We’ve been through a lot of stuff on Twitter.  Like a tidal wave of information.  Ironic, because that’s really what Twitter is.  If you’re following thousands of people, they’re updates are coming streaming down one window on the web version, and you are inevitably going to miss quite a bit of information; perhaps vital information as it pertains to generating leads.

This is where specialization comes in.  First off, you can create “lists” in Twitter.  Simply by creating a list name, then assigning the people you follow to those lists, you can seperate out more specific information.

Secondly, there are tools such as Tweetdeck, Twitterfall, and Seesmic Desktop that can help sort through the clutter.  By allowing the user to create as many custom columns as needed, a “tweeter” can seek out relevant and interesting people and searches.

For example, let’s say you are a mechanical contractor who follows homeowners, churches, facility management companies, architects, engineers, and builders.  However, things are getting pretty crazy in your feed, and new updates are coming every second.  You want to only see what is going on with builders.  The simplest solution is to build a list for “builders”. Simply go to “lists”, create a name, and save. Then, go through your contacts and click the list icon to select them.  Now, you can access that list and only see updates of those you’ve designated.

If you have a bit more of an organizational brain (unlike me), you can employ a “tweetdeck” to manage different lists and searches. The free, downloadable software (Tweetdeck, Seesmic, etc.) allows you to create unlimited columns specific to particular parameters. So, you could have a column for your whole feed, one for mentions of you, one for your list, “builders”, and one for the search “air conditioning”. It’s a great way to see more of what’s going on in your sphere of interest.

Finally, if you want to very simply see what’s out there (whether you follow tweeters or not), go to http://search.twitter.com. Here, you can type in search criteria and see all the updates including that criteria. It’s a great way to find people to follow, mentions of your industry, or even mentions of your company.

How do you think these tools could benefit your company? Feel free to drop any questions in the comment field.

Last week, I made an introduction to the social media platform, Twitter.  Twitter (in my mind, and hopefully yours) has made a paradigm shift from time-waster to powerful marketing tool.  In the next few posts, I want to elaborate on a few of the basic functions of Twitter, and how you can use them to your advantage:

Creating conversation:  many will simply go out on Twitter and write what’s going on.  “I’m writing a post about Twitter” might be my tweet.  However, sometimes information grabs you, or someone who you’re following may ask a question or solicit a response.  In order to respond to someone, just start your tweet with @[twitter name].  For example, let’s say I see this in my feed:

CleanAirGA Fast Fact: In #Atlanta, HALF of all smog-forming emissions come from the tailpipes of cars. Clean your commute, clean the air

I think it’s something interesting, so I would write this:

mingledorffs @CleanAirGA makes me curious how much tele-commuting is on the rise…

It’s nothing profound, but I’m making an attempt to interact with someone else on Twitter.  I would hope to get a response, so a conversation has been created.  I can check to see all tweets mentioning me by clicking on the “@mingledorffs” menu selection, as circled below:

Once clicked, a list of only the tweets mentioning me appears.  No, I haven’t gotten a response yet, but I can keep checking:

So, I hope this example takes the first step in showing how Twitter is more than just a place to send texts about yourself.  It’s an (almost) infinite online community where you can interact with anyone…including potential customers.

Check back soon, as I’ll be digging into more ways to interact on Twitter.  These posts should (hopefully) unfold to create a vision of how these social medium can benefit you.