Social media has exploded, and it isn\u2019t too late to get on the train even if you aren\u2019t an \u201cearly adopter.\u201d\u00a0 One of the most interesting \u2013 and widest used \u2013 social media formats is Twitter. It\u2019s the second most popular social media site (after Facebook), and is one of the 10 most viewed web pages in the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s a simple concept that can be used to pique people\u2019s interest in a number of ways.<\/p>\n
A quick reference point is in order here.\u00a0 Twitter is like a text message to the universe, limited to 140 characters, in which you can stream your consciousness to the world, promote yourself or your product, start or join a conversation with millions of strangers, or find something you\u2019ve been looking for.\u00a0 You can be direct in your tweets or you can just put your information out there.\u00a0 The hashtag \u2013 you know it as #\u2013 in front of a term creates a searchable category so you can be part of an internet conversation.\u00a0\u00a0 And that\u2019s what makes Twitter interesting \u2013 the hashtag.<\/p>\n
So, what does the hashtag do for you?\u00a0 The hashtag allows similar conversations to be grouped together \u2013 meaning that if you want to know about open houses this weekend in Washington, DC, you can search it easily on Twitter;\u00a0 #openhouse #WDC #WashingtonDC. \u00a0Twitter users set up their accounts to follow specific people or to follow specific topics.\u00a0 A clever real estate agent can use the # to create a niche market by including it in all pertinent tweets: \u201c#Openhouse #Saturday 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, #WDC #WashingtonDC. 1-4 PM Fresh cookies!\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s about 90 characters that will be seen by anyone who is following the person who wrote the tweet, is following #openhouse, is following #Saturday, is following #WDC or is following #WashingtonDC.\u00a0 The more people who are following a topic and see your tweets in there, the more followers you gain, meaning the more people who see your message.<\/p>\n
One common fear is that it\u2019s difficult to be clever or pithy in 140 characters or less.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to be; you can tweet a link to a website, tweet a photo, etc.\u00a0 Add a photo of the property in the tweet used above, and your followers will know which home to look for.<\/p>\n
One last thing about using Twitter: there are over 500 million Twitter users worldwide, with over 140 million of them in the United States. They are increasingly upwardly mobile, college educated, accessing Twitter from a smart phone, with a median age of 31 and income of more than $60k \u2013 just like the typical US home buyer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Social media has exploded, and it isn\u2019t too late to get on the train even if you aren\u2019t an \u201cearly adopter.\u201d\u00a0 One of the most interesting \u2013 and widest used \u2013 social media formats is Twitter. It\u2019s the second most popular social media site (after Facebook), and is one of the 10 most viewed web…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n