Neighborhood (Twitter) Talk: RentWiki Launches Twitter Integration

When Twitter really is your village…

I LOVE the Twitter integrations that www.rentwiki.com just announced. One is “neighborhood talk” — a simple widget on their site that searches Twitter for mentions of the neighborhood. That means you can peek at what’s being said, and if you want, you can immediately reach out to the folks who are saying it. You can view the page for North Beach, SF that’s also pictured below:

From their (excellent, by the way) pitch email:

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you could go into the coffee shop of a neighborhood you were interested in moving to and listen to what the locals are saying without feeling seriously awkward?”

You have to pick a city, drill down to “Neighborhood Review” and then click on a specific neighborhood to find the Twitter integration, but once you do it’s pretty sweet. In my talks and webinars I explain Twitter’s 5 “off-platform” benefits (SEO, Research, Content Generation Engine, Word of Mouth and PR Gravity) that help business whether or not your customers are even on Twitter. This is a GREAT example of what I mean by “content generation engine.” RentWiki’s readers don’t have to know a thing about Twitter to benefit from this integration.

But if they do, it gets even better…

Advice: WWTD?

You can also get your friends’ opinions. Twitter’s GREAT at social shopping and getting advice. Right on each neighborhood reviews page there’s a button to autogenerate a Tweet asking your readers for advice:

I’m thinking about moving to [Neighborhood, City]. Any advice or feedback on this area?

It does this the right way too, without surprises or spammy* links. It routes you to Twitter.com and fills out the update box for you, but you have control over rewriting the tweet and posting it yourself. The suggested text is included in the URL (see below) and posting control remains with you.

http://twitter.com/home?status=I%27m+thinking+about+moving+to+University+Place,+Houston.+Any+advice+or+feedback+on+this+area?

(*I’d actually recommend they include a link back to the neighborhood page on RentWiki, so your readers know exactly what you mean, and to subtly but usefully promote their site.)

RentWiki Founder Eric Wu:

Once a place to start conversations, Twitter has quickly evolved into a market research tool, wholesaler of goods, search engine, news site, and even a rental search. The goal of RentWiki is to give people searching for a place to live real advice from renters living in that area. By integrating with Twitter, we are expanding the conversation beyond just our site and into the real-time social web.

Kudos to them for “getting it” and for creative use of Twitter in their business.
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Related articles:

• Twitter to Go: One Houston Coffee Shop Makes Its Mark
  
• Twitter is My Village, Revisited
• Twitter for Business webinars by Pistachio Consulting

Tagged as: Business, content generation engine, hyperlocal content, neighborhood, off-platform benefits, Twitter, twitter search