I remember getting started on Twitter. There was the newness and excitement in making new connections and finding new groups of people to communicate with. Soon enough there were 300 people posting all the time on different topics. This was easy enough to keep up on. Then the 300 became 600, which became 1200, which became way too much to view in one stream on Twitter. That is where Twitter lists will help you conquer the overload faced with growing social media accounts.
Twitter List Basics
Twitter has a very good tutorial on how to create and manage lists in their help center. So, I will not go over those mechanics. The link will cover what is needed there. We will look more at how to use lists to help you manage content and interact with more people in a targeted topic on Twitter.
Here are a couple of items to keep in mind as we go along:
- You cannot add yourself to a list in the Twitter interface.
- You can add anyone to a list, not just the people you follow.
- You can follow other people’s lists.
- Because you follow another users list, doesn’t mean that you are following the people on that list.
- You can create up to 20 lists with a maximum of 500 people per list.
Segmenting your friends and followers
Twitter lists are a great way to divide your Twitter friends and followers into groups that make the most sense to you. For instance, if your business serves a wide area in Indiana, you may want to break it down by regions of the state or cities. You then include all the Twitter users that you interact with in those geographic areas into the list to see their tweets. With the number of lists and tools available, you should easily be able to break your Twitter friends down into bite-size groups instead of the massive stream that comes with a growing account. This will make using social media monitoring tools, like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, much easier.
Listen to the chatter with Private Lists
One advantage that lists give you is the ability to make your connection private. The major advantage to this as a business is that it will allow you to listen to the accounts of competitors without them directly knowing. [TIP: When posting a tweet, keep in mind that your competitor may be doing this!] You can also carry out some specific market research on a group of users and their habits. Or, you could simply want to not publish the lists and have people know how you have them grouped — much like what Google+ does with its circles.
Making new connections
Using Twitter’s search bar and other Twitter-connected applications (such as Listorious, Topsy, Twellow, etc.) can help you to find people with certain interests or criteria that match up with your targeted market. Adding these people to a list is a simple, soft-touch approach to tell them that you are interested in them and their content.
In the past two years of my experience in creating and testing lists, approximately 4-6% of those people you add to a list will decide to follow you. Depending upon the people on your list and how good of a match they are for your content type that number may increase.
Do you need help making Twitter and other social media channels part of your marketing plan? Get more information on how to make Social Media a part of your NetCentered Marketing strategy or call us for more details at 877.817.4442 .
