There are a number of free tools out there that can help you market yourself and your listings through the use of social media. Whether it’s posting an item on Facebook, blogging on Active Rain, uploading a video to ZIPVO (my employer), or posting a tweet on Twitter, these tools can help you get connected and stay connected with your buyers and associates.

If you haven’t heard some or any of the above sites, do not panic. In this series of posts I’m going to teach you how to use each of them to enhance your online presence free and easily.

Today we’re going to cover Twitter – www.twitter.com – a unique site that allows you to let the world and your connections know what’s going on in your life. Twitter allows you to stay connected through 140 characters or less. 140 characters is the maximum amount of characters you can have in a tweet. Much like an AIM away message or Facebook status, a tweet simply updates your followers about what you’re posting.

A follower is similar to a friend on Facebook or associate on LinkedIn. You can search Twitter for people to follow and chances are they will follow you back. You can also tell people to follow you on Twitter to build up your base of followers. The great thing about Twitter is everyone is on the same level. Regardless of how powerful, intelligent, tech savvy, or non-tech savvy, everyone on Twitter has only 140 characters to get a message across. This makes thoughts clearer, and conversations quicker and more to the point.

After you build a good base of followers, you can really start to harness the power of Twitter. Let’s say you have 100 followers. When you get a new listing, blog post, or anything else you want the world to know about, you can simply tweet it and those 100 people will see it. Those 100 people might then tell a person each about a new listing, or tell a friend who is looking for a home, and your tweet instantly becomes viral and reaches hundreds, maybe thousands of people.

I’ve spoken to a number of people about social media and their major reservation is that it’s a lot of work. The truth is, keeping a good social presence does take some work, but the ROI is certainly well worth it. Much like anything else; you get out of social media what you put into it. Just like the gym, you can sign up and say you’re going to go every day. If you do go every day you’ll be in great shape and feel great. In the same respect if you spend some time every day with social media the results will be great. Just sending out a quick tweet is a great way to stay in front of your customers and associates, and it only takes a minute.

Below is a quick and plain English intro about the micro-blogging service Twitter.

Now that you know what Twitter is and how to use it head on over to Twitter.com and create your free account, then follow me, zipvojames, and say hello.

If you’re already using Twitter leave a comment and let everyone know how you’re using it.