Estate Agent’s most underrated online tool – Twitter search

Estate Agents may love it or hate it but Twitter is here to stay. It has historically broken all previous social networking records with more people signing up at a faster pace than any other social network and astonishingly Twitter celebrated its 10 billionth tweet in March.

But how many of Estate Agents use Twitter’s search to its full potential, or even at all? Although ignoring timescale, Estate Agents have 10 billion tweets to search, respond and play with.

Think about it, someone locally at some point must have tweeted that they’re looking for a new property, or even that they are not happy with their current service.

Now Twitter has passed 10 billion tweets, 100 million users worldwide and 300,000 new users every day there is no better time for Estate Agents to start unleashing the potential marketing power of Twitter’s search tool. Below are the best ways Estate Agents can use Twitter search to their advantage:

• Self-check – Either type in your Estate Agency or Twitter name to see if customers have mentioned your Estate Agency in the past. Estate Agents should practice this regularly to ensure that all mentions, positive and negative and dealt with in a swift and professional manner.
• Local check – Only typing in your surrounding areas means that Estate Agents can see what people are talking about in their local area. Estate Agents can also try using “From:” and their local area to bring up all tweets within that local area. Identifying a property searcher and opening up lines of communication are the first steps towards making them a loyal customer.
• Specific searches – As well as using local check, Estate Agents can also add a property type to this particular search. For example try typing in ‘[Local Area] and Flats’, which greatly narrows the search term and brings up specific property searchers in your area.
• Secret search – A recent article published on the internet suggested that a previously unknown way of searching is to look how people ask questions. For example, a property searcher looking for advice might say ‘Anyone know a good Estate Agent?’

Although the ‘Anyone know’ search is not always fruitful for every area, it definitely is worth thinking about the ways that people will ask other Twitter members for help on searching for a property, a good Estate Agent or information on local developments.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques lends a helping hand, ‘For the whole range of Twitter searches visit our ‘Advanced Twitter search for Estate Agents’ article for 13 different ways to use Twitter’s search engine.