I scratch my head trying to understand how such a simple tool is so wonderfully effective at generating business.
It’s somewhat baffling considering all Twitter gives you is 140 characters to say what you have to say. In an age that’s short on attention it’s plenty enough to draw in clientele.
Jay Thompson recently posted a photo link to Twitter along with a brief message (140 characters or less). Within a few hours he had a request to see the property from another Twitter user.
Brad Coy was about to be on a panel in front of a group of fellow Realtors to speak about, of all things, Twitter. He tweeted what he was about to do and shortly received a direct message back from another user asking if he would show them some potential homes.
Perhaps the most amazing Twitter testimonial comes from Kevin Warmath, a Realtor in Georgia.
Fresh out of the gate with a brand new Twitter account he used TwitterLocal to search for Twitter users in his local area. He follows 5. Within an hour he receives a request from one of them asking if he would list their home. Get this, Kevin hadn’t even sent out a single tweet… just followed some folks.
So, back to the question at hand… how can such a simple service be responsible for so much?
Concise - it’s difficult to hide behind 140 characters. Unlike a blog which gives you endless text, you’re forced to get to the point which can often be more revealing than a multi-page post.
Personal - you let people see into your world by sharing a slice of your life. People are attracted to people. Again, more so than on a blog where you tend to stay on topic.
Conversational - you have the ability to join in on conversations in real-time. It’s interesting how we turn to the net to build relationships but that’s exactly what you’re doing when you tweet - building relationships.
Un-marketing - as a marketing tool, it’s definitely unconventional. There’s no room for hype or inflated promises. It’s people focused, not marketing/sales focused therefore folks feel safe when connecting.
In fact, the above traits are hallmarks of Guerrilla Marketing which teaches relationships first, sales second. Watch for a series of posts coming up here on HomeStomper on how to use Twitter Guerrilla/StomperAgent-style to break into and reach authority status in niche markets.
So, what else about Twitter helps it to be an effective lead-gen tool? Any other success stories out there?
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Mark — Like you, I was in the room when Kevin told us his twitter success story. I wonder how many new accounts were created in the next hour or so?
@BawldGuy Talking - damnit, maybe it’s all the new activity on Twitter that has caused some of the recent downtime.
ahem… folks, don’t use Twitter. it’s not an effective marketing tool. it doesn’t work. listen to all those nay-sayers, “it’s a complete waste of time.”
Communication and conversation make business happen. Who woulda thunk it? Here’s another Twitter success