How to Increase Your CRE Twitter Following in 4 Steps

How to Increase Your Twitter Following in 4 Steps

Since it’s launch in 2006, Twitter has taken the social media world by storm. Part of the big four social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn), Twitter has become a means for easy connection between colleagues. Now more than ever, businesses both big and small are utilizing Twitter. CRE practitioners, like these businesses, can benefit from Twitter in several ways. However, in order to reap the benefits Twitter has to offer, you must first have a loyal legion of followers. This may sound tough, but obtaining followers is fairly simple once you know how. Below are four useful tips in increasing your Twitter followers:

1. Write an Effective Twitter Bio and add a Photo

Your Twitter bio is your elevator speech on what you do and why you are the ‘EXPERT’ in your commercial real estate business.  Although with only 160 characters, it is a very short elevator ride, so you have to be concise and to the point.   Here are some tips:  1) Represent yourself as the expert and with authority; 2) Write your bio in first person, and because you are limited in space, you can leave out phrases such as “I am the…”; 3)  Use search keywords in your bio.  Twitter users will search for keywords based on location and specialization.   Ensure these words are in your bio; 4) Include your picture in your bio.  If you don’t, a goofy egg head image shows up in place of your photo.   When I see this, I immediately discount that person as someone that does not understand how and why to use Twitter and am likely not to follow this person.   In fact, studies have shown that Twitter bios that include a picture have 10x more followers on average than those without a picture.  That’s 100 followers vs. 1000 followers for simply adding a photo to your bio!

If you would like additional help in writing an effective bio, there are a lot of resources online for writing a great bio on Twitter.  Simply Google, ‘write effective twitter bio’ for more tips and examples.

2. Provide Quality Content

Content is king. With its latest update, Google search ranks quality content above all else. If you post frequently with interesting content backing your tweets, your followers will slowly add up. Be warned—this process takes time. Posting quality content won’t grab you hundreds of followers overnight. However, you will notice steady increases. Keep posting content, and be patient.

3. Follow the Right People

With the simple click of a button, you can follow just about anyone on Twitter. But, be careful; quantity doesn’t substitute for quality. Follow people you know, current clients, future clients, local businesses, other CRE practitioners, or others who directly influence your business or agency. Following untrustworthy people can affect your profile negatively. Following reliable contacts not only makes you look well informed and professional, but also may increase your followers through word of mouth (or text, in this case).

If you are just getting started, a technique I used was to follow the “Followers” of associations I belong to as well as colleagues that share the same audience of customers that I have.   For example, as a member of the CCIM Institute, I followed many of those that also follow CCIM.   A quick review of the person’s Twitter bio should tell you their specialization and influence so you can choose good connections.

4. Interact!

The primary focus of businesses using Twitter is to connect to fans and followers of their product. I use Twitter to get the word out quickly to a broad audience of current events in CRE, highlight current promotions and to share trending facts and articles.   CRE practitioners can utilize this kind of interaction to address the needs and questions of potential and past clients, as well as other practitioners or anyone curious about the industry.  Communicate as frequently as possible. Positive, professional feedback can lead to more followers through word of mouth recommendations. Be sure to maintain those relationships!

If you follow the tips above, you’ll be sure to notice an increase in followers for your business or agency. Utilize Twitter to your advantage!

And, as a side note, if someone follows you on Twitter, it is simply good social etiquette to follow that person back.  With that said – Please FOLLOW ME on TWITTER!  

https://twitter.com/todd_kuhlmann