Shawn Cade is a Realtor Consultant with Solid Source Realty, Inc. in
Buckhead, Gwinnett, N.Fulton and S. Fulton.

Every week, we ask a real estate professional for their Short List, a collection of tips and recommendations on an essential topic in real estate. This week, we talked with Shawn Cade, a Realtor Consultant with Solid Source Realty, Inc., about the simple ways that agents can manage their Twitter feed.

Twitter can be a great marketing tool if used effectively. Some of us may ask, “What exactly can Twitter do for my real estate business?”

Think of Twitter as blogging on a small scale: you’re able to use links and pictures; it can be a great tool to grow your client base by capturing more buyers and sellers; Realtors can get professional advice from other Realtors; it allows for real-time, up-to-date information, events and news; and it allows you to get involved in conversation outside of your immediate niche market.

The key is to consistently manage your feed using simple tips:

5. Make Sure Your Hashtag is Not Too Broad – Hashtags are used to help target an audience with a common topic. It allows you to follows you to follow an audience and, hopefully, they follow you back. For example, if you search on #RealEstate, you’ll get a list of tweets related to the industry in a wide range of topics. It will be too time consuming for you to find your particular topic. A better choice would be #LuxuryHomes; now, you have found tweets specifically on your topic in less amount of time.

4. Apps/Links – You want to link apps that pertain to your specific market. It may be luxury homes, Atlanta living, commercial real estate, industry news, etc. The key is to target the business you want. Some useful apps are @Realtors, @househunting, @atlantarealestate, @mortgageminute and @realtor.com.

3. Manage and Organize your Tweets – You can create as many Twitter “lists”/catergories as you want, and manage them. Some examples include luxury homes, buyer’s market, seller’s market, etc. A couple good programs for that are Twistlistmanager.com, which will show you how to create/group your list, or a scheduler tool to stay consistent with tweeting, like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Buffer or Gremln.

2. What Real Realtors Should Tweet About – Realtors should always be professional and share your expertise on topics such as: staging tips; negotiation advice; show pictures of your listings; local homes sales; home improvement tips; mortgage news; and neighborhood information.

1. Remember, the Objective is to Generate Business – You want to become an expert in your field!

Shawn Cade has been licensed since 2001, and is the founder of S. Cade Associates with Solid Source Realty, Inc. She specializes in residential, commercial and investment real estate around the Atlanta metropolitan area. Her mission is to educate and assist with home sales and investment opportunities.