As you may be aware we have been running some social media courses for local small businesses in Stokesley. We have covered the majority of the popular platforms and hopefully, we have demystified some of the main pain points for our delegates.
One of the areas I wanted to go through again for my delegates (and anyone else) was the use of Twitter Lists.
It is one of the underused elements on Twitter, which is a shame, but I do believe it a useful element of Twitter that should be considered to make the best use of your time on Twitter.
So what do you need to know!
If you are at the start point of not knowing what a Twitter list is, here is the basic definition.
Twitter Lists definition: A Twitter list is a curated group of Twitter users. You can create your own lists, or subscribe to lists created by others, or be added to lists owned by others. Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream of Tweets from only the users on that list without requiring that you follow them.
In short, it helps you to cut through the noise of a busy timeline by seeing posts from accounts that you are interested in.
So how do you do it?
Creating a list on Twitter.
As seen as above creating a new list will ask you to add a name, a description and whether to make your list public or private.*
*Private list – for your eyes only. Some lists are better this way!
*Public list – viewed by other Twitter users.
Once you have created a list you can then add Twitter users that fall into that list criteria – examples in more detail below.
How you pull together your lists is up to you.
If you follow lots and lots of people and businesses, it can be hard to see updates from everyone, specifically lists created of relevant topics around your industry or particular locations can be an easier way to shortcut you to the accounts that are relevant to you and your business.
How to use them for your business
Twitter list suggestions:
Twitter is a busy place and you can easily miss tweets from some of your relevant accounts. Instead of visiting individual profiles you can use your lists to stay updated with what they are sharing.
Employer lists:
You can also use it to have more contact with your own teams. For example, you can create a list of all of your employees and interact with them and see all of the tweets the staff are posting and maybe checking they are sharing the content you are adding to the main accounts.
Potential client lists:
A key list to consider, and perhaps one of those you might want to keep private. Potential customers who often interact with you or businesses you have considered maybe worth prospecting. By a continued interaction with a potential customer quickly and efficiently could be the right trigger to convert them into an active customer.
Amazing current clients:
And of course, we should never forget to interact with the customers we already have, keeping them on a list and easily accessible will make you look like the attentive service provider you are.
Competitors:
As I often say, knowledge is power – having a hotline to what your competitors are up to on social media is vital. What are they doing well? What could you do be doing better? Checking up on them quickly through Lists is a great way.
****ADDITIONAL TOP TIP FOR LISTS. you don’t need to be following accounts to add them to our list, so need to let them know you have included them in your competitor’s list.
Favourite subjects and trends:
Love Strictly! Or want to keep up with the football league, then adding accounts to a list of topic areas is anoter way to keep things simple. I have a list of my favourite social media specialists so I can use them to share ‘what’s new in social media’ which I can then in turn share with my followers (I also have a strictly list! fyi!)
Local business updates and events:
Want reminders for your local networking group (Please add @TTStokesley to your lists) or follow organisations that share lots op upcoming events, again Twitter lists can work for you.
Twitter chats:
Take part in a favourite Twitter chat, add the chat and the primary users to your list so you can continue to chat around the Twitter Hour and grow those relationships.
Making your lists public will also help to add to your search results, creating public lists of useful contacts you know will be a great way to share information to your followers.
So, as you can see Twitter Lists have a wealth of options for you to consider to cut out some of the chatter of Twitter. If you (like me) are a Hootsuite user (other 3rd party tools available) and don’t operate on actual Twitter very often, do not despair. You can bring across your lists to Hootsuite and have them as one for your streams so you can interact with your lists all from one platform.
Need a hand with this, give me a shout. So get LIST making, please! You will definitely save yourself some time.
If you need any further information on effective usage of Twitter please email me on [email protected] and don’t forget to add me to your lists on Twitter!
