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Why Twitter is better for classifieds than Craigslist
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Craigslist has become the standard for community classifieds; it’s more efficient reaching a local audience than any other local advertising media, and it’s free. But it does have problems:
- Craigslist advertisers / posters are generally anonymous, and thus less credible.
- Craigslist advertisers don’t have track records or eBay feedback ratings.
- It can take a long time to produce a Craigslist ad, and you need to re-create the ad to get it up to the top of the list a few hours/days later.
Using Twitter to distribute classifieds can address these problems:
- Twitterers, if they are not purposefully anonymous, have identities that generally tie into other social networks like Facebook or blogs/websites.
- Twitterers have a track record on the basis of their existing tweet history. Querying the Twitter name and identity on search engines may also uncover reputation problems.
- It can take as little as 30 seconds to produce a “Tweet” classified, including uploading a picture or video via Twitpic or Twitvid.
The Hurdle to Twitter Adoption:
Twitterers posting classifieds need a relevant local audience to sell to. We’re building the Breaking News Network of hyperlocal Twitter-based community sites to facilitate that local exposure. Later this year, each city in our Breaking New Network will be introducing a localized Tweetslist.com application that will provide local classifieds exposure just like Craigslist.
ilist.micro and #ihave and #iwant
ilist.micro is a Twitter classified service that developed a Twitter hashtag convention used for selling and requesting goods by Tweeting #ihave and #iwant. We’ve incorporated this hashtag convention for the Classifieds section of our San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, London and Toronto Breaking News sites.
Related articles:
Building a National Breaking News Network just like a Craigslist
