Let’s Twitter Around Durham Luxury Real Estate

Takes about 30 seconds to set up a Twitter account

I’ve resisted the idea that old dogs can’t learn new tricks but recently getting my arms around the usefulness of the so-called “social media” like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter has been difficult. But I’m finally getting it, I think, maybe.

It turns out that they can be useful and a lot of fun. In the sidebar on the left is an example. You can’t miss the Blue Twitter box that I added last week. What I did was create an account on the Twitter website (www.twitter.com/durhamluxre). The sidebar box is known as a “widget.” It monitors that account and lists recent “tweets” that I have posted to the site.  A tweet is a mini-blog post of no more than 140 characters. I’m going to use this Twitter account to post one thing, changes in the Durham luxury listings in MLS, including new listings, pending sales and price changes. Each of these tweets will include a link to additional information on the property.

Anytime you want to see the whole list of tweets you can click the top of the widget and go to the DurhamLuxRE twitter page.  If you are already a twitterer and have your own account, you can “follow” DurhamLuxRE and my tweets will go right to your twitter account.

Many bloggers also post a “tweet” whenever they write a new post for their blog. I do NOT intend to do this with the DurhamLuxRe twitter page because I want keep it clean for anyone who wants to just follow the Durham luxury home market. I will, however, post a tweet on another account I maintain for use with my real estate business.  If you want to follow this blog on Twitter you can follow that account which is www.twitter.com/zenmanrdu.

One of the “aha!” moments I had trying to figure out what has attracted so many people to Twitter and the other social media is that it is in many ways an improvement over email. For example, a small network of friends with Twitter accounts can communicate directly or as a group once everybody is “following” one another. This seems much “cleaner” in some ways than email because it can’t be inundated by SPAM.

You can also use the “Share” button at the bottom of each post here on the website to send a link of the posts to someone through regular email or by posting to one of many social media sites. For example, if you liked this post and wanted to share it with everybody “following” you on Twitter, click on the “Share” button below and follow the directions. It’s pretty easy even for old dogs like me.