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What is TweepML – and How Can I Use It?

TweetOne of the drawbacks of Twitter is that it still, fundamentally, appears to be unmanageable, especially from the point of view of a detail oriented marketer. While the intent of its developers may well have been to allow people just to shoot sound bites at each other, its interactive capability endears its potential to the marketing community. While it is, of course, possible to build your followers or following lists, it would be much more advantageous if you could manage these into groups, in much the same way that you do with e-mail lists.

Smart application developers to the rescue, as TweepML rides in with the cavalry. This open standard format platform effectively allows you to highly target a group of individuals and then share this information. Other people may access your file and with one click may follow every member in your group.

TweepML is very user-friendly and within its simple interface allows you to generate a variety of cute “follow us” buttons or links which you, in turn, place on your website after you create your list. If you have seen the “#followfridays” phenomenon, then you can now participate by simply tweeting to suggest that people follow your TweepML list.

Of course, “tweeps” are Twitter “peeps” or people, just in case you are following a little bit behind here…

TweepML generates your list through a dedicated URL, with the path reflecting your brand or chosen keywords. You can add keywords or tags to each list to make it search friendly. Within the list you can opt to follow all the tweeps, or select individuals by simply checking boxes next to their individual photographs.

As a marketer, you should probably jump all over this as it is likely to be a very popular application. Evidently more than 1000 user-created lists appeared within its first week of operation in mid-September. There’s no limit to the amount of TweepML lists you can create, but remember that they are in the public domain and easily searchable. You should go ahead and grab your path now if its still available.

If you wish to target people with a common interest, previously you had to trawl through the following lists of tweeps who you thought were of interest, but with TweepML you are now able to access groups of interesting people according to recommendations and according to specific groups.

With TweepML you are able to export and share lists of Twitter contacts between applications. Step-by-step, Twitter is coming into focus as a usable and manageable social marketing tool.

Have you used TweepML?

Matthew Toren

Matthew Toren
 

Matthew Toren is a serial entrepreneur, mentor, investor and co-founder of YoungEntrepreneur.com. He is co-author, with his brother Adam, of Kidpreneurs.org, BizWarriors.com and Small Business, BIG Vision: Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right (Wiley).

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