Twitter Converts --- and Skeptics

To Twitter or Not to Twitter (that is the question)

Non-Realtors wouldn't necessarily know it, but there's a huge debate going on within the Realtor community at the moment about the need to get up to speed with -- "re-tool" for, if you will -- so-called social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Here's a quick summary of the points each camp is making:

Twitter converts: everyone's using social media. "Be there or be square."

Twitter skeptics: actually, it seems like the most avid Twitter demographic is . . . teenagers. And not many teenagers buy homes.

Twitter converts: Not true (about the demographics). The common denominator is technological sophistication: people whose jobs require it (marketing, high tech, computer-related generally) are embracing social media, too.

Twitter skeptics: Yeah, those folks are so busy checking out sites like Zillow and Trulia they think they don't need a Realtor. And tell me again, how does someone who has time to Twitter all day hold down the kind of job that pays a big mortgage?

And so and so on.

Count me firmly in the . . . undecided camp.

I remember having a spirited conversation with someone, way back before anyone had even heard of Netscape, about why the Internet wasn't merely "CB radio's with typing" (I was right, they were wrong).

And yet, I have to confess, even I have doubts that Twitter represents a seminal, culture-changing shift: somehow, I just don't see my target market tweeting (or posting on Facebook), "I wish I hadn't just eaten that second hot and spicy burrito at lunch."

My best guess is that two considerations will prove paramount for Realtors weighing the "to Twitter -- or not?" question: 1) no one wants to be labeled a "Luddite," "behind the curve," etc.; and 2) you become proficient in whatever medium or mode of communication your client(s) prefer.