After reading this great blog post (from Jade Craven & ThinkTank Media) on Twitter Lists, we put together all of our new found knowledge to try to make some sense of this new feature of Twitter…

How do we use Twitter Lists?

Twitter lists have made it so much easier for us to categorise the people or companies that we follow on Twitter. We have created lists based on industry, geography, clients, connectors and activities in our area.

Industry

This has helped us group together all of our peers (accommodation providers) around the world. We can easily keep up with trends in our industry.  We use this to see how other hotels are utilizing their Twitter accounts, and also to find some really useful links on marketing or industry trends. It actually has reinforced to us that we are leaders amongst our competitors, as we have created a Twitter community that we engage with on a daily basis.

Geography

Our business is located in 2 areas of Melbourne. So we have created one list for South Yarra businesses and another for the Brighton area. We’re hoping to increase these lists as more local businesses get on board with the power of Twitter, but so far it is fairly limited, and not as useful as it could be. If we had more businesses to add to these lists it would be a fantastic opportunity to cross-promote other businesses and create close relationships that help bring more people to our local areas.

Clients

At Caroline Serviced Apartments we have a number of large corporations that send their employees to stay with us whilst working on projects in Melbourne. This Twitter list has only a few of our clients on it, at this early stage and we hope to find more of them utilizing Twitter in the near future.  We hope to be able to follow and provide support for the company progressions.

Connectors

There are a number of Travel Bloggers and Twitter networking events that we can bounce off to improve our profile within Social Media platforms. Travel Bloggers may even be able to use our accommodation for a review on their blog, or offer our accommodation as a prize in their own competitions. Twitter networkers such as @tweetupmellers is an invaluable source of people that we’ve met face-to-face. Although it’s great to chat to people online, there really is something to be said for meeting people in the flesh! Now we’ve met lots of the people at TweetUpMellers, they also now have a connection in the accommodation industry in Melbourne, so that they can recommend us to their clients or friends. Connecting is all about sharing!

Activities

I made a separate list for Melbourne Activities after discovering several individuals or companies who have some outstanding content on things to do in Melbourne.  At our Brighton Property we provide  ‘daily news’ for our guests with suggestions of activities and restaurants , so this list is a great source of ideas! It provides a ‘locals’ perspective on some cool things to get involved in around Melbourne.

It’s a good start…

Although some of our lists are more useful than others at the moment, we see the  potential that some lists can bring. Now all we need is more businesses and good connectors to become involved in Twitter!!! It’s not as scary as they may think!

CSA Launches Joint Venture with Restaurant

Cosy atmosphere is guaranteed at Rembroza

This week, Caroline Serviced Apartments added a new Package Deal to our popular website. It’s the first time we’ve ever entered into a joint venture with a restaurant to offer our guests breakfast as part of their accommodation. Tim at Rembroza is so pumped to work with us, and tomorrow we’ll be filming a short ‘welcome’ video so our guests can have a peek at the restaurant and the super yummy meals and coffees.

Connections and Sharing Ideas

• On Friday I had a fantastic meeting with the lovely Sam Mutimer of ThinkTank Media and Sue McDonald. Sue is only new to Social Media, so Sam brought us together so Sue could get some pointers on how I understand and use Twitter. I heard myself saying things like “gaining trust through interaction with followers” and “use search.twitter.com to look for people who are Tweeting about a particular topic that is relevant to you” and I started to realize just how much I’ve learned in the last few months.
• This meeting occurred after the fun night of networking at The Social in Windsor for the monthly TweetupMellers event, where I met some more awesome people who are passionate about connecting and learning together.
• Social Media has truly opened up some doors for our business… but I’m saving those details for our e-book case study.
• Speaking of sharing – Anna & Miranda (from our Brighton property) are starting to get on board with Caroline Apartments social media campaigns. We’ll be seeing some blog entries from them, as well as more Tweets, photos on Flickr and videos for YouTube. See? Enthusiasm is infectious!

The Buzz of the Week

And I can’t forget to mention Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival. We’ve seen some of our guests heading out to race days looking very glam, and on Tuesday Anna and I are going to be joining them – we’re off to a marquee at the Melbourne Cup! We’ll be sure to post some pics up on our Facebook Page and here on our Blog so anyone who didn’t get to the event can live vicariously through us for a moment…