You may have heard or read about the success of Kogi, a Korean BBQ restaurant that uses Twitter as a primary marketing channel. Kogi tweets the prospective locations in the Los Angeles area of its two roving restaurant trucks. As of the date of this post, Kogi has 28,000+ followers on its twitter handle. The truck locations frequently change but patrons have been known to wait in line for one or two hours for their tacos. Obviously, Kogi is selling a quality product and uses Twitter to build buzz and nurture a community (many of the Kogi Twitter updates are replies to followers and interesting missives by one of Kogi’s founders). But Kogi’s also using Twitter as a broadcast channel.

Should real estate agents use Twitter as a broadcast channel? Should real estate agents update their Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn profiles with their open house times and locations, new listings, just sold announcements, etc? Some individuals argue against ever doing this. I think it comes down to one’s audience: if your social media followers would not have followed you but for the fact that you’re a real estate professional, then likely they’re interested in many things real estate related from you (this would include information about market stats, community insight, new listings, open house times, etc). And in this case it seems logical to frequently update your various social media profiles with such information. On the other hand, if your followers have given you no indication that they’re interested in these types of real estate focused updates–that is, these individuals have not "subscribed" to your updates specifically for a real estate purpose–then common sense suggests they may not welcome frequent real estate activity updates.

How do you discern who’s interested in this and who’s not? Ask. A very simple way to do this is to add a couple of lines to your email signature, business card, etc, like this:

Follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn
Get real estate market updates from me via Twitter

There’s a difference to these phrases. In the Facebook and LinkedIn phrase, you have not delineated specific content elements related to these two profiles. Thus, existing and prospective clients who decide to follow you via Facebook and LinkedIn may have no particular expectation as to what form of content they’re going to receive from you via these channels. In this case, if you use the Facebook and LinkedIn channels as platforms to promote your real estate business, then some of your friends and followers may perceive such updates as spam. On the other hand, you will have clearly defined the type of content they can expect to receive from you via Twitter, and if they choose to follow your Twitter updates you can assume they’re comfortable receiving frequent market updates and related tweets.

You can take this a step further and do this:

Let’s connect on Facebook for friends and fun
Get investment advice from me on LinkedIn
Get real estate market updates from me via Twitter

In this case, you’re clearly indicating what types of updates existing and prospective clients will get from you via each platform. This directs your efforts into each channel with a clear purpose for each communication. For example, for anyone who followed you on Facebook you could have a high degree of confidence they don’t expect to get updates about real estate. For individuals who’ve connected with you on LinkedIn, you’re meeting their expectations by targeting investment advice. And with Twitter anyone there is likely comfortable getting real estate market updates. Structuring things this way gives you freedom: you essentially don’t have to worry about whether or not you’re spamming anyone since you’ve clearly indicated what you’re going to say on what channel. By setting these expectations–and following through on them–you communicate on a permission basis which ultimately builds community and loyalty to you.



Posted By: Eric Bryn