realestate.com’s Twitter Bot Taking Requests

If you’re a follower of realestate.com’s @housewatch Twitter channel, you will have already noticed their regular tweets showing information on mortgage rates, featured homes and realestate.com’s contact details.

These tweets are sent out automatically by realestate.com’s “bot” (tech-speak for “robot”), and were launched by the website’s director of business solutions architecture Dennis Kuntz in April this year. What you might not have noticed yet is that the @housewatch bot can do more than just regularly send out information – it can also respond to your requests.
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Extreme House Selling

propertyadguru.com welcomes a guest post from Nick Marr about extreme house selling.
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Why You Should Use Facebook

As a business, you’re probably keen to hear how your customers - buyers, sellers, renters and landlords - found out about you. Did they see an ad in the newspaper or online, talk to friends, walk past your office, or find your website?
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The Challenges for Google Real Estate

The launch of Google Real Estate search on Google Maps in Australia, the US and New Zealand has shaken the property portal world. It is expected that Google Real Estate will make an appearance in the UK and German markets shortly.
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How the New Twitter Could Help You

Recent comScore statistics have revealed that Twitter’s star is still on the rise, with a jump from less than 1 million unique visitors in June 2008 to 20.1 million in June this year.

There are some doubts as to the staying power of Twitter’s users, but those doubts could soon be forgotten as Twitter is now focused on becoming more inclusive and easier to understand. What’s more, there are a few new Twitter options out that that could be useful for agents.

New Directions for Twitter

While its popularity is still growing, Twitter has realised it needs to explain itself in a way more people can understand. So the current Twitter homepage, which is rather minimal on explanation, will soon be replaced by a website including much more information about what Twitter is and what it can do.

According to BoomTown’s Kara Swisher, Twitter’s new homepage will include a search box, information on Twitter trends and a host of tips for new users.

“You can try it out without having to sign up, so you can get an idea of what Twitter is before you use it,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told BoomTown. “We need to do a better job of explaining ourselves to people who hear about us and then have no idea what do to.”

Tips for Business Users

In line with this new direction, Twitter has also released Twitter 101 – a website explaining Twitter to business users from the ground up. Case studies of how Twitter has worked for big and small companies are included, along with a best practices section outlining how Twitter use should be approached.

Tracking the Numbers

Twitter 101 encourages business users to view Twitter as a tool for building relationships, but that relationship can seem very one-sided if you don’t know whether all that tweeting is having any effect.

As a recent article on pointed out, the use of third-party Twitter reading applications, not to mention the problem of automatic “bots” clicking on Twitter links, complicate the issue of tracking how much traffic your account is creating.

Luckily, the article points us towards twitip.com and its blog post that goes into detail about the various tricks and tools you can use to get an accurate picture of how much traffic your Twitter use is bringing in.

Handy Twitter Widgets

Twitter also offers two widgets that can be added to websites: the profile widget and the search widget. The profile widget simply displays your last ten tweets, while the search widget displays tweets that relate to a search term.

Real estate writer James Kimmons suggests using the search widget as a way to distribute local real estate related news for your area. Once distributed to your followers, the search widget would also mirror this information on your website or blog, reaching another audience.

As always, propertyadguru.com is keen to hear your thoughts on what’s working - and what isn’t - when it comes to Twitter and your business, so feel free to keep us up to date in the comments.

Can Social Media be Simplified?

“Social media overload” is a phrase that has been gaining prominence over the past few months. As we discussed last month, agents who use social media have to make sure they balance the amount of time they spend creating and updating their online profiles against the number of leads their efforts generate.

When you consider how easy it is to lose time using social media, it’s hardly surprising that a number of online services have popped up that promise to simplify and streamline your online presence. Let’s take a look at a few examples that could be useful for agents.
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New Social Networks for UK Buyers and Agents

ukpropertyclub.co.uk is a new online social network aimed at bringing together people who want to pool their resources to get started in the UK property market.
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New Real Estate Focused Option for WordPress

A new plug-in for agents and brokers currently using a WordPress blog has just been launched. ListingPress promises agents “your own Redfin or Trulia for your business…combining your current articles with listing content” and brokers “an affordable solution which provides every one of your agents a blog with listings automatically built in”.
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Northern Ireland Portal Releases Software

Northern Ireland’s propertynews.com portal has launched the first locally built and supported Rental Management software, called Rental EDGE.
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New Website from Coldwell Banker LA

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Greater Los Angeles has launched a website to promote for sale and open house listings in the counties of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara.
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