Twitter is a great way to market a home construction business. If you are doing it right. If you are hearing digital crickets when you send your 140 characters out into the Twittersphere, rather than retweets, favorites and replies, then there is a good chance you are not.

Here are our top tips on how to tweet better, in no particular order:

1. Include images. Research proves that tweets with images are over 90% more likely to be retweeted.
2. Keep images at 440 x 220 pixels (4.58 x 2.29 inches on most flat panel screens) to ensure they are included in the Twitter feed.
3. Be polite! Tweets that include the word ‘please’ are the third most likely to be retweeted!
4. Research also shows that tweets between 71 and 100 characters get the best interaction. So keep them short, but not too short!
5. Be factual. Research shows that tweets with quotes are 30% more likely to be retweeted, and those with facts and figures fare well too!
6. Limit your hashtags to one or two per tweet. Any more than that and your tweets will be meaningless, and you will be branded a hashtag spammer.
7. If part of your homebuilding business involves other contractors or B2B clients, follow their accounts and tweet to them directly. Not only will they appreciate the mention, but you will reach their followers too.
8. Use Hootsuite to schedule tweets ahead of time, so that you never fall behind.
9. Tweet a mix of news, information, promotions and entertaining content to reach more people.
10. Find out what the hashtag for your city is, and include it in your tweets. For instance, in Vancouver, it might be #Vancouver or #YVR. Most cities and towns have their own hashtags too, and they help to target your tweets locally.
11. Make sure that you tweet a link to new posts on your construction website or business blog. This is proven to drive a spike of traffic to your homebuilder website, and more traffic means more potential leads.
12. Shorten links, not words. It is never okay to use text speak in business communication, even Twitter. It is perfectly acceptable to shorten links though.
13. Tweet local news. Research has proven that topical, timely news is more likely to be retweeted.
14. Use twitter to create a series of homebuilding tips, and create your own hashtag. If you are educating your followers, they are almost guaranteed to share your content.
15. Offer time sensitive deadlines. For example: contact us within the next hour to get 5% off your renovation quote. Creating a sense of urgency is a great marketing trick for twitter.
16. Create your profile carefully. Use professional graphics, and include a well-written bio, so that customers searching for businesses like yours in your area can find you easily.
17. Use the search function to find and follow accounts near you to grow your follower count quickly.

Twitter is a quick and easy way to reach many local customers who may be looking for services like you. Whether you use free services or opt for paid ads, it is all about engaging, entertaining and educating, but the good news is that  Twitter is easy to master. Done right, it can bring many homebuilding clients to your site. So take some time to figure it out, and reap the benefits.