All real estate agents should be using Twitter to complement their businesses, and all should be following the commandments we provide on using it!

Twitter is one of the simplest forms of social media, an incredibly accessible tool that allows one to effortlessly contact thousands of real, local people for a variety of purposes.

But don’t let it fool you! Twitter may be simple, but its accessibility can be deceptive, and though it goes without saying that real estate agents should be actively using Twitter, they should also be using Twitter correctly. A poorly managed Twitter account, no matter how much time you put into it, is unlikely to generate followers, so we’ve got the four commandments for Chicago real estate professionals looking to tweet their influence.

1. Write Well

Nope, we’re not letting you off the hook here! Even though you’re using Twitter, a medium built upon quick bursts of information, you still need to communicate well; in fact, with just 140 characters at your disposal (not counting links), it’s probably more important that you write well, as every character counts.

2. Be Fun and Spontaneous

We’re not going to condemn the fun tweet about yummy cereal or embarrassing YouTube videos, because they add a great dash of spice to your feed. Twitter can (and should) be informative, but first and foremost, it should be fun, and you’ll want it to be an outlet for your more easy, fun side.

3. Maintain Your Professionalism

Though we did just mention having fun, don’t forget that you’re a professional as well. In addition to those fun tweets about music and movies, share interesting articles on the home selling process, informative studies on vacant housing and the shadow housing inventory, and intriguing observations on housing’s greater influence. It’s never been easier to show off how informed you are!

4. Engage, Engage, Engage

As a recent MediaBistro article on Twitter explained, the only way you’ll garner followers and expand your social media influence is through engaging the Twitter community – retweeting (RT) other users’ tweets, asking them to follow your feed and projecting yourself as a user worth following. And of course, without followers, Twitter’s influence is not even half of what it could be.

Twitter is a fun social media platform, and probably the most user-friendly in the social media universe; however, as we’ve pointed out before with other social mediums, there are a number of simple, straightforward rules that determine who succeeds on its pages, and you’ll do well to follow the commandments we’ve laid out.