This tip-filled guide will show you how to get the most out of Twitter lists.
An attendee at a recent webinar asked about the usefulness of Twitter groups and I had to pause a second to ask myself what they can be used for and whether they are even useful. He left a comment pointing out this challenge.
Watch the video and slides, containing more resources and practical examples:
How Twitter lists work
Things one can do include:
- – getting a feed for each of your lists,
– easily adding or deleting people on the list,
– monitoring a group of Twitter accounts on a list without having to follow each account or person,
– quickly creating a list and deleting it a week later,
– blocking others from adding you to a list, and
– renaming the list (but this changes its URL, which might frustrate your followers).
Below we suggest what kinds of public lists a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) might want to use.
- Article source – Twitter lists: Could your usage improve?
- Staff / product or service directory
You may want to create a staff list of people and their Twitter accounts.
- Compliance: Ensure that staff included in such a list previously agreed to be a part of it.
Recommendation: Restrict the number of employees on such a list according to functions, such as marketing, HR or production.
- Recommend cool Twitter users
You may want to create a list to keep track of the Twitter accounts whose tweets you generally find useful. Incidentally, you can create an RSS feed from that ‘cool’ list that can be fed into your favorite RSS reader or mail program.
- Compliance: Including a person in a list is one way to recommend other people’s tweets without endorsing them.
Recommendation: Restrict the number of experts you include on such lists and ensure you update it on a regular basis.
- Start a private group
You may want to create something similar to a private list whereby you invite people to join.
GroupTweet allows people to open a Twitter account and activate it on GroupTweet so people you want in your group can follow the new account. Before the account follows anyone back, the moderator has to accept each newcomer.
The nice thing is that each member can now use DM (direct message) @AccountName to send to the whole group without showing the tweet on the public timeline.
- Compliance: How confidential is such a group? Even though it seems private, things can and have gone wrong. As important, people may become careless.
Recommendation: If things should stay private they should not be on Twitter. If you want to restrict access, use something like Google Group, Yahoo! Group or a good old listserver. Don’t take the risk and create a private Facebook group (an oxymoron)!
More resources
- Get video, slides and more tools for this blog post
Get more benefits with Twitter lists
Easy instructions for creating an RSS feed for a Twitter list – use also with Microsoft Outlook AND Mozilla Thunderbird
How to use Twitter lists – from Twitter
- Bottom line and take-aways
Twitter lists are great to keep track of those that tweet important stuff for your work. However, if a private or more restrictive method of communication is necessary, I recommend other means.
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In my opinion, the unique selling proposition (USP) or added value of Twitter lists is being able to follow a few experts on a topic of interest, such as Europe best sm metrics.
Tip: To find out more about the tips and tricks we have provided on this blog about Twitter include the word ComMetrics in your search.
As always, the comments are yours! How have you used Twitter groups? What tip would you give for making better use of groups?
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