If you were to ask me for one of the big buzz words of 2009, I would have to say Twitter.  You can’t turn around without someone mentioning the rapidly growing micro-sharing network.  But what is it about 140 character tweets that has everyone talking? If you’ve been asking those questions, than you should seriously think about attending our free upcoming webinar:

Twitter Webinar
Date: May 7^th, 2009
Time: 10am (PDT) / 1pm (EST)
RSVP: http://rsvp.cyberhomes.com
Instructors: Reggie Nicolay (@cyberhomes) and Nicole Nicolay (@nik_nik)

The truth is Twitter has lots to offer your real estate business.  The simplicity of the tool has empowered extremely creative uses of the technology.  One of the latest Twitter features is another take on a growing web-based quandary of user registration. Keep in mind, each time users are asked to create a new account; they typically create a new username, password, and even upload their avatar.  Both Facebook and Google have stepped up with solutions aimed at porting user’s profiles into newly authenticated sites. Now Twitter has done the same with Twitter Connect. Basically the service allows any website or blog owner to self-host the entire oAuth connection process. (see examples)

As mentioned, this would allow visitors to your site to authenticate using their Twitter account. Which could be handy for leaving new comments, it’s even possible to bring in their avatar alongside.  Of course, Twitter Connect could be used for more than just comments; it could be used for any other registration need that may arise.

If you’re a WordPress user, I’ve already seen a WordPress plug-in popup that will help you through the installation process.  You will however need to follow a process similar to Facebook connect setup, meaning you will need to register your blog and then grab your Consumer Key and Consumer Secret. Those unique numbers are then added to the WordPress Plugin.