When I first saw that you could group your Twitter friends into specific lists or categories I thought to myself, “Oh great, one more thing I have to do”. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized that it makes perfect sense.
Rule #1 of database management is to group your contacts into categories based on the relationship you have with them. If you don’t sort them into specific groups then all you have is one large pile of contacts, which make it difficult to sort and find specific people based on the message being communicated.
REALTOR® Associations can think about organizing their database of Twitter friends (those they follow) into these possible groups:
- Staff members
- Board of Directors
- Governmental affairs
- Education/Knowledge Services
- Commercial
- Past presidents
- Other committees
If you are creating lists for a real estate agent you may consider these lists:
- Trusted advisers
- Local government
- Restaurant news
- Local news
- Mortgage
- Out of town agents
- Cooperating brokers
- Schools and Universities
If you think there are others that I am missing please add them in as a comment at the end of this post.
The true value for the association in creating these lists is to quickly find the pulse of what the members of the list are saying, not just the topic. This will hold those on the list accountable for sharing content in a professional tone while providing value to both the public and members of the association.
Turn topic searches into hashtags that then become searchable terms within Twitter.
Here are some suggestions of what to do next once you have created your Twitter Lists:
Add a list as a column in your Twitter client
If you are using HootSuite or TweetDeck, create a new column from your list so you can read only the updates from the people added to a specific list.
Embed list into website or blog
There are many examples of Twitter widgets that will take content from updates and post to your blog or website.
Visit this page on Twitter http://twitter.com/goodies/widget_list to create your own Twitter widget from each Twitter List. The site will will give you the necessary code.
Promote list as a hyperlink
Once created, every Twitter list is automatically assigned its own hyperlink. These links can be added to email marketing, websites, online flyers, etc.
Here is one example of a list made into a hyperlink. http://twitter.com/dougdevitre/realtor-associations
FlockChart
FlockChart is a great tool for analyzing those within a Twitter list to see who has the most influence, friends, followers, or how much they Tweet. Find those who have the most influence in the group and encourage them to help tweet/retweet messages on behalf of the organization.
How much time will all this take?
To create a list take 2 seconds. Finding people on Twitter will take a little longer and adding them to the list can take a bit longer as some people have not optimized their profile to be easily found.
The end result is that people will feel appreciated being part of an online list. They will want to contribute more, share information on behalf of the association, and embrace a whole new form of communication faster.
If you would like to learn more about Twitter I am hosting a webinar for CRS (Council of Residential Specialists) April 22nd 1pm CST.
Register at http://BudURL.com/CRStwitter
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