How Twitter can take your Real Estate Website's Traffic to a Whole New Level!

Real Estate folks out there, here is the classic Indian example of the amazing things Social Media sites like Twitter can do to your customer/ prospect engagement experience. Here is a quick case study on what happened on Twitter ages ago, which is mostly 4 days back.

The #IfIWereShahjahan Twitter Contest started by 99Acres.com finds its root in this popular TV Advert

Note: Our understanding of Twitter is somewhat limited.

Before we start laying down the facts, let us tell you that we check our Twitter account everyday, we follow the right Twitter etiquette, we have over 1400 followers as we write this and we don't know if even one of those 1400 followers have ever checked out any of our Tweets. We get the occasional retweets from friends and colleagues but apart from that, its a chaos with loads of hash symbols. And that is what we had to say about that.

So What Happened on Twitter?

99Acres.com, one of India's leading property portals started that contest on Twitter

What was the Twitter Contest all about? Here is another self explanatory image.

The Contest Banner itself is here as shared by the good natured folks at 99Acres. (Click to Enlarge)

The idea was simple and neat, we think. You were to post on Twitter, what you would do if you were Shahjahan. Just write your thoughts and use Hash Tag #IfIWereShahjahan. It caught our attention and we decided to follow this contest. After all, this was 99Acres and we could only learn from how they did things on Twitter. So far, we were impressed.

The Entries to the Twitter Contest. We read each one of them. Here are the relevant screenshots!

We feel are stumped

If that is a potential customer, we don't think we will be able to pay salaries for too long

That is the attitude of a guy who just shut down something really big. Like maybe an airline? Peace and Party :)

IIT Kharagpur people, if he is one of yours, this is alarming, isn't it?

This dude is really into stuff. Don't think he will be buying or renting real estate anytime soon

There you are. That is your average hardcore Twitter fan right there. No real estate deal though.

The IREFD winning entries! (If we were judging the contest)

If we were judging - The IREFD #1 Entry - This guy needs a hug!

The IREFD #2 Entry - The Ganges. It is in our blood! Another hug.

The IREFD #3 Entry - Handed out with tears in our eyes. What dedication. (No real estate deal though yet)

Once the Twitter Contest Closed

The 99Acres Social Media team is prompt and spot on. They close the contest with this Tweet.

And as a result, send apprehensions skywards! Don't believe us?

Real Estate prospect? Well we'll be ...

No real estate deal there mate. Not in a 100 years at least. 

Make that 200 years for this one! Thank you. 

Moral of the Twitter Story?

Twitter, India, Real Estate and Customer Engagement are all words which appear in a single sentence every where. That is the 'IN' thing. However, in reality, it makes little business sense for your real estate business.

We say;

#1. Give Twitter 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening to follow people back
#2. In that time, post a few updates and retweet what you really like. Forget about what your followers like. Only the One above knows that.
#3. The best way to build Twitter fans is to follow, follow and follow. So mindlessly push the follow button day and night. People you follow will mindlessly follow you. And that is exactly what you did in the first place. Lets keep our expectations fair and the deal equitable.
#4. Work on meeting real prospects and customers at real estate fairs, events, sites, offices, other places.
and;
#5. We asked the top 5 real estate investors and developers we work with and not one of them have ever been on Twitter. (YET?)

We will come back to you with more such Social Media success stories as and when we find them. The content we get to read is simply addictive. You have to agree.

Cheers!