Tune Into Twitter – 5 Ways to Use Twitter Follower Lists

 

Let’s face it – Twitter is a time void…IF you don’t know what you’re doing. But for savvy social media types, it’s a wealth of information, conversation and connections! The trick is tuning into what is relevant to you and tuning out the rest!

That’s where Twitter lists come in handy! It’s a simple way to organize your Twitter stream, assuming you use a Twitter client like Hootsuite or TweetDeck, to create columns of followers you would like to follow more closely.

5 Ways to Use Twitter Follower Lists to Manage Your Twitter Time

The first step in creating Twitter lists is to decide which streams you need to monitor on a daily basis, which ones you want to tune into now and then, and which ones you want to monitor on occasion.

Then arrange them accordingly, placing your daily columns immediately to the left of your @ mentions in order of importance. Next place your now and then column to the right of your direct messages so you spot them when you check your DM’s.

Lastly place your occasional columns in a separate tab of columns or on the farthest most columns away from your daily streams.

#1: Selectively Tune In – Stay in touch with friends, fellow conference attendees, people who you admire and anyone else who you would regret missing what they have to say. You may decide to create one list or a series of lists, but keep in mind that you only have so much room for columns so choose wisely.

#2: Research the Competition – Monitor what the competition is up to by creating a column specifically for that purpose. Chances are you don’t necessarily want the competition to know you are monitoring them so categorize that list as a private list so no one but you can see who is on it.

#3: Monitor the Media – Track down all the editors and journalist who write on topics related to your business and start building that relationship. Don’t just tune into the mainstream media – consider adding meta bloggers, authors and speakers to that list because you never know when an author facing a deadline is going to tweet out a request for sources or case studies.

#4: Stamp Followers with Your Brand – Label your target audience with your brand. For example, all the follower lists for MOMeo Magazine.com are labeled with our #MOMeo brand. The key is to fill in all the list details, including your URL. So if a follower ends up on that list and doesn’t know about MOMeo Magazine yet, they soon will and hopefully they’ll take the time to go one step further and check us out!

#5: Track New Followers – Think of this list as your personal welcome wagon. TweetDeck now creates a new follower list automatically, which is definitely a helpful feature. If you aren’t using TweetDeck, get in the habit of adding new followers to your New Followers list.