How To Use Twitter Lists For Marketing

There’s no doubt that Twitter is a very powerful social network. In fact, Twitter has the highest brand adoption after Facebook and some of the world’s top brands such as General Electric have been leveraging its power very successfully. Twitter has not only become an extension of business’s websites, people now expect you to be on there. However, Twitter can be quite a noisy place.

So to filter the noise and stand out on Twitter, you can use the little-known “Twitter list” feature. Thanks to Twitter lists, you can easily manage Twitter followers and your newsfeed. In fact, Twitter lists have been the secret weapon of most successful social media marketers.

Twitter lists are the equivalent of folders to categorize and manage Twitter followers. Users can either create their own lists and make the lists “private” or “public’. Should you choose to create private lists, only you, will have the ability to view the list. When a Twitter list is public, any Twitter user can then follow that list and see the accounts included in the list and their tweets. As a Twitter user, you can also follow other people’s lists.

To create a list, simply click on your profile picture on the top right hand side of the Twitter home page dashboard. When you do, a drop down menu will appear. Simply click on “lists” and then “create list”.

 

To find existing lists and join some, go to the profile of industry influencers and click on “lists” next to “likes”. What will appear are the lists they are following and the lists people have added them to.

If you don’t see “lists” next to the “likes” tab, it means they haven’t created or subscribed to any lists.

To populate the Twitter followers list you create, simply go to the profiles of users you wish to categorize in your lists, then click on the “settings” tab next to the “follow” tab, and select “add or remove from lists” as shown below.

To access and manage Twitter lists you created, simply click on the drop down menu on the top right hand side of your Twitter account, and click on “lists”.

When you manage Twitter lists, especially if you have quite a few it can start becoming a little overwhelming and time consuming. If that’s the case, think of using tools such as TweetDeck.

TweetDeck will help you manage Twitter lists more effectively and save you time thanks to some of its automation features.

Having a Twitter followers list will help you filter through the noise, manage Twitter followers and separate the people you wish to follow for business purposes and those you wish to follow for your own personal interests.

For business purposes, you could create a Twitter followers list for each category below:

• Competitors
• Staff members
• Business partners
• Industry influencers and thought leaders in your niche
• Location-based people if you run a local business
• Affiliates and partners
• Experts
• Event attendees
• Customers
• Prospects
• Loyal fans or brand evangelists
• Industry peers
• Vendors and suppliers

You can also use Twitter lists for reasons outside work and business. You could for example create lists to categorize:

• Friends
• Family members
• Personal interests

The benefits of using Twitter lists is the ability to track people without following them, and therefore not affecting your “followers” and “following ratio. This is especially handy if Twitter doesn’t allow you to follow more people. You’ll notice that when you have followed a lot of people and there is a big difference between the number of people you are following and the number of followers you have, Twitter will block you from following more people until the gap decreases. If this happens, you can instead add the people you wish to follow in a Twitter list.

Another benefit is the ability to segment your marketing, and therefore make your efforts much more effective. For example, should you be a fitness coach, looking for leads on Twitter, you could at first look for anyone who has tweeted “I need a fitness coach” using Twitter’s advanced search. Then, you could add them to your private Twitter list (only viewable by you) titled “prospects” and start nurturing the relationship.

To build relationships with people from specific lists, you can simply start responding to their tweets, liking their tweets and sharing their tweets.

Alternatively, if you own a local business, you could use Twitter’s advanced search feature to find people who live close to your business or practice and add them to your “local prospects” list. To find and categorize local leads, simply go to: https://twitter.com/search-advanced and type in the geographic location you are after, and your selection criteria. Your selection criteria could be for example, all the people who have used the hashtag “#weightloss”. This system is an effective way to prequalify local leads.

Plus, an additional benefit to adding people in your public lists is the fact that they receive a notification when you do, so that could put you on the map and get noticed by some key people. Of course, the name of the list you put these people in should be flattering. You should avoid calling a list “people who tweet a lot” for example. Instead, you could name a list “industry superstars” for example.

Finally, another benefit of using a Twitter list is the ability to perform selective viewing. For example, instead of going through your entire newsfeed for updates, depending on what you are after, you can simply go to your lists’ newsfeed, and only check the updates from the members of that list. This on its own will make your whole Twitter experience a much more enjoyable one and Twitter will become a more effective marketing tool for you.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this video on how to effectively use Twitter lists for marketing, remember to share this post and leave a comment below. And to receive more social media tips, make sure you subscribe to our Youtube channel.

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