March 28, 2024

Using Twitter Lists

Using Twitter Lists Improves Efficiency

Using Twitter Lists

Reasons to Use Twitter Lists

By using Twitter lists you can quickly check on a select group of Twitter accounts to see what they are tweeting about. Checking specific lists helps you to focus and to be both more efficient and effective on Twitter.

This is a Twitter Tip post about using Twitter Lists to become both more efficient and effective on Twitter.

This tip is focused on how to organize the key accounts you really want to pay attention to into lists.

Why? You follow five very cool and valuable accounts. You want to see their tweets. If you don’t use lists then you are forced scan your entire Twitter feed for tweets from those accounts. Your Twitter feed will be filled with tweets from all the accounts you follow. This is a very big time commitment and unnecessary.

If you use Twitter lists and want to check on that very cool and specific group then all you have to do is check that list. The list will only contain tweets from the accounts that you have placed in that list.

Social media still fights an unfortunate reputation as a distraction rather than a business building tool. If you are using Twitter to develop your business then to sift through baby animals doing cute things, funny memes, and silly video is wasteful of your time.

How do you use Twitter effectively as a professional or as a business?

One word: Lists

 

On Twitter organizing accounts into logical lists is easy to do.

You simply add the account to the appropriate list (or lists).

To create a new list for the specific accounts of interest come up with a name for the list, create the list, and add the Twitter account to the list.

Using Twitter Lists - Creating a List - Twitter Tip

Getting Started with Twitter Lists

If you are a business with multiple employees then it makes sense to set up some business guidelines on how Twitter should be used when an employee is representing or is associated with the company. Help your employees to be consistent and ensure that your brand is being projected into the Twitter community properly.

These ideas will get you started.

If you run Twitter for a brand (perhaps you are the brand), you need to curate content, keep an eye on important players in the industry and interact with followers and supporters. That’s a great deal to keep track of. Here are some ideas for using Twitter lists if you are a business.

List Ideas for A Business

Your Business Team: Set up a list of all employees that are using Twitter for your business. You may have multiple employees that are active on Twitter on behalf of your company. A list will enable people to view the tweets of these employees. Any team member will be able to use the lists to keep track of tweets. This helps to create consistency and helps to form the company culture.

For a customer who views the list, they will be able to see the people who work for and enhance their experience when they interact with your company. It is good for clients to see the people who make the company go.

Your employees will also see that you are committed to them and that you take Twitter exposure and marketing seriously.

Live Events: If someone attends an event then part of the information you may collect from them is their Twitter Handle. Create a list of people who have attended a live event.

Customers: You will want to make this a private list. You will gain more insights into the thinking of your customers by being able to see what they tweet about. Once you create this it will help you to chime in from time to time or get involved for something of significance. You may be able to help out a client or two directly from Twitter. This not only would be helpful but also demonstrate your willingness to help, demonstrate your expertise, and your Twitter savviness.

Competitors: Again, make this a private list. You can keep up-to-date on items that your competitors tweet about. To be more aware of the competitive landscape is often better than to be less aware. You may even see some good ideas!

List Ideas for a Professional

If you are a professional and use Twitter, then here are some ideas that will help you to leverage Twitter lists to be more effective and efficient.

Thought Leaders: To be efficient you need to focus. On Twitter, this means viewing only relevant content. Find accounts related to what you do, interact with your ideal audience, and project their expertise to your ideal audience. Add these accounts to a list of thought leaders. This will help you to stay on top of and closer to your ideal audience. You will also gain insights into how to position yourself as a resource to this audience. I would venture a guess that you will find plenty of tweets to share once your list includes the thought leaders in your niche.

Industry News: This could be similar to thought leaders but shaded more towards news items rather than opinions. This can be wonderful content to share.

Customers: As a professional the more you know your clients the better off you will be. If your clients tweet then be sure to follow them closely by creating a private list.

Competitors: You will gain valuable insights by seeing the tweets of your competition.

Twitter Lists You Are On

A fun an interesting task is to view the Twitter Lists you have been added to. You may be thrilled to see that someone added you to a Twitter List such as Awesome Tweets, Expert (you fill in the blank), or Special Twitter Accounts.

Click on your profile, then click on Lists and then click on Member to see the lists that include you.

Twitter List – High Leverage

Twitter lists can be a high leverage part of Twitter and a valuable business building tool. Take the time to set them up and then use them to be both more effective and efficient. The tweets of everyone you follow will fill your twitter feed with a great many tweets. If you follow many accounts then you could be receiving hundreds of tweets every hour. This will be information overload.

To be effective on Twitter you have to focus. Twitter lists can help a great deal in this area.

Here is a link to the Twitter Tips Category on this blog you may enjoy some of the other posts dedicated to providing you with advice on Twitter.