A big question for marketers that want to connect with businesses on Twitter is that they often don’t know where to look. Part of the rub is that Twitter is predominantly a service used by individuals, not companies. While you can use search.twitter.com advanced features to find individuals using specific criteria, it can be more productive for finding companies or commercial users of Twitter via a managed list.
Here are a few resources for finding Twitter accounts for brands, companies, executives, analysts and journalists via directories and lists. Update: We’ve added the WeFollow Directory recently launched by Kevin Rose:
WeFollow – Kevin Rose from Digg started this user powered directory of Twitter users organized into categories with rankings based on the number of users. Inclusion is based purely on users submitting themselves by Tweeting an @wefollow and hashtags describing what 3 categories to associate that user with.
Twibs.com – Alphabetical Directory and search engine of 5,368 businesses on Twitter with a voting option to see which profiles are featured on the home page. Each business Twitter account has a profile showing latest Tweets and others’ Tweets about that user.
Twellow.com – Directory and search engine of Twitter users. Allows customization of profiles, categories and addition of links to other social services. Grabs publicly available messages from Twitter then analyzes and organizes them into the categories found at Twellow.com. Users can add themselves also. Features “Twellowhood” to find local Tweeple.
Tracking Twitter – The Electric Artists Twitter Tracker is a real-time listing of the top media, entertainment, and consumer product feeds EA is following on Twitter – Broken down into the following categories: Brands, Media, Television and Celebrities.
A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples – This list published by Peter Kim shows much more than Twitter, but you can sort the list of brands using social media by type, then scroll down to the “Microblogging” section.
Media on Twitter – This is a wiki created by @PRsarahevans with the help of a few friends as a resource of contact information for journalists and bloggers around the world.
Other useful Twitter user discovery lists and directories include:
Social Brand Index – Jonathan Kash maintiains this index of Twitter accounts sorted by: Business, Education, Entertainment, Executives & Notable Individuals, For Consumers, Government & Politics, Housing Market, Media, Non-Profit, Organizations, Service Providers, Social Properties, Technology and Travel.
Analyst Twitter Directory – Listing of industry Analysts on Twitter by Carter Lusher of SageCircle.
Brands That Tweet – Collection of brand names Twitter accounts from Paul Dunay. Many of the accounts listed are squatters and not managed by the brands.
C-Level Tweeters – Another collection from Paul Dunay of CEOs, CTO’s and CMO’s. There are many more in the comments.
The Ultimate List of Moms on Twitter – Wendy Piersall has assembled this list of Tweeting moms plus many more additions in the comments.
Ultimate Small Business Twitter List – Anita Campbell and friends have compiled this list of people and organizations to consider following on Twitter if you want to keep your finger on the pulse of small businesses.
Which topical or categorically specific Twitter directories, wikis or lists did we miss?
