Farming Twitter With DemandSpot
By NikNik · August 9, 2009
DemandSpot is a brand new Twitter tool that aims to help real estate professionals actually farm Twitter for local leads. Find locals based on location and keyword relevancy (house hunting, apartments, rent, condos, etc.). Search your location and actually connect with real people looking for real estate in real time!
Manage your leads and even create a PPC campaign to target locals based on your current listings and expertise. Click on the “Ad Campaigns” tab to get started. You’ll be prompted to give your campaign a name, enter a location, set your budget, create and schedule your tweets. Although these campaigns are fee based, users do not get charged unless their tweet with related media is interacted with. No clicks, no charge! PLEASE NOTE: Use this feature wisely and don’t spam people with repeated overtly sales-like messages. Engage with relevant listings or specific local info.
MyTechOpinion
In my opinion, DemandSpot is truly the most progressive and comprehensive twitter tool that I have come across for real estate professionals. And even more localized features are on their way! Soon users will be notified of a lead in their market area that matches the agent’s market/farm criteria. DemandSpot will monitor, match and notify users automatically! Because this tool launched recently in July of ‘09, it is still very new and we have yet see how the real estate industry will react and implement it. But I see some serious potential if used properly.
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[...] web 2.0 wrap-up comes from the MyTechOpinion blog. As usual, great info from NikNik on a new Twitter tool called DemandSpot. From their blog, DemandSpot is a brand new Twitter tool that aims to help real estate [...]
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Great idea instead of using Twitter’s search, but how many tweets are going to be seen by consumers now: ‘I just tweeted about searching for a home and now 300 Realtor’s are now following me’
I agree with Jason … there ought to be some training or a mandatory waiting period before most Realtors are allowed to use this tool.
This tool is definitely for the more advanced Twitter user. Someone who understands how to reach out and properly connect with others. I think a tutorial is already in the works!
Thanks for raising this issue Jason. It’s a valid point and something we’ve definitely considered.
The whole idea behind DemandSpot is to make it easy to find the most relevant leads for you – based on location, what they’re looking for, who they are – and to send them very targeted and helpful messages.
We did some research and it turns out that many people find the house hunting process frustrating (“house hunting sucks” seems to be the most common tweet we find on DemandSpot), and would actually appreciate it if someone tweeted or called to offer real help. I guess that’s why Realtors are still around at the age of RedFin, Trulia etc.
So I guess it boils down to whether Realtors use the tool in a way that provides value to buyers.
Some of the ways in which we’re trying to ensure that is by limiting the number of messages sent to a lead through our system (of course we can’t prevent sending out tweets through another tool), and actively monitoring the tweets and engaging with our users with advice on how to improve their tweets to leads.
This is all a work in progress of course, and we’d love to get more feedback and ideas.
elad@demandspot.com
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First off, I’m totally impressed that you did a video comment! U ROCK!!! I’m glad to see you also found folks in your neck of the woods….REALLY looking for homes. However, because Twitter users are more prevalent in major cities, some tweeps may have a harder time finding locals with this tool.
LOVE the video reply. It was compelling enough to get me to try it.
Thanks for pointing out DemandSpot. I did send a couple of messages through the site, but then decided that I would look too much like a spammer if anyone went to my stream and saw the last 15 tweets were all similar.
Instead, I opted to just follow the people in my area that are talking about househunting. I don’t need to send targeted posts…I post enough about real estate through the course of a week. If they pay attention at all, they’ll see the tweets and will interact with me if they find anything I have to say that is of value.
I think agents also need to be careful not to violate the code of ethics. We aren’t allowed to solicit the business from someone once we know they are working with an agent (I always assume that if they say they mention they have an agent, that they have a signed buyer/listing agreement).
That said, I LOVE that DemandSpot is searching on all of the terms that suggest that they might be needing an agent. They just saved me a bunch of work!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Karen.
You just gave me an idea for a new feature – we could let our users specify their target area, and then automatically follow the people in that area that are tweeting about househunting. Like what http://www.twollo.com/ does, just with a much better targeting.
Is that something you’d use?
I think I would use it, as long as there isn’t an auto DM message that goes out. The last thing I want to do is come across as annoying or as a spammer. I think what you’ve got going for you is that you are monitoring all the right keywords.
It would neat to have the same type of tool that also looks on Myspace and Facebook as well. Are there any plans for that at all Elad?
We’re working now on adding Facebook support. Stay tuned.
Veryyyyyyyy Interesting. I love how the Internet helps creativity explode
i could be wrong, as is often the case, but this might just backfire on you. Nice tool, just not sure it is for me.
Hey Mark,
Could you elaborate on your concerns?
How would it backfire?
When I am contacted by someone out of the blue on twitter with a self serving or somewhat spammy message, I delete and block them. The same thing might happen if I were to contact someone instead of letting them find me. But I could be wrong.
I agree with you Mark. There is no place for direct sales on Twitter. That being said, I do think it’s helpful to find and connect with locals looking to buy or sell. But communication should always be centered around creating dialogue. Get interested in what these locals are going through, where their current efforts have taken them, how you can REALLY help them. Be yourself without barfing your sales jargon and listings on them. Instead, follow them….listen and respond!
Mark and NikNik are right. Spamming on Twitter is not a good idea. That doesn’t mean you can’t use it to promote your business to interested prospects though.
We are actively monitoring what happens with messages that go out through our system, and clear patterns emerge that could indicate what’s working well and what isn’t.
The level of response for “good” communications is absolutely amazing and approaches 50% (click-throughs on links sent, written replies, etc.). For comparison, a 5% click-through rate on a Google ad campaign is considered unbelievably high. Moreover, the replies are overwhelmingly positive – thank you’s and such.
So what’s a “good” message – one that offers value to the prospect. Share your knowledge, supply information. People use twitter to connect with others, and they like it when others offer to help.
You can even hard-sell but offer an incentive (check out this post for some examples: http://bit.ly/eZhyL).
So what doesn’t work? obvious spam. Check this twitterer out for an example: http://twitter.com/Cazoodle/ (not a DemandSpot user btw).
We’re working now on some guidelines and best practices based on hard data. We’ll share them with the community soon so stay tuned.
This twitter tool is AWESOME… But, Shhh… don’t tell anybody!
I have tried to use demanspot several times to find leads and it has been a failing experience. One really has to draw the line between coolness (use of Twitter and the likes) and what pro users need. In case of realtors, you need a reliable tool which delivers on the promise. Demandspot has not been able (for me at least) to cut through the real time noise. I am looking for home buyers, but most of the tweets I see are from people looking for rentals or people just rambling about home buying. When I restrict my search to a smaller geographical zone, I often get nothing or a mix of bad tweets and rentals. So far, my experience have been disappointing.