Your twitter list is important if you are a user, marketer or simply like following what the Kardashians are up to – shame on you. With the rise and rise of Twitter, your lists are important. It is vital because you want to ‘filter out’ the noise from your day and only take in what is going to add value to your day, your life or your work, so here are 9 key tips on the art & science of building twitter lists.
1. Set your Twitter goals.
Like anything in life, workouts, business, savings, you need to set goals. What are you there for, what are you looking to achieve? Ensure that you set benchmarks of achievements as they will allow you to benchmark your performance against the goals you set. You can focus on achieving the goals, rather than ideally browsing the streams of people that are ‘time wasters’
2. Benchmark other list creators.
The best way to benchmark performance is by setting your sights on the people you are influenced by. For example, search by topic on Listorious to see what lists are out there on your favorite topics, then scroll through and start creating.
3. Cast a narrow net.
Be a specialist on a few things, a master if you like rather than a little bit of everything. This will allow you to optimize your search results so they are specific to your needs. For example, if you are looking for WordPress website design specialists, then specify which part – such as plug-in creator, or graphic design to ensure you are limiting the output of the search and getting exactly what you want.
4. Stalk public lists.
There are a lot of public lists out there that provide a ‘turnkey solution’ to list creation. For example, innovation in business or start-up’s will have hundreds of lists available from people in thousands of industries. Search for yours and then stay in touch with the happenings of what the influencers in your chosen field are doing, where the industry is going, you may just get your next big break!
5. Follow tweets by Twitter accounts you’re not following.
Don’t clog your ‘following; list up with tweets you may not get a great deal of value from. Create a list of accounts you don’t want to follow all the time, but want access to when you need it. You don’t need to follow them to be part of the list, but the great thing is, when you access that list, you can see all the information from the people on it, without clogging up your regular feed. Use as you need.
6. Don’t forget to create private lists.
Private lists are important, they allow you to undertake competitor research, check out job vacancies or follow groups and interests you may not want everyone knowing you’re into for one reason or another.
7. Subscribe to lists created by other Twitter users.
Save time, find a list for a person that is an ‘influencer’ to your circles and check out their lists, then follow them. You can subscribe to the list, not just the person ensuring you are getting all the information you need.
8. Keep your Twitter lists updated.
Ensure that if you are not reading feeds or tweets on your lists, remove them. The information you need should always be accessible, always be current and relevant. If the account is not active or useful, remove it.
9. Understand Twitter list limitations.
Always understand the limitations of your list, from being only able to create 20 lists with a max 500 people on it, while also not be able to send a message to every user on a list the more you know, the more you can get out of your Twitter experience.
