which was about 90% geared toward social networking for real estate agents. I walked away with a bunch of knowledge, but also my head spinning on how I was going to implement this.

With this new found enthusiasm, I started tweeting several times per day, publishing tweets from my blogs and gearing up to taken on this new project. Over the next 2 weeks I read everything I could on how to Twitter and use Twitter for business. I reviewed tools such as TweetDeck and HootSuite and started following other people that I thought would teach me how to tweet for business by their example.

After doing all that research, I actually came to the conclusion that I was NOT going to use Twitter for my real estate business and that frankly most Realtors should also NOT use it for business. Here is my reasoning (this will be blasphemy to you Twitter zealots).

Realtors talk all the time about how they are the "neighborhood Realtor" or how they understand the local market conditions or how they are "farming" a particular area. There is lots of discussion about Hyper-localism and specialization in the real estate field. Twitter conversely is a National/Global reach/audience with generalization.

Looking at the people that were following me, less than 5% were actually from Minnesota. Of them, most were actually other Realtors or industry people. I had 20% of my followers that weren't even in the Unites States.  How does Twitter help me target just the people that are interested in selling or buying a house in the Twin Cities?

The Twitter zealots will claim that users will start to follow you and then when they are ready to buy they will look you up. How does that work? If you search Minnesota Realtors on Twitter, you get lots of entries, but no context for the Tweets. Is that person tweeting about the bozo Minnesota Realtor they used or are they a Minnesota Realtor?

Even if you find a Minnesota Realtor on Twitter, I suspect you are still going to check out their website or blog to see what they are all about. If you use Google to search Minnesota Realtor, those are Realtors. Not just people talking about the search term. So why trying to create your presence on Twitter. Wouldn't your time be better spent on being on page 1 of Google?

hile I watched the steady stream of tweets come in, I was constantly amazed at how irrelevant most of this information was; even the Tweets coming from business people.

I know, I know, Twitter is supposed to let your followers look in on your world. Over 4.7 million people follow Ashton Kutcher on Twitter. They seem to care when he goes to Starbucks or even when he wipes his nose. As a real estate agent, no one cares at all when I do any of those mundane things. Frankly, I am not sure they care about anything I do physically each day.

Maybe you are one of those people that plays @foursquare on Twitter. This is the game where you tweet where you are often and if you have more tweets than anyone else, you can get a badge. This may result in you getting a discount on your food or other goodies if the business is participating. Possibly it is just bragging rights. How is the fact that I have become Mayor of Bill's Groceries relevant to anything my customers want to hear about?

Additionally, the syntax and global push of Twitter has made a mockery of communicating with your customers. Many of the tweets look like a jumbled mess of an inside joke. Here is just one example:

RT @JamesMali: Is the MLS still relevant in this age of the big Z, T, and G? #rtb [Sure, Z,T &G have no offers of compensation]

What does that mean? How is that communication relevant to your customer?

Alright, so I understand that Twitter is as relevant as you make it. Although I have seen only a couple good examples of this, I do see how it could be used to update your customers on things happening both in your real estate business and in the market. But that brings up another objection.

In my research, I looked at Twitter tools that could help me work the process properly so that it was relevant and local. Using TweetDeck I could set up searches to watch for Minnesota real estate and related terms and retweet the info. HootSuite allows you to schedule tweets for times in the future which would allow me to spend time in the morning preparing the relevant tweets to go out over the course of the day. This would allow me to not be tied to Twitter or feeling guilty that I forgot to Tweet in the last 4 hours.

In short, if I am going to do this, I don't want to be the guy that Tweets 1-2 times per week for business and expects it to do something. To Tweet relevant content to your followers and build your following list, you should plan to spend at least 1 hour per day (cumulatively) on Twitter and its related tools.

Ultimately, I came the decision that I don't have an extra hour per day. If I did, based upon my thoughts on Hyperlocalization above, I think my time will be better spent updating my local blogs and calling my leads. It seems like that is not only more useful for my clients to have full and complete posts and thoughts, but it also helps my marketing and shows that I am a local expert, not just that I am a prolific Tweeter.

I do enjoy watching Twitter for breaking news and for tracking a couple sport figures I like. It is entertainment. I just don't believe it works for real estate agents to use as a business/marketing tool. I will continue to watch this product/media evolved. If it changes, I may change my mind.  Until that time I will continue to work on my blogs such as MLS Minnesota.