Aerospace eBusiness

Please Santa give me more Aerospace & Defense Twitter Lists December 2, 2009

As we approach the gift giving season, I was thinking that the new Twitter Lists seem like the perfect present many organizations could give the Aerospace & Defense industry. This versatile tool, recently introduced by Twitter and now available on both TweetDeck and HootSuite, tremendously improves the ability to sort and manage industry interaction and knowledge transfer.

The basics

I follow less than 100 people on Twitter. Any more than that becomes noisy and inefficient, so I go for quality rather than quantity. I follow people that I trust and rely on them to share the information from others I might not be following. Using HootSuite and TweetDeck, I organize them in different columns (e.g. A&D Journalists, Social Media visionaries, etc…) so I can manage the streams in a focused and efficient way. However, on many occasions, I want to temporarily read a group of people on a particular topic of interest. Short of following and sorting everyone in rigid columns, it is nearly impossible. But now, the good folks at Twitter have recognized this shortcoming and created “Twitter Lists”.

Anyone on Twitter can now create a list of people and organize them under a single “topic”. You can then follow the list and see a “mash up” of all the tweets from the people on the list. Twitter lists can be assigned to columns in TweetDeck and HootSuite without having to follow each member on the list. You can read the very good overview of Twitter Lists on Mashable, so I am not going to spend too much time on the basics. However, where lists have taken off in many industries, our industry has once again lagged behind in their implementation. I therefore decided to suggest A&D lists that I think would help all of us and “appoint” owners that would have all the knowledge, motive and stamina to keep them up to date for our benefit.

Twitter Lists from A&D Media

• Journalists: Both AviationWeek and FlightGlobal have already created these lists. However, I think it is important to have a hierarchical strategy and purpose for the twitter accounts and lists. Lists could be organized by subjects, publications or geography (bureau). But it is important not to mix or duplicate. I don’t like that AviationWeek includes their job account in the list. That seems like a separate category all together. I also think that if @AviationWeek and @FlightGlobal are going to be “headline repeaters” they should not be included. I can follow these accounts in my main stream to get the top info while following the journalist list separately to get the details.
• Correspondents at a show: FlightGlobal was the first one to do this and I loved it. It listed which accounts would be reporting “live” from the recent Dubai airshow. Nice, easy and useful list. I think this is a model to follow.
• Award Winners: Most media organizations already create “lists” in their magazines: Top Performing Companies, Web Awards, etc… Why not translate these lists in Twitter lists so we can easily follow the winners? This can also be extended to cover things like “Top 10 A&D companies”.
  (I actually created that one here)
• Developing Story: Most big stories in our industry carry on for months at a time. Why not create a list of interested party so we can get the “raw feed” of what is going on. For example, there is a great Twitter exchange of opinions going on between GE and Pratt & Whitney regarding the F135 engine. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to follow a single list of all the people involved in this story?

Twitter Lists from A&D Associations and Special Interests

• Members: This seems like a no brainer. NBAA, AIA, ATA, IATA, NDA, ADC and many others are all good candidates for this. Limitations on the number of accounts in a list might be a factor, but then associations can always create multiple lists (e.g. associate members). This is a great way to create a “voice of the industry”.
• Working Group Committees: Each association has special committees working on specific topics. If these members create Twitter accounts to share their work on the subject and these accounts are organized in lists, progress can easily be followed by everyone else. Areas like environment and safety would be extremely relevant for these lists.
• Government Committees: Most associations lobby the government is some capacity. Most government officials on the key committees are on Twitter. Why not create lists of relevant senators and congressmen on the various Aerospace & Defense committees so we can all follow what they are up to.
• Job Lists: there is great debate and activity around job creation and safeguard in our industry. Wouldn’t the associations that have these kinds of initiatives centralize a list of twitter accounts that advertise A&D jobs.

Twitter Lists from Conference and Trade Show Organizers

• Exhibitors: If I am going to attend an event that will have an exhibit area, I would like to know more about the vendors before I get there. I don’t want to have to go look at each website. I’d rather follow a single list for a few weeks before the show and while at the show to get the pulse of what is going on and help me decide who I need to see. How difficult would it be to collect twitter accounts from exhibitor registrations and provide such a list? This would also make an excellent twitter feed for the show’s webpage as well as an added “advertising” incentive for vendors that sign up.
• Speakers: Most speakers that have Twitter accounts will reach out before they have to present and interact with their audience. Allowing conference attendees to watch the speaker stream would be very useful to make any event more interactive and educational.
• Press Correspondents: Since press has to register at every event, why not provide a list of all the journalists that will be reporting from it. This is a great way to “mash up” all the news into a single stream to allow people to easily follow all the action while at the show or from far away.
• Local Hotels and Attractions: For larger shows, attendees would love to be able to find out all the deals and activities going on around the event. Compiling a list of twitter accounts from local hotels, restaurants, bars and attractions would be very useful for the visitors and might even be a revenue generating opportunity for the organizers.

Twitter Lists from A&D Programs and Projects

• Mission Participants: There are more and more participants in specific missions on Twitter. From recent space shuttle flights, to operation “Enduring Freedom” in Afghanistan, it is possible to gather a list of participants in a single place and get the relevant information necessary for education and business strategy.
• Contractors and Subcontractors: I believe in the future, large aerospace contractors will be setting up Twitter accounts for specific programs. For example, @NorthropGrumman might be providing high level information about the company while a new account like NG_B2 might provide more detailed information about the B2 program. Subcontractors could then follow suit and thus enable the creation of a list of all the accounts in for one specific program (e.g. All B2 Info).

Four Rules for A&D Twitter Lists

If you endeavor to create an Aerospace & Defense list, you should really consider abiding by the following four principles:

• Avoid judgment: your list will be more successful and potentially less controversial if inclusion is based on facts rather than opinion. For example, “Most Talented BizAv Journalists” could be much more difficult to manage than “BizAv Journalists”. Generally, rules for list inclusion should be very specific and easy to handle. A user should be in or out without any grey area. It should also be as inclusive as possible.
• Keep it up to date: unless you are prepared to update the list and keep it current, you should not create it in the first place. That is why I suggest you review the credentials of a list owner before you subscribe to it. There is nothing more frustrating than relying on a “lame duck” list.
• Manage the relevance: In the list description, identify the relevance and timing of the list. For example, you could state: “This list is relevant only for the duration of the 2010 Farnborough Airshow” (HINT!). Including a “last update” date is also a nice touch. Deleting lists that are no longer relevant is essential to maintain credibility.
• Advertise the list: unless people know you’ve created a list, nobody will be using it. Including a Twitter widget on your website that tracks the lists you have created is a good way to promote them, and use them. You can also use Twitter itself to promote your lists particularly with the #FollowFriday hash tag.

So if you work for one of the organizations listed above, I hope you will grant me my wish and create these A&D Twitter Lists. Otherwise if, like me, you would like to see these lists created, please point the suggested owners to this post. Feel free to suggest more lists or post comments. I always appreciate the feedback.