It’s amazing how in 140 characters or less, you can vent frustrations, relay news, and share tidbits with your social circle. Yet these 140 characters leave many of us scratching our heads trying to figure out how to use these snippets of messages to drive real estate business. Here are some small ways industry insiders are using Twitter to break through cluttered news feeds:

1. Position yourself professionally – starting with your user name. As cool as RockerGirl75 may sound, chances are it doesn’t convey confident, successful real estate professional. Stick with the basics – your name (LyellSmith), your name with title (LyellSmithRealtor)  and/or key industry words like LyellSmithRealty or LyellKnowsRealEstate. Keep the fun and quirky user names for your personal account.
2. Less is more. Although it’s important to be seen and heard, too much of a good thing can be overkill. Good rule of thumb is to limit yourself to three relevant tweets per day.
3. Content is key. Like your blog posts and Facebook page, focus on interesting factoids, articles, neighborhood news, and blog post links that your audience will be interested in. Asking questions will also help engage your Tweeps, encouraging them to respond, or even better, re-tweet you to their group of followers, further extending your social reach.
4. Responsiveness. Just like responding to a hot contact, take the time to respond to your Twitter messages. This could be through a direct message or through a tweet where a fellow Tweeter uses the @ symbol before your username. Your response time and attention to detail will signal the way you’ll serve them when they’re one of your clients.
5. Know your competition. Follow other professionals in your market (realtors, brokerages, and industry news leaders) to see what they’re saying or doing. Leverage their tweets to fuel more ideas of your own. They may even have some messages that are worthy of a re-tweet, saving you time in creating content of your own.

Using other strategies to help grow your Twitter pipeline? Share them in the comments section below! And follow Zillow on Twitter.