Why and How to Use Twitter Lists

According to Twitter, at the time of this post, there are 316 Million Active Users (this means they tweet at least once every 30 days), 500 Million Tweets are sent per day and 80% of the Active Users are on mobile.

When I do the math on how many tweets are sent daily, it means there are about 5,587 sent per second.

So how in the hell are we supposed to keep track of the information we want and how can we connect with our prospects, customers, referral partners and colleagues?

The answers…Twitter Lists.

What are Twitter Lists?

Twitter describes a list as, “A list is a curated group of Twitter users. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by others. Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream of Tweets from only the users on that list.”

Before we get into how to create a Twitter List, there are a couple of things you must understand about them first.

1. Private and Public Lists.

Twitter Lists can be created to be private or public. If they are Private, only the creator of the list can see them. If they are Public, everyone and their mother can see the Lists and the members who have been added to the List. They are even searchable via the search engines like Google.

So, what’s the point of a Private List?

You would want to create a Private List if you want to keep it Private. Let’s say you want to keep up with your competitors.

If you create a List, name if Competitors and make it Public, your competitors will receive a Twitter notification saying…”Insert Your Twitter Name added you to list Insert Your Twitter Handle/Competitors.”

Not a wise decision.

Also, maybe you want to create a List comprised of your closest colleagues in your industry and you’ve worked for many years to build those relationships. You may not want to give everyone in your industry one your highly prized possessions…your rolodex.

2. People can Subscribe to Your Public Twitter Lists.

Remember, public Twitter Lists are searchable within Twitter and Search Engines. When people Subscribe to a Public List, they can see and interact with all the members of that list.

They can even add the List to whatever Twitter Dashboard they are using (ie. Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, etc) so they can monitor the tweets within that specific List.

This is great for finding targeted prospects and referral partners for you to connect with. Think of Public Twitter Lists as an online Networking Event.

Let me show you how to create and use Twitter Lists.

Creating your own Twitter List and adding people to it is a very simple and quick process. I’ll show you how.

5 Ways to Use Twitter Lists

By now you know what Twitter Lists are and how to create them. Let’s get into some ways you can actually use them to your advantage.

1. Monitor Your Industries Leaders

Your Twitter Feed is a really noisy place. There’s no possible way for you to keep up with the people you want to there. We all look to people within and outside our industry for daily inspiration. So create a list for them.

This way you can quickly and easily see their content and engage with them.

2. Connect with Influencers

You’ve probably heard the old personal development adage that your “net worth is directly related to your network.” I’ve found it to be 100% true in my life.

Whenever I can befriend Influencers in my industry I have access to more opportunities to take my life and business to new levels.

Twitter can be a really good tool for up leveling your network. By creating a List of the Influencers in your industry, you create one place where you can see each time they tweet This gives you the opportunity to engage and interact with them.

You can RT, Favorite or send them an @reply to start the relationship building process.

3. Stay In the Know

It always nice to know what’s going on in your Industry and be on the cutting edge of the breaking news. One of the best ways to keep up is to create a Twitter List and add your news sources to it.

This way you can see each time they tweet it’s added to your Lists Feed. This way you do not have to visit each of their accounts to see their tweets and the news is coming to you.

4. Network at Events

Relationships, relationships, relationships. I can’t stress this enough. At the end of the day the number one thing that always moves your business forward is your relationships with other people. This is why attending offline events is so powerful and people spend thousands of dollars to attend them.

For many of today’s large events, the attendees are communicating with one another and sharing their lessons learned while using the events hashtag.

Let’s take Social Media Marketing World 2015 as an example.

According to Lumi Catch there were 73,554 Total Tweets using the hashtag #SMMW15 (this was the event’s hashtag) and 14,929 contributors.

I can tell you first hand there wasn’t 14,000+ people at the event because I was there. However, there were 2,000+ people in attendance.

By knowing what hashtags the events are using you can use Twitter to network with the attendees of that event. This is a GREAT networking opportunity!

You can create a Twitter List and add anyone using the event’s hashtag to the List. This way you can keep up with the conversation, follow users using the event’s hashtag and engage in the conversation.

5. Connect with Your Target Market

Every day at various times around the world, someone is hosting a Twitter Chat. A Twitter Chat happens when a group of people all tweet about a specific topic using a specific hashtag. These chats are normally held on a specific day and time and repeated weekly or at announced times.

My good friend Pam Moore hosts the #GetRealChat Twitter Chat every Tuesday at 9pm Eastern Time.

The great thing about getting involved with a Twitter Chat is most of everyone involved in the chat are very interested in the topic.

When you can find a relevant Twitter Chat, you can create a List and add those Twitter users using that specific hashtag to the list you create for it.

This gives you the opportunity to monitor the chat, engage in it and connect with prospects and referral partners.

Your Next Steps

Understanding how to use Twitter Lists is a powerful social media tool and strategy for your business. Give it a go.

If you haven’t yet download my free Twitter training guide called the 7 Deadly Twitter Mistakes. It will help you get more targeted Twitter followers fast.

Also, if you’re ready to learn how to harness the power of Twitter to generate more leads and sales and want a proven Twitter marketing strategy you can implement, make sure you check out Tweet Like a Rockstar.