Twitter Lists – What Exactly Am I Doing With Them Again?
By
Twitter lists can be a great advantage to you in your business. They assist you in keeping track of a specific group of people. You may want to keep track of your customers, keep in mind the maximum for any one list is 500. May we all be so prosperous to have more than 500 active, participating customers. Or you may want to keep track of potential customers, experts in your field and people who inspire you. It is your call to create lists that give you what you need.
Twitter allows each one of us to have 20 lists maximum.
Are you following anyone via your lists yet?
Each time you want to follow someone who fits the criteria of one of your lists you go to their Twitter page, click on Lists and add them to your appropriate list. For instance I coach and mentor social media marketing both on-line and locally, therefore I have a list titled “Vancouver”. Anyone who is in my immediate area goes into that list. Think carefully about the title of each of your lists. You will be surprised how quickly you can create your 20 lists. It is much more efficient to put thought in up front about how you are going to use your Twitter lists, rather than having to change everything around later.
When you attach people to your Twitter List you do not move them from your main Twitter stream. They appear both on your specific Twitter list and in your main Twitter stream. You can even put someone on multiple lists. Think of lists as a copy of something special you want to keep safe. You are saving the names in a special place that makes it easy for you to access.
For instance if you have a Social Media Marketing expert list, I should be on that list. They are for you to keep track of people that you want to keep an eye on. This will enable you to quickly respond to questions and comments or receive good advice and information.
Example I have all of the people who have signed up for the 30 free tips on a list. That way I can very easily and quickly RT everyone! Twitter lists are there to make your job easier. As we all know social media can consume a lot of your precious time and lists are one of the many ways you can be more efficient on-line.
Hi Carla, I always have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to follow people on Twitter. I love Twitter as a real time search engine, but that is about all the use I see for Twitter. Having 500 people on a list makes the list unusable again in my opinion. Where do I go wrong in my approach to Twitter? I would love it if you could explain that to me, because I have not been able to figure it out.
Karin.
Carla, thanks for sharing such great tips for using Twitter. I have to make better use of my lists and start categorizing better. I will definitely start implementing your strategies.
Good question! Lists are for people you want to keep an eye on. However not everyone on your lists will be tweeting all the time so there actually may not be a lot of traffic on your lists. When you use something like HootSuite or TweetDeck you will easily and quickly see who’s doing and saying what. Plus you can easily RT or ask questions about something they are tweeting about.
Hi Carla,
Great tip. I have really just started utilizing the list functionality in Twitter so this was helpful. I especially like the tip about creating a list for your list LOL That’s a really good idea and a way to give back to your subscribers. Thanks, Laura
Hi Carla,
thank you for the very informative article.
I learned that you you can have 20 lists and up to 500 on one list.
I have created a TSA list and that is fun to see the posts on there.
Much appreciated.
Have a great weekend.
Yorinda