Twitter can get a little overwhelming for some. I have been asked how to keep up with the latest news and keep track with the newsfeed since I follow so many people. The answer is simple: Twitter lists.
Twitter lists came out of nowhere and when I finally had it, I ended up spending the entire day listing people into them. I still follow my lists closely till today. It’s one of my ways to keep up with all the important conversations and news in my industry, and I honestly think it is the most important measure to take when it comes to keeping up-to-date.
The benefits of using Twitter Lists:
- Prioritize your Twitter feeds
- Keep track of the latest news and conversations
- Help you to connect with influencers / thought leaders
- Monitor competitors
- Time management
- Targeted Networking
What are the types of Twitter lists you should make
Before you start listing everyone in every list, I would recommend that you list one user in only one category. This is because Twitter only allows you to create up to 20 lists and have 500 users in one list. So it would be a waste if you were to list one user in several categories.
Here are some of the lists that you can make.
- Thought leaders in your industry
- People related to your industry
- Daily news in your industry
- Blogs you follow
- Competitors (make sure it’s ‘private’! And you didn’t hear it from me… sshh….)
- People who retweet your content
- People who engages with you
- Clients
Once that is done, here is
how you can fully utilize Twitter List:
1. Load to your favorite Twitter management tool:
One is to load your lists onto your 3rd party Twitter tools such as hootsuite, cotweet, tweetdeck etc. Here is an example using HootSuite
Personally, having too many lists can be overwhelming at times. If that is what you’re experiencing, I suggest having ONE list open on twitter.com. That way it can help you to focus and you won’t be reading too many streams at once.
2. Load your lists onto flipboard
I’m a huge flipboard fan. I love how convenient it is and how it lets me be up-to-date with my industry.
I’m not sure if you know this, but you can load your Twitter Lists on flipboard too.
I use flipboard for the iPhone. For the sake of constantly updated, I prefer to read news on my mobile as I’m able to bring all my news in my pocket. Another reason is simply because I love the flipboard news interface.
Below are the lists I have loaded.
Additional tip: If you don’t have time to list people, and if you still can’t decide the types of lists that you should make, you can also follow the format of other people’s lists. It could be from your friend’s account (@askaaronlee) or better yet, it could be from your competitor’s account…
Also, if you’re looking for people who are in social media, I have put together a twitter list of 498 influential users related to social media. You can find notable names like @chrisbrogan and @socialmouths in there.
What about you? Are you using the Twitter List in ways that we don’t know about? Let us know how you utilize your lists!
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