Several weeks ago someone followed me on Twitter. He is from Chicago and I have no idea who he is or how he found me. No matter, he must have liked something I wrote, and in his own online presence he professed to be a social media maven so I followed back. As time passed and his updates appeared in my Twitter stream I noticed that his comments were often identical to a few very popular tech authorities. WTH? I checked his individual stream just to be sure and although there was some original stuff I saw a habbit of re-tweeting. It's not that I think anything is wrong with re-tweeting someone else's thought (especially if it's insightful) but the balance was way off in this case. The result? I got annoyed because I already follow those folks he was re-tweeting and got tired of reading things twice - now I've stopped following him.
I'm pretty sure this guy doesn't really care if I follow him or not but there is a lesson here. Twitter updates (and Facebook status for that matter) should be a balanced mix of personal and professional, especially for Realtors. Most people would welcome a business related message as long as they feel they've made a connection with you. How do you make a connection? The same way you do in person; over time, let the other person get to know the whole you. Think about your repeat clients. Isn't working with them very pleasant and comfortable? It's the relationship stuff that causes that to happen. So what's the balance? Well, I'm not sure there are any definite rules but I do know this: Twitter and Facebook are NOT simply new places to promote your listing inventory. In fact just because you can do that doesn't mean you should. But tweeting about a special feature of a property with a link to your listing would be okay. Next you might want to talk about something going on in the industry at large, then tweet about your kid who just won the soccer tournament or the movie you saw and loved. Then back to biz and go back and forth like that. Balance.
Especially from my grads, here's what I don't want: I don't want to log into Twitter and see 5 tweets in a row with links to your new listings. If I can tell you just logged in to advertise to me, I'm tuning out fast and here's the scary part; so will your other followers from your book of business!
