Apr. 13, 2009 - How to Use Twitter: A Guide for AEs
Recently I’ve been working on some social media/marketing presentations for Realtors, and I’ve gotten involved in the whole online networking scene. I reviewed the proposed new Social Marketing course from Internet Crusade, as well—it’s going to be very helpful to our members, I think (should be released soon!).
There’s a ton of information out and about on the topics—the real problem is finding the time to sort out what will work for you and your situation and what won’t. I know how much time I’ve spent researching and experimenting-- time I couldn’t have found when I was a full-time association manager.
So I feel your pain. And yet I am convinced that the social networking tools are the greatest community builders we’ve seen in our field of building and maintaining associations—and they’re tools that everyone needs to know about and make use of. The best part: many of the popular tools are free and readily available for associations to use.
One of the most popular these days is Twitter. Twitter has been called a micro-blog—you only have 140 characters in every broadcast. However, it’s easy to broadcast links to documents, photos, and websites in general and again—these tools cost your organization nothing. But the hard part is that for such a simple concept, there are thousands of applications which have been developed for Twitter users to help them receive and send messages from cell phones, develop their Twitter account page, and sort out the ‘tweets’ (messages) that they want to receive from those they don’t.
Twitter is being used by many of your members—you should know that. Particularly your younger members—those, say, under 40 years old. They’re using it to keep track of important people in their lives, learn more about things they want to know, and to develop and maintain a professional client base. And I think Twitter won’t go away: applications are being developed by third party providers that relate specifically to marketing listings, mapping, posting pictures, and connecting to the MLS. Twitter is being used on desktop computers, laptops, Blackberry and iPod phones, and wireless devices of every kind.
It stands to reason that once the application is there, is being used by members, and the price is right, you as an AE will want to see how far you can go in using it to build community in your own organization. Here are seven start-up tips especially for Realtor AEs.
1.Go to Twitter.com and set up a main account for your organization. Let’s say you are the Bittersweet Association of Realtors. You might set up an umbrella account called @BARtweets. You will want people to find you easily. Then, set up your main Twitter page for your organization. You’ll want to link your Twitter page to your organization’s website, and I would recommend setting up a ‘landing page’ on your organization’s website for people who come from your Twitter link. Your landing page might say something like “Welcome to the Twitter site for the Bittersweet Association of Realtors. We’re glad you are here. We’re here to service our Realtor members and the real estate consumer. Our staff will help you too. Here are our team members—feel free to follow them as well. Then list your staff members and their Twitter addresses.
2.Next, set up staff accounts for those staff members you are enabling to communicate on behalf of the organization. Give them individual accounts, such as @BARtweet_Bob. This is important because your group’s followers will have different personalities they will enjoy following. For instance, your MLS manager will have a specialized view of what’s going on in the organization, and many members will only want to here from that department. The same is true with the political affairs, ethics, or education staff. As an association manager using social networking tools you may have a bit of a challenge giving your staff responsibility for their on content and developing their own following—but that’s the way the new management paradigm works!
3. You will want to monitor multiple accounts. Perhaps you will have your own personal account as well as your organization account. Your staff will probably have the same issue. There are software installations which allow you to do that: one I recommend is “SplitTweet”. Another is “CoTweet”. Why do this? Because it’s much easier than signing in and out of different accounts all day.
4. Ask each staff member to follow people who tweet regularly about your industry or cause, as well as actively Tweeting members, affiliates, legislators, or other stakeholders. You can find other interested Twitterers (Tweeps) to follow by using the search function on your Twitter page. Enter keywords such as ‘NAR’, or ‘Realtor’. You can follow your own zip code, too. And you can import your association email list into Twitter and find out who else in your association may have Twitter accounts. Your criteria for following people might be to find people who are active—they have lots of friends and followers, and a number of updates.
5. Learn to use hashtags. Let’s say you are having a big educational event Hashtags will help you develop a following. Here’s how you do it: (A) You create a hashtag by using the hash symbol followed by a word: #BARclass, for instance. (B) Then go http://twitter.com/hashtag and follow @hashtag. The program will follow your hashtag back and ‘register’ it. Your topic can then be searched and followed by others (C) Then begin to use your special hashtag #BARclass in all your Tweets about your education program. In essence what you will be doing is building interest among those reading your messages: “#BARclass early bird registration discount ends”, “Amazing speaker will help your income! #BARclass” and so on. (A word of caution: uses hashtags sparingly! One or two in a message is all you should use.) Publicize the hashtag you are using on your other materials, too: that way, the word will get around.
A good example of how hashtags work is a personal one: because I am no longer an AE, I wasn’t really in a position to attend the Institute in Colorado Springs. I was missing everything! Except I followed the #AEI hash, and “listened” to a lot of you comment on speakers, party, food, and the facility. It was a second-hand experience, but still fun!
6. Learn to use ‘ReTweet’. Let’s say that one of your staff members sends an interesting tweet on an MLS issue. That tweet will only go to those following that staff member, but you may feel it’s of interest to everyone in the association. ‘ReTweet’ it! It will draw more people into the conversation and support your staff team as well
7. Remember that successful use of Twitter is all about sharing content.People will not become followers unless you offer them some enrichment. They aren’t there just to hear your advertising content (I emphasize this in my presentations to Realtors…). Nor do they follow you to find out what you ate for dinner or when you are getting a hair cut. Twitter is a way of building community through sharing, and the sharing that the community does is through content and information. Discuss this with your staff Twitterers. If there’s an interesting blog they’ve found on the web, or if there’s a real estate article in the online Wall Street Journal or the local newspaper, ask them to send a message to their followers. Or if there’s a member who is getting married or has just had a baby, or perhaps opened a new office or had community recognition, use that occasion to build the social fabric of the association.
Encourage each staff member to take responsibility for sharing links with interesting and useful information relevant to their specific areas of expertise. Encourage them to engage in conversation with their Twitter networks, respond to things other people are tweeting about, ReTweet links and information from people outside your organization as well as your own; suggest they converse on topics of interest!
As association managers, we’ve talked for a long time about the difficulty of getting people to come to meetings and to participate in our association in the traditional ways. We’ve discussed, too, the need for finding new tools to build our communities and keep in touch with our members and their business environment.
Twitter is one of those tools. As an AE you can probably set up an effective association Twitter program in just a few hours. Then in just a few moments a day you can keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening among your members, the Realtor association, and the real estate business as a whole. Give it a try. And add @JWLConsulting to the list of organizations you follow!
Apr. 14, 2009 - RE: How to Use Twitter: A Guide for AEs
Posted by Mike Argyle
Great post Judith! Very informative, helpful and concise. Cuts through a lot of the clutter regarding Twitter. Our online strategy is based on the use of social media tools, and we've had some success with it so far (mainly traffic, nothing we can buy groceries with).
Twitter is more than a texting tool with a cute name, and is experiencing the growth that it is due to what it has to offer to individuals, businesses and non-profits. I'd advise those who are avoiding it, or that think it's not yet matured, to catch the wave now. It's going to get crowded, and this resource it too easy to use to ignore it and implement it as part of your strategy. Oh...and it's free.
Apr. 15, 2009 - RE: How to Use Twitter: A Guide for AEs
Posted by Carrie Heath
good article! Twittering or tweeting is the next thing I plan to tackle and bring into the light in my office. Hopefully I wll be able to share this link with my Broker and get something going!
A behind the scenes look at organized real estate--what works in an association, what doesn't, and what a long time AE sees as challenges facing the industry from the viewpoint of its professional organization.
RSS Blog Feed
