Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, if you’ve found yourself thinking that finding and connecting with people on the platform is overwhelming or you feel like your Tweets aren’t having the impact you hoped they would, you’re not alone. In fact, the experts at Moz noted recently that the average lifespan of each Tweet a brand or individual makes on Twitter is just 18 minutes.
And, while the people who retweet your account are often fans or those with similar interests, their interaction with you (and the other things you both share in common) can be hard to decipher if there are too many accounts vying for your attention at the same time.
So, how do you curate and create great Twitter marketing content without getting lost in an endless scroll or spending too much time on the platform?
Twitter lists!
What Are Twitter Lists?
These customized curated lists of Twitter accounts help you streamline your feed and maximize your ability to get things done when it comes to your Twitter marketing goals. Today we’ll walk you through the steps to setting up your Twitter lists and give you ideas for using both types of Twitter lists to grow your business and connect with customers.
How Do I Set Up Twitter Lists?
Setting up a Twitter list is easy to do and once you master the basics you can explore all the ways to use these lists.
Start by logging in to your Twitter account. Then click the word “Lists” in your navigation bar. Click “Create New List” and give it a name (required) and description (if you’d like).
Next, you’ll decide if you want to make the list public or private. We’ll explore ways to use both types of lists later in this post and the decision to make a list public or private will have a lot to do with how (or if) you want others to interact with your list.
If you choose to create a public list, others will be able to see it. Those accounts you add to a public list will also be notified that they’re on your list and people will be able to subscribe to your list.
If you decide to create a private list, only you’ll have access to it and people will not be notified that they’ve been added to that list.
Once you’ve decided what type of list you want to create you’ll begin to add accounts to your list. From their page click the gear icon and then select “Add or remove from lists”. You’ll then select the list you want to add them to and repeat the process of adding all the accounts you want to be a part of that particular list.
To find out who’s subscribing to your public lists, click that list and click the “List Subscribers” link there. And to find out what lists your account is a part of click the “Member of” tab under your cover photo.
Finally, it can be helpful to add yourself to your lists, especially if you want to be seen as a thought leader in your industry or you’d like to increase the number of followers or chances for engagement you might experience from your most subscribed lists.
How Do I Use Twitter Lists In My Business To Stay Focused And Create Content?
Once you understand how to create Twitter lists, it’s important to develop a strategy for using them to grow your engagement and your business.
The best marketing strategies lean into curating content, staying on top of the key thought leaders in your field, creating lasting connections to customers, and getting great ROI from the time you spend promoting your business on social media channels.
And creating Twitter lists can help you do each of those things in less time than it’s taking you right now because they allow you to focus, streamline, and stay productive in the process.
Organizing Twitter lists takes a bit of time on the front end but the list ideas you manage, the Twitter Lists you follow, and the ones you create for your brand will all play a key role in amping up engagement and growing Twitter users’ awareness of your brand.
One key to making the most of your Twitter lists is to understand that the Twitter marketing strategy you use to create public and private lists will help you reach different types of business goals.
Using Public Twitter Lists For Your Business
The key feature of a public Twister list is that people will know they’ve been added to it and others can subscribe to your public lists. This makes public lists a great way to organize by categories and create resources for those who subscribe to your lists. And there are many creative ways to use a public Twitter list.
Here are a few ideas to help you get started with yours:
Public Twitter List Ideas: Customer Spotlights
Your customer spotlight list could be a great place to recognize customers’ and clients’ accounts. You can use this to show off members of your customer community and to engage with those who use your product or service the most. This is also a great list to create when you have valued customers who often mention you or retweet you. Creating this list gives you an easy pathway to engagement and lets others know that your customers are enthusiastic about what you offer. We’d definitely recommend adding customer spotlights to your Twitter marketing calendar so that followers regularly see how committed you are to those who support your business.
Public Twitter List Ideas: Local Business Highlights
If you are a solopreneur or local business, or you’re a larger business that loves supporting them, having a local business highlight is a great way to share that with your followers. This type of list gives you a chance to shout out your favorite local or small businesses and that goodwill doesn’t just feel good. It can go a long way to forging valuable relationships and getting more attention paid to your business as well.
Public Twitter List Ideas: Resource Lists
One of the best things you can do for your business when it comes to your Twitter marketing strategy is to become a trusted source of information for those that follow you. And creating a sort of Twitter resource library is a great way to make that happen. When you organize your most-trusted accounts by topic or category, you’re creating this resource library, and making that list public allows you to share it with the world more effectively.
Public Twitter List Ideas: Must-Follow Accounts
Just as a resource list can help your followers access helpful information on a given topic, a must-follow list allows you to connect them with the people you respect, your brand partners, and the big names and key players in your field.
While it may seem counterintuitive to share other thought leaders with your audience, it actually lets them know that you’re in the know when it comes to your field and helps them equate your work with that of other stand-out professionals in your industry.
Public Twitter List Ideas: Employee Or Brand Round-Ups
Showcasing your management and key employees’ Twitter accounts or referencing the other brands in your company lineup can help you tell your brand story more effectively. This ensures that people know what brands carry your name and can help them begin to connect faces, or in this case tweets with your brand overall.
Even if you’re a small company in your industry, getting followers acquainted with the faces behind the brand makes things even more personal and that can be great for your marketing strategy.
Using Private Twitter Lists For Your Business
Where public Twitter lists are all about the visible ways you can connect with your clients and customers, private lists allow you to work behind the scenes to create opportunities for connection and engagement. There are endless ways to organize accounts into lists so the types of lists you choose to create will depend on the goals you have for your Twitter marketing strategy.
These are a few ways to keep things organized when it comes to your private Twitter lists:
Private Twitter List Ideas: What They Do or How We Met
If you’ve ever met someone at a networking event or conference, received a referral from a friend, fielded an “out of the blue” email, or received a direct message from a potential collaborator or customer, you know one thing for sure: It can be tough to keep everyone straight.
So, one way to organize people and their Twitter accounts into a list is to sort them by what they do or how you met.
This list is great for those who get a good bit of “word of mouth” traffic but it can also help those who don’t stay organized. That’s because it helps you know how best to interact with that person based on how they came to know you or your brand.
Private Twitter List Ideas: Dream Client Or Partner List
These types of lists allow you to have a place to put amazing accounts you find as you explore Twitter. From those “I wish” potential clients to the partner you hope you’ll work with now or in the future, these Twitter lists help you keep tabs on the people who inspire you and your business and those you hope will become a part of your brand story at some point.
Private Twitter List Ideas: Your Team
A private Twitter list containing your whole team can help you stay in-the-know about what they’re posting and can help your team stay connected and on message as you tweet.
Private Twitter List Ideas: Twitter Chat And Event Participants
If you use Twitter Chat or you host events, creating an event participant list allows you to engage with those who attended or signed up, and that creates natural engagement opportunities.
Private Twitter List Ideas: People Who Retweet You
Retweeting is high praise on the social media platform and so creating a retweet list lets follow accounts that actively share your content with other users.
Private Twitter List Ideas: Prospects
If you find an account for a business or person that might be a great future client, you can add them to this type of list. This is great for nurturing relationships and can help you curate a list of leads for future offers or events.
Private Twitter List Ideas: Current Customers
If your customers, whether they’re businesses or individuals, have Twitter accounts creating this list helps you keep them all in one place. Regular engagement with those who have already purchased something from you helps reinforce the idea that you’re a dependable, trusted, and compassionate brand that cares about the people they serve.
Private Twitter List Ideas: Keep An Eye On The Competition
Your competitors can help you keep a finger on the pulse of your industry and a list that holds those key players can help you find inspiration or ways to differentiate your work from theirs. You can also monitor this type of list for relevant conversations and future content inspiration.
Scheduling Tweets Maximizes Reach And Engagement
Streamlining your Twitter feed by creating lists is a great way to grow your reach and your engagement and getting your Tweets seen by more of the right people can really amplify that growth. So, as you curate your Twitter lists, you’ll want to be sure you’re posting on a schedule that gets your posts seen by the right audience.
The easiest way to make that happen is to schedule your own Twitter content (and your interactions with followers) based on when your followers are online and engaging. Edgar allows you to schedule your Tweets and weekly reports on post engagement to keep you informed about how and when your posts are connecting with Twitter users.
Ready to take your Twitter marketing strategy to the next level? Click here to try Edgar for free for 7 days.
1 Comment
This makes public lists a great way to organize by categories and create resources for those who subscribe to your lists.