Twitter lists are still one of the under-estimated features of Twitter. I see most of the twitter power users making best of this cool feature.
You can connect with approx 200 relevant and targeted people everyday with minimal effort.
I am writing this short twitter lists guide for beginners as well as regular users. Let’s get started without any delay.
What is a Twitter List?
It is a curated group of twitter users with some common ground. You can either subscribe to others’ list or create your own. It gives one focused timeline of tweets coming only from the users on that list.
I would pass How to create lists as Twitter help section has an easy how to create lists guide.
What is the Difference between Public List & Private List?
A private list is only accessible to you only. You can create such lists either for private close communities or to watch competitors.
A public list is available for anyone to see or subscribe to without any approval. When you add someone to a public list, they are notified.
8 brilliant ideas to make best use of twitter lists
1. Event & conference participants
Create an event twitter list and add your event attendees and even non-attendees. Keep them updated with what’s happening in fastest and easiest manner. Use this list to share insights and expectations from attendees before the event and making it a richer experience for the participants.
2. Users with Common Interests
S little community with ultimate benefits from engaging with like minded people. This common interest can be as small as love for pets to being vegan to unusual marketing methods and more…
Having such a group of folks brings faster outreach, closer engagement and mutual appreciation.
3. People You Admire & Recommend
This twitter list makes a great resource of trusted recommendations from different industries. It works just like referral or word of mouth marketing, but faster and easier way. In return, the members on list can follow with each other and find collaborations.
4. Industry Thought leaders
The biggies always share rich information in their articles, ideas. Even their one liner tweets come with a powerful industry experience and influence. Add all the thought leaders you know and admire to one twitter list and it will be no less than a treasure list.
This kind of filtered list of thoughts and thought leaders is great to pull out neat ideas from the otherwise noisy regular twitter stream. I am pleased to be listed in over 93 such lists.
5. List of strong connections
Twitter lists are the best places to find people with stronger influence and knowledge. Great networks promise great value. All you need to do is to search the lists of your interests and view the members. You can start following them after skimming their bio. Good folks generally write interesting and clear bio.
6. People You Frequently Engage With
Creating list of those who interact with you more often and reshare useful information is a genuine way to thank them and connect with other active users. Another good benefit is to stay updated on smart conversations from these folks and engage at a higher level. This not only encourages your connections but also gives them an importance in your circle.
7. Stay on Top of Specific Industry Trends
I like to know what unusual and new happening in the blogging and social media industry. And it made me keep a closer watch at certain international social media marketers’ lists without getting any irrelevant distractions, considering I spend not more than 30 minutes a day on twitter.
Moreover, it improves your own chance to be seen as an industry leader when you’re surrounded by leaders.
8. After Hitting a Count of 2000+ Following
Once you follow this magic number, you get a daily following limit.
Some folks are picky in who they follow. If they are following only a few, there is a chance they would never follow you. You don’t have to impact your idle following because of this.
Having such users added to the list makes sense and you can see still their updates specifically without even following them.
How Twitter Lists Define Your Personal Brand
This finding mesmerized me!
Every time someone added me to a twitter list, I was curious to see what was the list about? And it gave me an idea what people thought of me. Whether, they noticed my timeline first, or my bio or my cover.
And when you’re added to lists most relevant to who you’re and what you do; that means you’re branding yourself right.
If you are into an industry that needs public relations and you’re not on many relevant lists, you need to do a few things right on twitter to attract the visibility and attention.
People see what you show. Not what you wish.
You Are What You Are. Not What You Wish You Were. So, Lead Yourself Accordingly.
How to search good twitter lists
You can search for relevant Twitter lists to follow. Type keywords into the Twitter search box. Choose keywords that are likely to be in the list’s name. On the results page, click on “Timelines” from the left menu. The resulting timelines page will display the lists from your search results.
That was my share. How are you using twitter lists? Would love to see your inputs and insights.
If you’re not using lists for your benefits, it’s time to take twitter lists more seriously and make best use of them. I would be glad to help you if needed. Just feel free to ask.
Sunita Biddu is a digital business coach and power blogging mentor helping coaches and small business owners. She helps with building a strong and profitable online presence and reputation that creates a self-sustaining business. Sunita writes on this blog once a week about easy-to-use guides and articles about business, coaching, social media and blogging. You can grab some of her free resources and ebooks from the resources section.
Twitter list is a a very important feature of Twitter and helped us a lot. We have been included by many professionals in our target industry which is obviously a good social signal. You are right, a good list with all industry relevant, strong and authoritative connections can add some real-time values to our knowledge and networking.
Glad to know you are already using lists Soumya.