Twitter is one of the fastest-growing marketing and networking websites in the country. Sometimes, however, it seems as though Twitter has its own language! It can be hard to build, maintain, and engage with your followers if you don’t know how to most efficiently communicate with them! We have complied the top ten (there are SO many!) Twitter tips for all tweeters to know in order to help you communicate better with your followers!

1.) Twitter Etiquette can enhance your presence on Twitter: In order to have a strong presence on Twitter, it is very important that you always follow someone who follows you, and vice versa. Even if you don’t know the person who is following you, you should always follow them back. You never know, the person who’s following could be a potential client, and following them is the way you can start engaging with them! Similarly, people who you begin to follow should always follow you back. Following this rule of Twitter etiquette not only makes you look friendly and engaging, but it also increases your presence on Twitter!

2.) Re-Tweet articles and quotes from people you’re following: Re-tweeting is tweeting another person’s tweet to your followers. It’s a great way to mention people you’re following on your profile, quickly engage/interact with that follower by giving them “props” for their tweet, and share an article or quote that is of interest to you. Re-tweeting is very simple: all you have to do is put your mouse over the tweet you want to re-tweet and click “re-tweet” in the lower right hand corner, and that tweet will immediately show up to your followers! This is a very fast and easy way to show that you’re paying attention to your followers!

3.) Hashtags or “Trending” gives you even more exposure: Hashtags, or “trending”, gives you more exposure on Twitter by allowing people to search your tweets, thereby giving you potential to gain more followers! A hashtag is a word or phrase you post at the end of your tweet that categorizes it and allows that tweet to be searched under that category. The hashtag words are preceded by a “#” sign. For example, if you post a quote on your page, you can easily make that  tweet searchable on Twitter by adding “#quotes” at the end of your post. You should try and post a hashtag in as many tweets as possible in order to increase your presence on Twitter and get more people to see your tweets! This can increase your number of followers easily and quickly!

4.) Send personalized direct messages to new followers: Whenever you have a new follower that could potentially be your next client or an agent you may earn a referral from, it’s a good idea to send them a personalized direct message. Key word here is personalized. Direct messages on Twitter are private and can only be seen by the user, but they are a good way to send a personalized message that is a little longer than a tweet. Many tweeters have setup automatic direct messages that are sent out as soon as someone follows you. We don’t recommend this as it can come off as spam or impersonal. We’ve even heard that some tweeters will un-follow someone if they receive a canned automatic direct message.  It’s a good idea to send personalized direct messages to important new followers to make a good first impression and make your new followers want to engage with you. Yes, it’s not automated and yes it takes a couple minutes, but we think it’s worth your time. After all, you could be interacting with your next potential client!

5.) Send tweets to thank new followers frequently: It’s difficult to send a private direct message to every new follower you get! One quick and efficient way to thank new followers is by sending frequent tweets thanking new followers by giving them a public mention. A good way to do this is by tweeting, “Thanks for the #follow!” and then mentioning as many new followers as you can at the end of the tweet.By putting a hashtag on #follow, you can increase both your presence on Twitter and the presence of your recent followers by making the tweet searchable. It’s also a way to begin engaging with your new followers, and we think they’d appreciate the mention on your page!

6.) Hashtags.org is a good resource to search for relevant trending topics (hashtags): It can be difficult to figure out which hashtags to use. You want whatever topic you’re hashtagging to be one that people use frequently. Hashtags.org is a website in which you can type in a trending topic in the search box and you get a graph that shows how often that hashtag was used over that particular week. If that hashtag is used frequently, you know it’s a good hashtag for you to use in order to increase your exposure! This is quick and easy resource for all tweeters!

7.) Certain days of the week present creative ways to engage with your followers: There are certain days of the week where there are hashtag or trending themes. It’s a good idea to frequently use these hashtags because they are fun and creative ways to engage with your followers. For example, on follow Friday you mention some of your followers in a tweet on your page as people who others might want to follow and put the hashtag #FF on the tweet. There is also worthy Wednesday which is similar to follow Friday, except you put #WW on the tweet. There is also music Monday where you share some songs you’ve listened to that day and put #MM on the tweet. The list goes on! Using these hashtags on these days of the week is an interesting way to engage with your followers and increase your presence on Twitter!

8.) Re-Tweeting AND commenting (when space allows) on their tweets: When someone you’re following posts an interesting tweet or something you’d like to publicly comment on, you can! When space allows, of course. Since Twitter only allows/shows 140 characters, it’s best to only comment on the shorter tweets so it’s easy to read/follow. You simply click to re-tweet and then before you post, you add your comment after the tweet in parenthesis or brackets. By doing this, you’re starting a public discussion with the person who originally posted it. Twitter is all about interaction, so it’s good to engage in conversations on Twitter and build relationships as much as possible!

9.) Your ratio of followers to following should be pretty equal: The number of people you’re following and the number of followers you have should be pretty equal! According to Twitter etiquette, if you start following someone, they should follow you back, and so your numbers should be around the same. Real estate is all about being engaging and building relationships, so follow as many RELEVANT people as you can! A good resource to use to help keep track of who you’re following and who’s following you is an application called TweetAdder, which automatically un-follows any people you’re following who aren’t following you back, after giving them x amount of days to do so. It’s important to keep your ratio equal to look engaging and present on Twitter.

10.) Create lists for the people you follow to categorize, keep track and follow easier: It can be hard to keep track of everyone you follow. Creating lists for your followers is a good way to separate them into categories/groups and easily view what your followers are tweeting more efficiently and therefore it’s MUCH easier to interact with those you wish to follow more closely. You can put all of your potential leads on one list, other agents in a list, current clients on another list and perhaps past clients in their own list as well. That way, you can view each list separately and easily interact with each contact type.

These tips are ways that you or your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can most efficiently maintain and manage your Twitter experience! If you’ve just read our tips and you don’t have time or can’t wrap your head around all of this, maybe it’s time to outsource your social media marketing to a Virtual Assistant! Have additional tips to share? We’d love to hear them!

Oh and by the way, don’t forget to follow Erica on Twitter AND follow Carrie on Twitter!

While you’re at it, you might as well “Like” us on Facebook too. We share tips, ideas and giveaways for your real estate business! Be sure to enter our September contest – you might be the lucky winner of a FREE logo design!!

Happy Tweeting!

Carrie Gable and the team at RealSupport, Inc. are our “VA Quick Tip” columnists offering expertise in real estate marketing, technology and more. RealSupport’s office and team of 9 full-time staff members is located near Chicago, IL. Their successful team works virtually for many top real estate agents and brokers nationwide. Pioneers in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant industry, RealSupport offers marketing, branding, website and logo design, listing marketing, lead generation, technical support, transaction management, social networking, blogging and much more… Just ask!