Tweet Gone Wrong: Twitter Mistakes Realtors Can Avoid
In online marketing, there tend to be a lot of guidelines and rules that need to be followed. Whether it’s to drive up click rates or SEO stats, or to simply send out better emails to your clients, adhering to these rules have been proven to yield good results.
Sometimes, it can get confusing, though. Because let’s face it, there are a LOT of guidelines.
So to try to simplify things, we thought that it might be easier to remember what are the things to NOT do.
With that in mind, we’ve prepared a short list of easily avoidable Twitter mistakes for realtors who like to do their marketing on this platform.
Retweeting the exact same thing over and over
It’s understandable that you want to promote your business or listing on Twitter, and that’s fine. What’s NOT fine is when you spam your Twitter followers with the Exact. Same. Tweet. Over. And 
over. Again.
Yes, it’s easier to just copy-paste text into a new tweet, and it’s also easy to just hit the retweet button, but this practice has several possible effects:
• You annoy your followers and they might end up unfollowing you, because nobody likes online spam in any shape or form. If it’s bad enough, some users might even report your account.
• You give the impression that your Twitter account is run by a bot, and in a platform where personality and charm is prime currency, this is bad news.
• You give the impression that you’re either lazy, uncreative, or simply can’t be bothered to think of another 140 characters to post. Again, this is bad news, especially for realtors.
Instead, try to send the same message in different ways.
For example, if your initial tweet was, “Check out my new listing at 123 Pine Street!” perhaps the next tweet should be, “Have you seen this awesome home for sale at 123 Pine Street?” and so on.
You can even try mixing it up with some media, such as photos of the property, or a short video clip of one of its features. Get creative!
Too many hashtags
A hashtag is a great tool within social media. It helps your posts get found, and it also helps in creating opportunities to engage your audience.
However, #when #your #tweet #looks #like #this, you’re really doing more harm than good. Not only does it make your tweet visually unappealing, it also takes up valuable characters (remember, you only get 140, spaces included!).
Instead, choose the most relevant hashtags, and pick only two or three to include in your tweet. Anything more than three, and things start looking messy.
Not participating in the conversation or responding to mentions
It’s one of those things that sound so simple but often tends to get overlooked.
Yes, it’s important to make it a point to sit down and engage your Twitter followers, even if it’s just for a few minutes a day. Keep an eye on your notifications and look for mentions. Try to respond to as many as you can, even if it’s just a simple “That’s nice!”
Basically, acknowledge other people who are trying to connect with you.
It CAN be a bit overwhelming at times, especially if you have a lot of active followers, but don’t worry because there are many tools that can help you get organized, such as Hootsuite, SproutSocial, SocialPilot, and so on.
Making it all about you… and only you
Just like any real-life interaction, nobody really likes it when someone just goes on and on about themselves. As mentioned in the previous point, it’s important to engage with, converse with, and acknowledge your followers.
While your Twitter account is of course there to mainly promote you and your business, remember to shine the spotlight on others from time to time as well. A quick mention in a tweet is all it takes, and there are many great opportunities for this, such as:
• A thank you after a collaboration with someone on a project, a deal, a blog post, a video, an interview, etc.
• A mention of your host or keynote speaker after you have participated at an event.
• Congratulating a client on a successful sale or purchase.
• When you share content or links that you think may be particularly relevant or interesting for another person
These are just a few of many possible examples, but it’s simply about you being friendly with your colleagues, clients, and prospects.
Retweeting irrelevant content
It’s nice to mix up your content and tweets from time to time, and maybe even add some humor to liven up on your feed. However, make sure that all that content – no matter what form it is – is still relevant to your brand and business.
So while a tweet about a funny real estate meme may be refreshing, you might want to hold back on tweeting your thoughts about that new mystery-themed TV show you found interesting lately. Instead, save that for your personal or private Twitter account, where it might be better received (unless, of course, the mystery-themed TV show was filmed at one of the homes you are trying to sell).
Buying followers
We know that it feels great to see your follower count on Twitter going up, and we know that gaining new followers is important in online marketing… but never, and we mean NEVER, buy followers on Twitter, or on any of your social media accounts for that matter.
Don’t be tempted by promises of 15,000 new followers overnight for the price of a sandwich and coffee. Believe us, you’ll be better off spending that amount on running some ads on Twitter or Facebook (or actually getting yourself a sandwich).
Remember: Quality over quantity.
By buying followers, all you’re really doing is inflating the numbers and not much else. This is because those followers are most likely NOT interested in your business, and therefore would not actually transact. They will NOT naturally engage you, mention you, or retweet you, and if anything, you might just end up getting heaps of spam blasted your way.
Possibly worst of all, however, is that these followers might not even be real people. A lot of businesses that sell social media followers tend to get their inventory through shady methods. Usually, this means creating thousands of fake accounts (something that can be automated, using the correct software), all manned by one team, or maybe even just one guy.
Twitter and other social media sites tend to regularly hunt for these fake accounts and close them down, so if you bought followers, the possibility of all 15,000 disappearing the next morning is always there.
These types of events can really muddle up your analytics data, and can set back your marketing efforts. So don’t do it.
And there you have it.
How about you? What do you NOT like seeing on Twitter? Tell us all about it in the comments!
Last Updated on August 12, 2022 by myRealPage
