The latest and greatest is not always the best and most useful.  This can be especially true of some of the more recent social networking innovations like Twitter (www.twitter.com).  This minimalist  texting / mini-blogging medium ideal for quick and easy connection with your friends and colleagues has caused quite a stir lately.  From a business enhancement perspective however, it appears to be one more “cool tool” looking for a problem to solve.

Twitter is a free service that enables you to send short text messages (maximum of 140 characters) to your “followers” -other people who use Twitter that have specifically chosen to receive your messages.  Think of this as a one-to-many (or in some cases, one-TOO-many!) instant text message.  You can send updates or messages (”Tweets” in Twitter parlance) via the Twitter Website, email, your mobile phone, IM or a special free program on your computer called Twhirl (www.twhirl.org).  As a follower of someone else’s Twitter messages you can receive them on all or any of these devices (i.e. mobile phone, IM, email, Twitter Website, etc.) as well as in the form of an RSS feed.  Twitter is also like a mini-blog since it aggregates all your updates which you can put on your Website or within your regular blog.

So, why bother Twittering? 

Well, from a purely social networking perspective it is easy, fast and very convenient given all the means to send and receive your short Tweets.  It’s also very addictive and completely free, not counting text messaging fees if you use Twitter to send or receive on your mobile phone.  As a serious business communications or marketing tool, I still have doubts.  First of all, the 140 character message limitation puts a severe constraint on any kind of meaningful communication in a business context.  You also have to build your base of “followers” in order for them to receive your Tweets.  At this time one would be hard pressed to say that any sizable base of potential real estate customers are currently using Twitter.  And while one-to-one private messaging is possible, Twitter was really designed for one-to-many communications which makes private discussions about properties or offers somewhat problematic.

Real Estate Twitter Not So Tweet…

In various blog discussions about the business uses of Twitter, some suggest that it is a great way to keep agents within a brokerage or members of a team up to date.  I can see how this might work if you personally help each person set up their mobile phone to receive your Twitter messages, otherwise forget about it.  Agents have a hard enough time just following their email consistently.  For the purposes of this article I interviewed Andy Kaufman of Williams Realty in Berkeley, CA (www.myeastbayagent.com), who is arguably the Twitter “Guru” of real estate agents.  Over the past year and a half he has amassed nearly 2,100 followers (what he refers to as his “online village”) and really loves the social networking aspects of Twitter.  When asked if he has actually seen any new business from it during this period he said he is currently working with one prospect he met thanks to Twitter.  However, he feels the biggest business benefit is meeting other REALTORS^® who use Twitter and developing referral relationships as a result.

While Twitter may be the next great Web 2.0 application that is out of this world (NASA recently used Twitter to keep fans of the new Mars Lander up to date on its adventures), its use as an effective earth-bound business tool has yet to be proven.