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Posted: 24 Feb 2011 03:35 PM PST

I don’t know about you, but I am not used to expressing myself in 140 characters. Hence, I completely understand and share the need to create some shortcuts.

“Creating some shortcuts” though took on a whole life of its own and just about became a language of its own… well, maybe not a language, but a dialect at the very least.

The other day my husband came back from work and asked me what IHIH (I hope it helped) meant. I am not sure why he thought I would know this, but it lead me to doing some research and putting together an abbreviated Twitter dictionary, which I called “Twitter Lingonary” (thumbs up or down on the name? – let me know in comments).

This is certainly not an exhaustive resource, so feel free to contribute to my every-growing “Twitter Lingonary” in comments.

BTW, IHA. (By the way, I hate acronyms).

• AAMOF = As A Matter Of Fact
• ABT = About
• AND = Any Day Now
• AFAIK = As Far As I Know
• AISB = As I Said Before
• AML = All My Love
• ATB = All The Best
• B/C = Because
• B4 = Before
• B4N = Bye For Now
• BION = Believe It Or Not
• BM = Bite Me
• BOL = Best Of Luck
• BR = Best regards
• BTU = Back To You
• BTW = By The Way
• DM = Direct message
• F4T = Food For Thought
• HAND = Have A Nice Day
• HB = Happy Birthday
• HIH = Hope It Helps
• IDK = I Don’t Know
• IDM = It Doesn’t Matter
• IK = I Know
• ITA = I Totally Agree
• IWIK = I Wish I Knew
• J4F = Just For Fun
• JIC = Just In Case
• JK = Just Kidding
• KIT = Keep In Touch
• LMK = Let Me Know
• LMS = Let Me See
• LTP = Learn To Play
• LTR = Later
• MP = My Pleasure
• MPTY = More Power To You
• MYOB = Mind Your Own Business
• N1 = Nice One
• N2S = Needless 2 Say
• NBD = No Big Deal
• NP = No Problem
• NPAA = No Problem At All
• NRN = No Reply Necessary
• OIC = Oh, I See
• OTL = Out To Lunch
• OTOH = On The Other Hand
• PLMK = Please Let Me Know
• PTM = Please Tell Me
• PTMM = Please Tell Me More
• ROTM = Right On The Money
• RT = Retweet
• TIA = Thanks In Advance
• TMB = Tweet me back
• TMI = Too Much Information
• TTFN = Ta Ta For Now
• TVM = Thanks Very Much
• TWYT = That’s What You Think
• TX = Thanks
• TY = Thank You
• TYVM = Thank You Very Much
• WAB = What A Bummer
• WAD = Without A Doubt
• WDYT = What Do You Think
• WGO = What’s Going On
• YW = You’re welcome
• <3 = This is the text version of a heart

Well, here ya go. If you want to learn more about Twitter (who doesn’t, eh?), read about how to get more Twitter Retweets here.

Love it or hate it? Comment to show me that you’re alive!

Have you seen this?

Do you know you can customize it and make it USEFUL?? Like this?

IGoogle would be your internet HomePage – what you go to when you first log in AND it can be customized making it very very useful. IGoogle has gadgets and widgets.

My IGoogle as feeds from Realtor.com, my Twitter and Facebook accounts, weather icons for all my clients all over the United States along with their newspaper feeds (so I know what’s going on there). I also include feeds from Seth Godin, Jeffrey Gitomer, Wall Street Journal/Real Estate, and Google Translator. It’s pretty easy to set up and customize. Many of the feeds are already geared to be on your IGoogle account with their rss feeds – will ask if you want on Igoogle or Google Reader – I like them on my Igoogle so I can breeze through them at a glance.

What you can do with you IGoogle homepage is endless. Definitely put it in your tool box!

When mapping out your real estate marketing plan, one task you need to incorporate is to consistently write (post) on your blog.

How long does your blog have to be?

How often do you need to blog?

What should you blog about?

Where can you get content?

What shouldn’t you do in writing your blog?

How long does your blog have to be? There is no magic length. You can blog (write) in great lengths, or just a few sentences. Mix it up – long and detailed or short and sweet. Include pictures to jazz it up. But most of all target and pin-point who your audience is and write to them.

How often do you post your blog? Ideally every day. However, we are busy and it’s not easy to sit and write every day. Try every other day or minimum once a week. But do not let it lag or stop. A stagnant blog will not do you any good in your real estate marketing plan.

What should you blog about? Is your audience interested in what is going on in the community? Blog about that. Are they interested in buying or selling tips? Blog about this. Do your readers want to know what is happening in their market? Blog about that. Do they want other tips and tricks? The list is endless and you may want to start a folder (on your desktop or desk) with interesting blog topics. Microsoft OneNote is a super program to organize notes you want to use later. Mix it up so that it isn’t all of one thing.

Where can you get content for your real estate blog? Have you read the articles you have within your website? If your site is a templated site through a website company, more than likely, you have buyer and seller tips. Read those articles for inspiration. Chances are, you aren’t going to be repeating information to your audience.

Your National and Local Realtor(r) Associations have a wealth of information and topics at your finger tips. If you  haven’t started yet and you have a Twitter and Facebook accounts, you should be “liking them” and “following them”. They post at least daily of what is going on in the National and Local real estate market. If there is a newsflash – BLOG IT IMMEDIATELY!

The Realtor(r) Associations have local market stats and trends right there for you to use. Or find your own monthly stats to post about from your MLS. Several searches will show what has sold during that month, for how much and how many. Start tracking and give your own ideas about the market.

The list is endless because your blog is yours. I re-posted a blog on creative ideas recently 9 Killer Content Creation Ideas for Your Real Estate Blog or Website. Read that for a few more ideas and for inspiration.

What shouldn’t you have in your blog? Others’ content. You can repost and give them credit for it, but you are walking a very fine wire of copyright infringement if you post someone else’s content and photos you grab off the internet. If there is an article you really want to share, read it and do a “book report” about it in your own words making references about the author and article. Then track back to the author and article.

Once your article is written, go back to strategically insert key words for Search Engine Optimization including links back to your web site or squeeze page. After you have finished writing and it’s ready to go, post your blog on the real estate agent site ActiveRain, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. (How to do that will be in a later post).

Enjoy blogging!! It gets your audience to get to know you. Sprinkle in some tasteful humor and don’t forget the pictures!

I was poking around the internet this morning looking for my morning blog inspiration.

I searched my Twitter account. (Great place to see what’s going on in the real estate world – IF you subscribe to the right tweets. It’s right on my “igoogle” homepage – I LOVE GOOGLE!) And then started wondering …. How many real estate agents have a Twitter account link on their website? If you don’t have ALL the social media links on your website, email or other media, you are missing on a HUGE way to connect with your clients or have new prospects connect with you.  A client or prospect and link to you in a non-invasive way following you to see if you have helpful things to tweet about. However, you need to work it everyday and follow other Twitterers who give valuable and useful content.

Even if retweet an article, the article is goes out to all of your followers. Since they are following you, this is a super way to connect with your clients and their followers and their followers and so on and so on. It’s like a huge spiderweb in which you’re continually building and expanding it with more contacts.

Your web will catch more business. You also need to have your Business Facebook page, Linked-In and of course ActiveRain. It’s all connected an part of your web.

If you need help setting up your Social Media campaign, just contact me. I can help.

OR FOLLOW ME!