With Twitter overtaking LinkedIn as the number one social network for salespeople, most real estate agents know that a strong presence on Twitter can boost their sales. However, few know how to use Twitter effectively to sell more real estate.

Don’t give up! The three pieces of advice that follow could be just the thing you need to twitter your thumbs more effectively, efficiently and profitably. All you have to do is invest your time, so what have you got to lose?

Embody your “Brand”

If you are a real estate agent who has made it through your first transaction, you already have an established brand. It is important that you learn more about branding and determine exactly what you want to portray. Then, make sure that your Twitter account enhances and embodies that brand.

• Use a design scheme that matches your brand or business website
• Use the same headshot on your website, business cards and other marketing collateral
• Think of the “personality” that your business partners, clients and potential customers know. If you lean toward the conservative side, your twitter account should reflect that. If you lean toward the zany and humorous, you may want to have a twitter feed that includes humor.
• Consider filling your Twitter feed with certain aspects of your personal life, such as a picture of you on a weekend mountain biking trip or cooking out with family and friends.

Create Engaging Content

Knowing your audience will help you decide what kind of content they are hungry for and how to keep them coming back for more. This also means determining if your Twitter account will be targeted toward buyers, sellers or other real estate agents. Quality, entertaining and useful content is the key to success on Twitter, but you can’t provide that unless you zero in on your target audience.

It goes without saying that high quality content earns more engagements. For example, if you create a video about the top 10 best strategies for new homebuyers, you want that video to be well edited, planned out and extremely useful to your average follower.

You can also use your Twitter feed to advertise upcoming open houses. Be sure to include pictures and relevant links so your audience can find more information.

Whatever you do, don’t let your Twitter feed get boring or repetitive. Your tweets should be relevant, timely, entertaining and on topic.

Engagement is not just about great content. You also want to respond to your followers, interact with them through private messages, include their Twitter handles in your tweets and respond to their tweets. A bit of give and take goes a long way on Twitter.

Learn From Your Best (and Worst) Tweets

Last but not least, view your Twitter account as a learning experience. Use Twitter analytics to monitor the success of your account and analyze how individual tweets are received. SocialBro and Tweriod are also great apps for monitoring and successfully timing your tweets.

Once you find a strategy that works, keep it consistent and make small, subtle adjustments to keep improving. Conversely, if a Tweet falls flat, don’t look at it as a failure; just drop it and keep experimenting until you’ve found the most effective content and strategy for your audience.