Realtors use Twitter. Shocked? You shouldn’t be.  Real Estate Agents are voracious consumers of new communications technology. Proving that out, several agents turned out for Twitter training given by Karen Goodman (Arch City Homes blogger and premier realtor), and me. The class was offered by Keller Williams Realty.

Agents were aware of Twitter and it being a social network.  A few of the real estate agents were already members, as well as being Facebook members. Universally though, they were using only the basic web sites and none was using Twitter on a regular basis.

Training took Twitter from the ‘what is it’ level up to installing Tweetdeck on personal computers.  The questions focused primarily on privacy and distribution. People were worried about being spammed and spamming others.

Here’s a few of the questions and how Karen and I chose to answer them.

• If someone starts following me do I start seeing their posts?
  • No.  It does mean they’ll begin seeing of your Twitter messages
• Do my Twitter messages also post on Facebook and LinkedIn?
  • Not automatically. There are add-ons and tools that allow cross-posting; those are all optional and can be controlled.
• Someone I’m following starts spamming, talking about porn, etc. What can I do?
  • Unfollow them. Visit their Twitter profile page and unfollow them.
  • They don’t stop copying you? Visit their Twitter profile page and block them.
• How do I find people I know?
  • Using Find People on the Twitter home page.
  • Email or call that person. Most reliable choice. Avoid’s picking someone else with the same name.
  • Check that person’s web site for Twitter and other social network information.
• How do avoid being sucked into too much Twitter use?
  • Time control – only open Twitter at regularly scheduled times. Much like you’d handle email inbox review.
  • Browsing control – unless you have plenty of time, only check your replies and direct messages.

These may seem like basics to many of you, but these are questions anyone in business should be asking.  Approaching Twitter and other social networks with a plan, even if it’s a ‘don’t do this’ plan is better than winging it as a business user.

We also discussed what’s appropriate in terms of content.  Realtors online seem to line up on two sides; those that broadcast listings, and those that never talk shop.  Karen explained how becoming a local area expert is more valuable than spewing out listings.  Expertise shared equates to trust building and from there to clients.

Attendees were quite involved, asking good questions, and wanting to understand how Twitter connects, and how it could be used. A great follow up class would be on mixing up social networking to find what works best for each individual.

If you’d like to have a Twitter class at your work, please contact me – todd at toddrjordan.com, @tojosan on Twitter, or by phone (636) 486-4723.

Realtor shout out to attendees from Keller Williams Realty:

@patislay

@jbbutler03

@karenprinster

@Nancygkw

.

Tweetup at Pujols 5 West Port Plaza

Karen Goodman, aka @KarenStL, and I will be presenting a class on Twitter for Real Estate Agents. Introducing them first to what Twitter is followed by hands on.  Hands on will cover not only how to send a tweet, that’s a Twitter message, but also installing a client on their personal computer.

Key topics:

• What is Twitter?
• Signing Up
• Sending a tweet
• Replies and Direct Messages

Hands on will cover how to find and install a few of the popular Twitter clients. Tweetdeck will be the primary client used in the demonstrations, and will be the first client recommended and offered to install.

Training is open to all St. Louis area real estate agents.  If possible, please RSVP to Karen Goodman, 314-677-6538 office, or karen – at – archcityhomes.com. It is this Wed, October 28 from 1:30-3:00 pm at the Keller Williams office in Kirkwood. Agents from any brokerage are welcome to attend, but registration is required for non-KW agents.

Why is Twitter’s latest change to @ replies really spinning folks up? It’s about visibility and discoverability. No longer will folks like me be discovered via direct replies. That means that newer Twitter users, who often only get noticed via folks replying to them are now invisible to the rest of us.

How are people already combatting this effect?

1) Prefixing @replies with any odd character. Example: !@tojosan
2) Mentioning folks they’d like to be discovered in the body of the tweet. Example: Be sure to follow @tojosan
3) Beginning the messages with a hashtag. Example: #stl @tojosan, be sure to come to the Stable later.
4) Include hashtags in tweets; folks following a tag will still see those tweets. Example: @tojosan, love your photographic work at #SXSW.

What’ll I imagine is the use of #followfriday, which was tapering off, is going to be in full swing. There are follow type tags for other days as well that may come into greater prominence.

On my part, I’m going to just to put the person I’m replying to in the middle of the tweet, as naturally as possible.

What I hope would happen as well though is that folks make better use of tags on their conversations when it’s relevant. For example, if you and @geosteph are talking about NASA, why not tag some of the tweets #NASA. This would highlight to folks and attach some meaning to who they are or what they are interested in.

The tag for discussion on Twitter is #fixreplies. Join the conversation.
Feel free to rant here, leave suggestions, or share your experience already with this change.

Twitter Blog: Replies Are Now Mentions: “We’re updating the Replies feature and referring to it instead as Mentions. In your Twitter sidebar you’ll now see your own @username tab. When you click that tab, you’ll see a list of all tweets referencing your account with the @username convention anywhere in the tweet—instead of only at the beginning which is how it used to work. So for me it would be all mentions of @biz. For developers, this update will also be included in the APIs.”

So why is this great news? It’s news foremost because it removes the need for a client application or website to find those hidden @ mentions. This feature alone will greatly increase my enjoyment and usefulness of Twitter.

So why now?

So, we started linking the @username references and collecting any tweets that began with @username on one page to make them easier to track.

However, folks started getting more inventive as they often do. Now people include @username mentions in the middle of tweets as a way to simply reference another account. For example: I’m flying @jetblue to Boston. Also, folks reference multiple accounts in a single tweet like this: I’m flying @jetblue to Boston with @ev @crystal and @goldman.

Well, that’s sums it up for me anyway. I was quick to pick up using the @ to reply, and likewise immediately adapted to using it internal to the 140 characters. It was probably the #1 feature request in the clients.

Will this kill client use for some? Sure it will. Opening the API though will likely remove a large amount of overhead from client applications. Resources previously spent tracking those embedded mentions.

Screenshot from the blog post:

Here’s an example from my own @tojosan page:

I’m excited about this and I hope each of you take a few minutes to explore using it, and that goes for developers as well.

Yours,
Todd
@tojosan