April 2010 Tech Corner

Building a Hungry Real Estate Buyers List on Twitter

We’ve talked a lot about using various social media in our real estate businesses.  One really cool way to have an active and hungry buyers list that jumps at your real estate offerings the minute you post them is to build your buyers list on Twitter.com.

For the purpose of this article we will start from scratch and presume that you have yet to create a Twitter account.

Go to http://www.Twitter.com and set up an account.  Click the sign up now button.  Type in your full name.  Then select your user name.  You want to select a user name that is indicative of what type of properties you are selling.  Then select a password and enter your email address.  Click create my account and you now have a twitter account.

That’s it.  The hard part is over.  You now have a Twitter account that you can use to develop your followers.  First thing to do is click on the Find People text link at the top of the page and look for @larrygoins and @shannan0 and follow Larry and I.  We will follow you right back so that you will start to have a follower base.  Then you want to continue using the Find People feature to search out people who you are already in contact with who are involved in real estate and follow them.  If they don’t have a Twitter account you can send them an email invitation to set up an account and follow you.

Directly under your Twitter ID on the right hand side of the page you can monitor your number of followers and the number of people that you are following.  Don’t follow too many more people than are following you at any one time.  About 20% is the largest you want to let the disparity get.  Periodically check your followers and make sure that you are following them to so that you set up reciprocal relationships.  Remember that your followers can and will retweet your posts on Twitter so not only do you reach them but you reach their followers as well.

Now, as you are building your follower base, you will want to periodically clean out the people who you are following that are not following you back.  The quickest tool to do this is http://www.Twitter-Karma.com.

When you want to send a Tweet out on Twitter, just place your curser in the box below “What’s happening?” and enter your tweet.  Remember it can only be 140 characters so if you are going to send out a tweet with a long URL you will want to use a URL shortener like http://www.bitly.com or send your Tweets through http://www.HootSuite.com which automatically shortens your URLs.

You are going to send out Tweets relevant to your ideal follower, your hot buyers.

To do this, you have to formulate in your mind who exactly your hot buyers would be.  They could be price specific, geographic specific, wholesale or landlord or rehab specific, or perhaps some combination of the above.  Grab a notepad and jot down what you are selling and who would be buying it.  Then jot down some of the things that people who meet your buyer criteria would be interested in and those are the topics you will want to tweet and retweet about in ADDITION to positing about properties that you have for sale.

Now to find additional people to follow who will in turn follow you, use the search feature in Twitter and search for posts with those keywords.  You will find many additional people to follow.  Say for example you are looking for potential buyers in Newport News, Virginia.  You could search for tweets about Newport News or the beach or Virginia or the local sports teams or anything relevant to Newport News, Virginia.

One you feel like you have exhausted the Twitter search feature there are some other tools that you can employ to find additional people to follow.

One tool to help you do this is http://www.flashtweet.com/.  FlashTweet let’s you automatically amass more followers on Twitter.  http://www.twittgeek.com/ is another auto follower tool.  This marketing tool will let you find and then follow Twitter users with certain interests.

Perhaps the most powerful tool for locating local Twitter followers will be http://www.twitterlocal.net/.  Twitter Local is an application that you download to your computer and use to find local people on Twitter to follow, local people who would be interested in buying or selling you real estate.

If you are actively using your mobile phone when you are one the road and want to be able to quickly be able to post content to your Twitter account, then check out Twitterberry for the Blackberry, Tweetie, Twitterific or Twitterfon for the IPhone or IPod Touch.  Many mobile phones also have their own custom Twitter applications.

If you have a blog, you can use Wickett Twitter Widget to display your recent Twitter tweets on your WordPress.com blog.  This widget displays tweets from your Twitter account in the sidebar of your blog.  It is the easiest and best way to add Tweets to your blog.

Also, you might want to sign up for http://www.Twitpic.com which allows you to easily post pictures of your properties to your Twitter account.

Once you have begun to employ these tools you will see your Twitter account grow by leaps and bounds of hungry buyers on a regular basis.

Happy Tweeting!

Talk to a Twexpert

Somewhere between editing the newsletter and undertaking Larry’s social media networking initiative, I have become a self proclaimed Twexpert – my own euphemism (or so I thought until a quick search at UrbanDictionary.com showed it not to be original) for an expert on Twitter marketing and networking.  Twitter is a funny bird.  And it’s a funny word.

Twitter was never meant to be a full time gig for its developers.  The founders started in a neighborhood of San Francisco, in March 2006 – literally as a side project.  Now Twitter has evolved into a relevant source of information for people all over the world whether looking for breaking news or news from friends.  Twitter users (Tweople) Tweet messages of 140 characters from their computers, instant messaging devices, and their phones (known as Twexting).  Numerous applications have popped up on the internet for Tweeting now, Tweeting later, finding Twitter followers, and auto-following or un-following other Twitter users.

Founder Jack Dorsey grew interested in the simple idea of being able to know what his friends were up to.  He talked to his colleagues and they decided to build a prototype application.  Launched publicly in August 2006 Twitter quickly grew popular with folks around the world and in May 2007 Twitter Incorporated was founded.  According to Twitter, simplicity has played an important role in their success.  People are eager to connect with other people and Twitter makes doing so simple.   Twitter makes staying connected with friends, family, and coworkers easy and alleviates the responsibility of replying to every Tweet posted.  You respond to the items of interest, ReTweet items you think others would be interested in or amused by, or simply ignore the one’s that feel a little bit like information overload.

Twitter can be turned on and off, scheduled to deliver only certain Tweople’s Tweets to your mobile device, or to opt out of updates at any time.  For the technical, Twitter works on a web application framework known as Ruby on Rails.  Unlike Facebook or traditional search engines or even Google’s Gmail, Twitter has opted not to employ any revenue generating advertising streams.  That doesn’t mean that Twitter Users aren’t subjected to marketing messages from other Tweeters, only that Twitter the company isn’t profiting from them.

Twitter has many useful applications from connecting with your coworkers or your team to monitoring your child’s progress at ball practice to networking.  As a research tool, it can be used for Twesearch.  To put in a plug for a book, movie, or person, you could use Twitter to give a Twestimonial.  At The Goins Group we use Twitter to push out information from Larry’s TheCoachingClub.com to stay connected with members and we use Twitter to reach other potential real estate investors.  Personally I use Twitter to keep up with where Larry is jet-setting off to for speaking engagements and to follow the careers of other real estate investors and internet marketers that we’ve gotten to know.  Twitter allows me to get all the information I want, as often as I want it, without overload and limited to 140 characters per Tweet.   Twitter is sort of the next generation of Instant Messaging for those of you with speedy thumbs.  But there is no per-message charge.  And you decide whether or not you want to see what Johnny is doing in the break room or Jane is buying at the grocery store.  Twitter also allows you to experience a close connection to entities normally larger than yourself.  Remember when Ashton Kutcher and CNN went head to head to see who could get the most followers?  If you don’t, Ashton won.  Which probably speaks rather poorly of what our voyeuristic society is really interested in.

Think about how Twitter could have changed our experience of recent events such as 9-11, Columbine, Bill Clinton’s charges and deposition, or the bomb scares of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

I encourage you to visit http://Twitter.com and create a personal Twitter account if you haven’t already.  If you don’t know where to start go ahead and follow me and Larry (shannan0 and larrygoins).  Perhaps follow your favorite sports team, coffee shop, crazy Aunt Zelda, or your kids.  If your kids then refer to your Tweeps, relax.  That is just Twitter Slang for your followers on Twitter.  I promise that Tweets will enrich your life.  You will get to feel a part of something bigger than life in little 140 character snippets.  Be sure to check out some of the great Twitter applications out there like Hummingbird or Twhirl or Twitteriffic.  I didn’t make those up, I promise.  If you employ other social media sites and tools, be sure to check and see if you can link those accounts to your Twitter account.  Many sites will let you auto-Tweet when you post on them (WordPress blogs for one).  If you like the idea of sharing cool stuff that you find online and feel others would enjoy, you will want to download HootSuite to your browser.  With a Hootlet link on your web browser toolbar you can create a quick Tweet about any site or online information that you find and want to share.

Just remember your Twetiquette (Twitter etiquette, of course).

Twitter usage is up 132.5% over the last three months.  That is phenomenal growth.  While compared to some of the older and bigger social networking sites Twitter has room to grow, you don’t want to be the last person to Twip in do you?

I’ll Twee you next month,

Shannan

Now for the winners of the Follow Larry on Twitter contets, the following Twitter IDs need to contact me to claim their prize!

Investoropolis
KWBRENNER
TampaSteph
RealtyDynamics9

If you don’t currently follow us on Twitter, check out @larrygoins, @thecoachingclub, and @shannan0

As an internet marketing gal, one of my many roles with Larry has been to grow our presence on the internet.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Seeing as how I’ve been driving targeted, quality traffic to people’s websites for nearly 13 years you’d think I could just sort of wave a magic wand and Larry would have more traffic to his many real estate investing web sites than he could shake a stick at.

Over the last couple of months we have really made serious leaps and bounds into our social networking presence online.  Larry has become a Master Tweeter.  He has blogs, and The Coaching Club, and is active in Yahoo Groups and web 2.0 real estate communities.  What we hope to do in this column is to help you, Larry’s student, grow your internet presence in the same way that we have grown ours.   We will talk about things that have worked and things that haven’t worked.  We will share some stories of our successes and failures to help you be more successful.  So read on!  And welcome to another great column of The Ultimate Investor Report!

One humorous look at how a lack of communication can muddy the waters in your marketing efforts follows.

Larry has a Twitter presence of http://www.Twitter.com/larrygoins.  Larry joined Twitter again, and found that his name was already taken.  So he joined as http://www.Twitter.com/larrygoins1.  Now you might think Twitter would be smart enough to alert us that we now had multiple Twitter accounts but no, they don’t do that.  Therefore we’ve both been working on building a stronger Twitter persona for Larry but with two different and unique Larry Goins accounts.  The really funny part is that neither one realized what the other one was doing!

The lesson here is that as we’ve both worked on building a Twitter experience for Larry’s students, we’ve actually been competing against each other.  The good news for you, is that we are going to let you learn from our experience AND we are going to give one lucky student a prize each month for learning from us.

Hopefully by now as a Web 2.0 student you realize that being a valued member of Twitter means having followers, following others, and posting useful or informative or humorous Tweets.  Since here at The Goins Group we have inadvertently created an internal competition between the two Larry Goins Twitter accounts, we are going to make it an all out competition.  Right now, larrygoins1 has more followers than larrygoins.  Go figure.  I hate to lose.  So, we are going to compete to see which one of the accounts can get the most followers before the September issue of the Ultimate Investor Report goes to print next month.  One lucky follower of both Twitter accounts will win some really cool stuff from Larry.  Could be a book.  Could be a digital download of a full length course or boot camp.  Could be a cruise.  Could be an Inner Circle or could even be a free membership to TheCoachingClub.com.  The more followers we get, the more we will give away.  So go right now to http://www.Twitter.com and follow larrygoins.  Tell your friends.  Tell your fellow real estate investors.  Retweet our coolest tweets.  But tweet away!

Oh yeah, Larry would want you to give him a fighting chance to keep his extra Twitter account alive and well by following larrygoins1, too.  But let’s face it, I’m cuter.  So you will want to follow larrygoins first!  Larry and I will see you on the Twitter world – and don’t forget next month we will be giving away something really cool to a lucky Twitter follower.  But even if you aren’t the big Twitter Winner, you will benefit all month long from the great Twitter content Larry will be sharing!

Are Social-Networking Sites Helping or Harming Your Reputation?

By Hannah Samuel

Social networking sites are a fabulous part of modern life. They allows you to reconnect with former friends, stay in touch with current friends while travelling or working overseas and can even help you find that dream job or partner.

But there are downsides. When a New Zealand teacher job-hunting in China discovered his name was the same as another Kiwi with an online reputation for being anti-Asian, he realised why he wasn’t being short-listed for jobs. A case of mistaken identity that had a very real negative affect in terms of his reputation and working life.

Recruitment agencies are increasingly checking profiles of prospective job candidates. Finding explicit photographs or commentary relating to sexual, drink, drug or heavy partying episodes aren’t going to shine a great light on your potential career suitability.

Even an uncontroversial profile can sometimes be seen in a negative light. Social networking sites are increasingly being highlighted in Police investigations. The murder of young Auckland man Augustine Borrell – fatally stabbed in Mission Bay in Auckland – saw online friends and associates being interviewed by Police about their connection to him. Knowing how to be smart and savvy about online reputation needs to be just another part of life today for young people.

Recent research1 from the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) estimates as many as 4.5 million young people in the UK do not want a university or potential employer to do an internet search on them because existing content on social networking sites might show them in a bad light.

Created in 2004, Facebook boasts more than 39 million members with several hundred thousand new profiles being added every day. Creating and uploading a profile can take just seconds – but almost two thirds of the respondents in the ICO survey said they never considered information they put online would be permanent and accessed for years to come.

So how can you make the most of the upside of social networking whilst avoiding the pitfalls?

Choose your site(s) wisely

Social networking sites themselves have reputations. Check them out and decide whether you want to be associated with them. Bebo has predominately teenaged users, whereas Facebook and MySpace have more users in the 20–35 age group. LinkedIn focuses primary on business professionals and is being increasingly used by businesses worldwide to connect and recruit talented people.

Choose your online identity wisely

Cheeky, irreverent or salacious names could close more doors than open them in the long term. SecsyVixen sounds good now … but what about in a few years time when you are trying to impress potential employers and clients? You may find potential employers, business partners or clients will make instant judgments calls based on such names.

Choose your online `friends’ wisely

Quality, rather than quantity, should be the driving force for making and accepting online connections and links. The more ‘friends’ you are connected with, the more chance there is of being associated with something they say or do that might not be in your best interests. Reputation by association is a powerful driver and people will make judgment calls based on the kind of company you keep. They may be virtual friends but, as in the real world, reputation-by-association could prejudice how people view you.

Choose your content wisely

Numerous young people, including celebrities, have found out the hard way that once online, photos, videos and written comments can massively damage a reputation. An embarrassing or provocative image can come back and haunt you at any point in the future – long after you’ve left what you just thought was a silly moment in the past. Others can also use and misuse such content simply by pressing the copy and paste buttons on their computer. Before uploading anything, ask yourself `would I be happy for my grandparents to see or read this?’ If the answer is no – don’t post it. Get into the habit of doing an internet search on yourself periodically to see what comes up.

Remember the virtual online world is as real as the real world. Gossip travels very far and very fast, especially online. What we see and read about people on the internet can influence whether we would recommend them to people we know and trust, whether they get short-listed for a job … or whether doubts are raised and they are best left alone.

‘Word of mouse’ is as important as word of mouth today: both can make or break us personally and professionally before we ever get a chance to speak on our own behalf. What is your online reputation saying about you?