How to use Twitter lists

Prathamesh KelkarTwitterLeave a Comment


What are they?

Twitter lists allow you to categorise people and businesses into groups based on whatever topics you choose. For example, if you are a family photographer in Santa Monica, you could create a Twitter list with people who live in the Santa Monica area. As they are all grouped together in that list, you’re then able to view a news feed with only those people’s tweets.
You can access your lists from your desktop by clicking on your profile picture in the top right corner of Twitter and selecting Lists. On mobile, you will need to visit your profile and click on your gear icon.

How to create lists

Go onto the account of the person or business you wish to add to your list and then click on the ellipsis next to the following button. A drop-down box will then appear and you need to select the ‘Add or remove from lists…’ option.

Using Twitter Lists to Grow Your Network

To make effective use of Twitter lists, you must understand a couple fundamental things about Public lists:
• When you add someone to a Public list, they will get a notification.
• People can subscribe to your Public lists.
And it’s these two things that we’re going to take advantage of to make the most of Twitter Lists.

Why do these things matter?

Well, the fact that people can get a notification about you adding them to a list will actually lead some people to just follow you right away. Or maybe they check out your profile first, and then follow you after seeing what awesome things you tweet about.
Now, this isn’t just about growing your follower count, it’s about connecting with the right audience. Always remember that.
Without further ado, here are the best ways to use Twitter Lists to supercharge your networking.
1. Target Market List
Create a list of high-profile Twitter users who are in your target market. These should be potential clients or customers who would be highly valuable to you.
You can find these people using simple market research and social listening.
Don’t name the list “Target Market” though— that’s tacky. And you want this to be a public list, so you don’t want people getting a notification when they’ve been added to a “target” list. Instead, name it something like “Interesting Tweeters” or “People worth following”. Something that will compliment the people on it.
2. Influencer List
Create a public list of people who are influential in your niche or a subject/topic that relates to your business. This is the type of list where you can name it accordingly— something like “Influencers” or “Influential Tweeters”.
Who doesn’t love being added to a list like that?
3. Brand Advocates
This is probably your most valuable list. Create this as a list of those people who are actively advocating for you on Twitter. This would be people who are sharing links to your website, speaking highly of your brand or frequently engaging with your profile.
Pay very special attention to these people. This is where having a list really helps you to grow your relationship with the people who are already fans of what you’re doing.
Visit this list frequently and interact with these people. Brand advocates can be worth their weight in gold.
If you’re running your own Twitter chat, you may want to create a list specifically with those who attend them regularly.
4. Industry News Sources
If there are any trusted industry news sources that you follow on Twitter, it may be best to create a list of them. This way you can easily navigate to that list and ensure you don’t miss anything in your home feed.
This will likely be valuable to those who follow you if they are interested in the same industry, so be sure to make this one public as well.
5. Competitors
Now here’s another list you would want to keep private. This is a great way to keep an eye on your competition and see what they’re doing on Twitter.
Visit this list every now and then, checking in on what your competition is doing. See what’s working and what is not. Then go do better!
6. Replace Your Home Feed
Since there is sometimes a stigma about following etiquette on Twitter that remains unsaid, you may find yourself following a lot of people who you don’t actually need to follow. This creates a lot of clutter in your Twitter home stream.
If that is the case, you may want to create a private “Home” list that contains the people who you’re actually interested in following.

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