The following is part two of a recent submission to a Real Esate publication’s request on tips and guidelines for using Twitter and other Social Media.

If you join the world of Twitter here are a few key things to remember and some tips to help find value in the time you spend there.

1. Remember, you are building your personal and professional brand by being present and active in this social medium. What you “say” is permanent.
2. Put a personal, friendly picture as your avatar, one that people will recognize.
3. Use some version of your name as your handle – again, recognition.
4. Install a helper application such as TweetDeck, or Seesmic, or Digsby. These will help you organize tweets, follow trending topics, follow conversations in groups of people you define, follow key words, i.e, Real Estate, Naperville.
5. Tweet about and “retweet” those comments that you feel are notable. Showing interest is more important than being interesting, and will gain you followers.
6. Thank those who retweet your comments. Showing gratitude builds social capital which builds a following.
7. Follow those who Tweet about subjects that interest you. Engage them, interact with them. Quiet observance will not gain you followers. Follow the superstars and your competitors. Follow related business folks, mortgage people, builders, associations, etc. You will be surprised at the information you can glean (and contribute) from the conversation stream.
8. Following Back There are multiple schools of thought on this subject. Some say follow every one, even the porn stars, because the bigger base you have the larger the opportunity. Others say treat it more like your sphere – prune, trim, follow only relevant folks. My personal practice: I check people’s profiles and look at:
   1. Are their tweets a mix of business and general/personal? I don’t want to add someone to my stream who is going to just bombard me with pitches to buy their product of service. I do want people who are interesting, knowledgeable.
   2. Number of tweets: Do they regularly engage in tweeting? I had one former colleague who started following me. He followed a number of folks and had followers. He also had zero tweets. What value do you think he is bringing to the Twitter community?
   3. Ratio Is the ratio of Followed to Followers fairly even?
9. #FollowFriday Participate in this fun. On Fridays people recommend those to the Twitterverse that they particularly enjoy or feel offer good value. Go first, include “#followfriday” in your tweet and the twitter name of those you are recommending. They may be funny, intelligent, friendly, whatever the reason, give recognition and kudo’s. It will return to you. And, always thank those who include you in their #followfriday’s. Just watch the twitter stream, it’s easy to pick up the protocol.
10. Tweeups Attend a Tweetup and meet others who Twitter. Or schedule one. Or join a Tweetride (cyclists who Twitter meet to ride). Be creative and interactive.

Here is a great summary from Nicole Nicolay in her e-book “Twitter for Real Estate Twits: “@nik_nik’s chapter 7 summary: Be the same person you are offline when you’re online. Same rules apply. If you wouldn’t flash your neighbor, then don’t flash twits. When it comes to real estate, behave with the professionalism that your clients expect from you. And, if you do make a mistake or ever fart in an elevator, just say “sorry”.

Again, these are my thoughts and practices. There are other protocols that work well for others. Keys to remember, participate, offer value, play nice, & mix up the social and business.