The social media platform Twitter has an integrated feature called Lists (e.g. Twitter Lists). They allow you to create groups of Twitter users. There are no hard-and-fast rules on how to use a Twitter List but they can be extremely valuable to an individual or business. Twitter Lists allow you to organise large groups of Twitter users.
Before you start utilising your Twitter Lists you should be aware of the limitations or capabilities of a Twitter List.
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A Twitter List can be private or public.
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You do not need to follow the users on the list but you can should you choose to do so.
- Recently, Twitter updated Twitter Lists and now a Twitter account can have up to 1,000 lists with 5,000 users on each list.
- Many third-party Twitter applications such as TweetBot, TweetDeck or Hootsuite or Twitter's own app, allow users to monitor / watch lists.
- Twitter Lists don't allow you to bulk follow / unfollow users.
- If your Twitter List is private the user on the list as well as any other Twitter user will not be able to see that you've added them to your list.
If you're using Twitter as a business with the intention of increasing leads and generating brand awareness then we can make a few recommendations.
Create A Strategy
Before you start creating lists and adding accounts to them consider who you are tracking and why. For example, if you're in the sports sector you might want to track athletes within your organisation or in the industry. Ask the question "Why am I tracking these athletes?" What are you going to do with the information once you have it? One example might be to fuel blog content.
Find The Right Tool
Once you've defined the purpose of your lists and start to populate the lists with accounts you need to determine how you'll stay up-to-date. There's a few ways to go about that. A service like TweetDeck allows you to have a number of columns which can include your lists.
Save What's Important
Capturing information is an entirely different issue. Twitter is fast and it's extremely hard to capture and retain the information that's most valuable. Some Twitter apps allow the integration of "Read It Later", "Pocket" or "Evernote". These secondary services make great tools for capturing the important Tweets so you have a record of them later on.
Learn From The Results
The final step is focused on utilising the content you've captured. Tweets can feed into your monthly reports and serve as research information for the decision-making process. Tweets also make excellent curated content for your blog or website. Create a workflow that allows you to benefit from this captured information.
Here's a popular video that should give you a few insights into Twitter Lists and working with them.
If you're just getting started with Twitter Lists check out PeerReach's Top 100 lists. They give you some of the best Twitter Lists worth following and monitoring for news and information.
If you need further insight into how to work with Twitter Lists there's two good sources including Twitter's own help page and Mashable's article entitled "How To: Use Twitter Lists". There are a vast number of articles published on how to maximise the potential of your Twitter Lists from very reputable sources. Here's a couple to keep you busy:
Keep Up with News Using Twitter Lists
web.appstorm.net · With Google’s decision to shut down Google Reader Twitter Lists can service as valuable source of news. If you had come to rely on Google’s news reader to keep up to date with the latest news and posts from your favorite websites you could turn to Twitter into your newest news tool using Twitter Lists.
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Make the Most of Twitter Lists: Essential Tips and Tricks
POPSUGAR Tech · This article helps to answer the questions as to how a Twitter List can help you manage friends and stay on top of the latest news worldwide. There's plenty of good advice here.
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