Twitter has an important role in business. Professionals are connecting over Twitter, building relationships and sharing information. But Twitter is a complex web to navigate and finding others can be difficult, especially because many people use screen names.
As is often the case online, a simple problem breeds hundreds of solutions in the form of Internet start-ups – and the confusing Twitter web is no different. A new crop of Web sites have sprung up to aggregate similar people on Twitter. One such site, JournalistTweets.com, sorts journalists’ Twitter content to provide “a real-time snapshot of what thousands of reporters, editors, bloggers and broadcasters are discussing.” By collecting all journalists on Twitter in one place, JournalistTweets.com helps PR pros find journalists, build relationships and cut through the noise.
Another example is SFGate.com, the Web site for the San Francisco Chronicle. During the beginning of the swine influenza outbreak, the site gathered all swine flu experts on Twitter – including Communiqué PR client Veratect – into one place so readers could easily see updates in real time.
Is this the beginning of a new trend? From my research the answer seems to be a resounding yes. Here are a few sites you may find useful – or at least entertaining:
ExecTweets.com – This site allows people to “find and follow top business execs on Twitter.” The first Tweet I noticed when visiting the site was from Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric.
AthleteTweets.com – This site aggregates tweets from professional athletes ranging from Lance Armstrong and Andy Roddick (who’s Twitter bio simply states “I play tennis”) to Gary Payton and Indy 500 racer Sarah Fisher.
TweetFreak – This site is maintained by AdWeek and follows the marketing, media and ad world on Twitter.
CelebrityTweet.com – This site is a live stream of tweets from celebrities including Rob Thomas and Demi Moore (who is fast approaching her husband’s much-hyped million followers). Watch the magic unfold as Miley Cyrus and Perez Hilton carry on a conversation via Twitter.
These sites are likely to keep popping up because, as Bnet.com‘s Catharine P. Taylor writes, “it’s so easy to set one up that it’s a no-brainer of an idea, particularly if you can just attach your new tweet site to a media network and bring in another source of traffic – and ad dollars.”
Have you found any useful sites that help you navigate Twitter?