• Home Maintenance Tips
• Home Design Ideas
• New products in the Design center
• Answer Frequently Asked Questions
• Energy Saving Tips

The number of topics related to homes is never ending.  Your customers are looking online for information before they make their home purchase, and if you have a blog full of interesting information you are ahead of the game.

1.  Share links to your most recent blog posts.  There are ways to automatically post your new blog entries to your Twitter account.

2.  Share your Press Releases.  Any time you have a press release, post a link on your website and post a link on Twitter.

3.  Promote your events, such as Grand Openings, Model Openings, Sales Promotions.

4.  Run a contest – by running a contest, you can get your followers involved and connect with them.  Be creative and think outside of the box.

5.  Share information related to homebuilding, links to articles and other information about the industry.

6.  Share tips on the care and maintenance of your homes.  Get your customer service department involved.

7.  Answer questions from current and potential customers.

8.  Share new products or floorplans.

9.  Post home design ideas.  You can share links on Kitchen design, or selecting cabinets, or how to inexpensively decorate your family room, etc.

10.  Post links about what is happening in the neighborhoods you build in.  Maybe there is a Farmers Market, or a local fair.

11.  Provide information and links to restaurants located in the neighborhoods you build in.

12.  Have your design center share information on choosing the decor and products for homes.

Participation is very important when using Twitter.  You want to provide valuable content for your followers.  These are just a few ideas for ways you can use Twitter.  But there is no right or wrong way to use the tool, so start to think outside of the box.  Think about the valuable information you can provide and start to share!

You have no doubt heard of Twitter, whether on CNN, a Sprint commercial, or even a recent Best Buy commercial.  You know it is growing rapidly.  But, you may not know how Twitter can be useful for you.  When you first join, it is a little overwhelming and confusing.  As you continue to use Twitter and participate by sharing thoughts or interesting articles, you will begin to get how it works.  Twitter may not be for everyone, and many feel it is too time consuming.  I feel it can be an extremely useful tool to get your name out there.  Since it is free, what have you got to lose?

First, what is Twitter?  Here are some of the basics.  It is a micro-blogging site, where you are asked the question “what are you doing?” and given 140 characters to answer.  You will follow other people on twitter and this simply means you can see what they are posting.  Other users will follow you; therefore they can see everything you are posting.  The more you participate, the more followers you will gather.

Some of the other terms and usages are the @ reply, the re-tweet, and a direct message or DM.  If you post a tweet using @username, then you are replying to that user. And this is called an @ reply.  A re-tweet is a post using RT and is simply repeating another user’s tweet.  If someone has posted something you agree with or find interesting, you can re-tweet it to share it with your followers.   A direct message is a message sent to another user that is only seen by that user.  So it will not show up to your other followers.

It is important to approach Twitter with a plan.  There are many useful tools to help you manage your Twitter account.  I use Tweetdeck.  Tweetdeck is a free desktop twitter tool.  You can create columns and group together your followers, see your @ replies and see your DMs.  You can also easily reply or re-tweet others from Tweetdeck.  Tweetdeck also now allows you to manage multiple twitter accounts.  There are other tools like Seesmic, as well as many programs available for your phone.  I highly recommend finding one of these tools that you like and using it.  It is much easier to manage Twitter this way.

It is easy to get lost in twitterland.  So decide when and how often you will spend time on Twitter and stick to it.  If you are using one of the above mentioned tools, you won’t miss any mentions or @ replies.  You can commit to getting on for an hour in the morning, respond to any mentions and post or re-tweet some new information.  If you stick to a plan, twitter won’t seem as overwhelming or time consuming.

That is the quick version of what Twitter is.  My next post will be some ideas for how builders and contractors can use Twitter.

1.  Maintenance Tips – Share care and maintenance tips for the products you offer, as well as standard features.

2.  New Products – use blog posts to share new product offerings, colors, and styles.

3.  Frequently Asked Questions – Answer questions that come up over and over again.  This will be very helpful for new and potential buyers.

4.  Interior Design Tips – share design ideas.  Your designers are the experts, have them offer some easy design tips.  Keep your buyers imagining their house as a home.

5.  Share benefits of the products your offer – write a blog post on the benefits of energy star appliances or an upgraded carpet.  Start the education process early!

6.  Do product spotlights – for example, write a post about tile, include advantages, disadvantages, style and usage tips, maintenance information.

A design center blog gives you the opportunity to prepare your buyers for the design center process, and to educate them on all of the products in their home.  It also gives you the chance to connect with your buyers and keep them interested and excited about their new home purchase.