How To Use Twitter Lists For Marketing
There is no doubt Twitter is a very powerful social network for marketing. However, it can be quite a noisy place. This is why, thanks to the effective use of a Twitter list or several 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 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’, 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’.
There are many different Twitter followers lists you can create to filter through the noise, such as lists for:
- Competitors
- Staff members
- Business partners
- Industry influencers
- Customers
- Prospects
- Loyal fans / brand evangelists
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.
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 list (only viewable by you) titled ‘prospects’ and start nurturing the relationship.
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.
Can you let me know by commenting below if this information has been useful.