Get organised! How to use Twitter lists
Finding it impossible to keep track of Donald Trump’s Tweets? Twitter’s biggest strength and weakness – simultaneously – is that every tweet from every person you follow shows up in your feed. Eventually you reach a critical mass and it becomes difficult to keep up with anything.
To fully utilise the benefits of Twitter you need to get organised. This comes down to one word: Lists.
Lists are a very helpful way to organize people whose tweets you don’t want to overlook. They help you organize your followers into categories or groups, which allows you to easily see tweets from a specific group without having to scan your entire feed, which will save time – and who doesn’t want to save time when using social media?!
Twitter lists are not only useful and helpful, but they are effective for managing and optimising your Twitter experience and, ultimately, your reach. The right Twitter list can help you find, monitor and interact with the right people easily and without bombarding them with tweets and messages.
Well-kept lists also act as a filter or stream for each of your areas of interest. While creating lists helps improve your Twitter experience, building lists isn’t a one-time activity. Much like gaining followers, they need to be developed, nurtured and grown over time. This takes time and patience.
Here are some common types of Twitter lists:
Influencers
A Twitter list is a great way to keep track of the most important players in your industry. This allows you to follow their tweets and engage with them consistently, retweet their content, mention them and when they ask a question, be the first to respond. Listing influencers helps block out the noise that distracts you from seeing important tweets and interacting with them, at the most opportune times. Creating a list of industry leaders also adds value to your account as creating a list with all of the top influencers makes you a valuable source. If you create lists that are valuable to other people, they will follow your lists instead of wasting time creating their own. The more influential the list, the more people will follow it, which raises your profile.
List news makers
Create a list to enable you to keep up with the quickly evolving news cycle and trends on Twitter without getting distracted by irrelevant tweets. This may sound obvious but it’s an effective way to declutter your Twitter feed.
List people who share your content
If you have followers who consistently retweet and share your content, then put them into a Twitter List.
Maintain customer relationships
Social media has improved customer service immensely. If customers can’t reach a business they now go straight to the company’s social media accounts. Using Twitter Lists you can nurture your relationships with your most active social customers. Whenever customers mention you, simply add them to your Twitter list. That way, you can follow their tweets and interact with them regularly. This is also very useful tool for sharing promotions, special offers and more with loyal customers.
List your competition
Kissmetrics explains: “One of the best ways to get to know what is working for a competitor is to watch what they do.” You don’t even have to directly follow them. Just create a private Twitter list (only visible to you) and add your competitor to that list. This is an inventive way to see their interactions, latest updates and even promotional offers on Twitter. You can then use these insights to improve your own Twitter strategy. This will give you a competitive edge.
Create lists for events
If you’re planning an event, create a Twitter list of speakers and attendees. Buffer Social says: “For those attending live events and conferences, and just as helpful for those who aren’t in attendance—these lists collect event goers into one place so you can follow along with what’s happening. Lists help grab everything that might slip through without a hashtag.”
List yourself
Don’t forget to list yourself. By listing yourself on your Twitter List, you can ensure that your tweets are viewed by people who subscribe to the List. This, in turn, helps you to gain exposure.
If you haven’t started using lists, why not give it a go. They really are one of the most power-features on Twitter today.