What's the Return On Investment of Time In Twitter for Real Estate?

When it comes to the popularity of Twitter, few would argue that its growth signals a trend, but there's not much more agreement on just what the trend might be. Other than growth in users, what value does Twitter have for the real estate professional in their marketing efforts? This is debatable, and there is no shortage of opinions.

Opinion: There is no real ROI for your time spent with Twitter - In an article at AgentGenius, the author doesn't mince words in stating that it's a waste of time for business to consumer, but a good marketing tool for business to business use. In other words, a mortgage person wanting to communicate with Realtors and build business would find Twitter valuable in relation to the time spent. However, it isn't considered by this article to be a good use of your time to try and communicate with consumers.

Opinion: Twitter is a total waste of your marketing time - Sean Purcell over at Bloodhound Blog is very clear, as Bloodhound contributors usually are, in stating that Twitter is made up of "78% pointless babble or comments stimulated by pointless babble." There's no doubt where Sean stands on the issue. And, there is a great deal of just plain silly stuff on Twitter.

Statistics: Twitter user demographics should present value - In a very thorough grouping of Twitter statistics resources, we see that Nielsen data shows 84.7% of the users are 25 years or older, and 76.5% are between 25 and 65 years old. There is very little involvement by those younger, as they appear to be totally into text message communications.

My Opinion: It's too early to dismiss Twitter - When I see that the vast majority of Twitter users are those in the age group that buys and sells real estate, and it's a huge number of Twitter users, I can't say that there is no value or ROI in using it for real estate marketing. I'm still experimenting with it. I don't have a lot of Twitter traffic yet, but I have definitely seen, with Google Analytics, that those who come from Twitter spend more time and visit more pages on my site than any other referral source.

I don't know for sure about Twitter's ROI for my time spent, but I definitely think it's worth some more of my time to test it, and to try new things. I believe that marketing ingenuity will find a way to connect real estate professionals and consumers on Twitter in ways that will generate business. After all, when BestBuy, Dell Computers, Southwest Airlines, and others are using Twitter to communicate with and support their customers, I think we real estate professionals can dig out some value there.

Check out the related article links below for more Twitter articles here.