By: Michael Sim
My thoughts about Twitter’s new “Lists” feature
I've been actively using Twitter since about February of 2009, and since then, I've noticed a large variety of different techniques to build followers, and methods to network and market to targeted viewers. Since my Twitter inception, Twitter itself has been more of a "social experiment" than anything. I wanted to test my boundaries, see what it could do, learn it, and translate it into a process that I could then share with my colleagues and clients. So I did just that. I tried out a bunch of different techniques, accumulated 23,000 followers, and all along the way took note of a few things: What does or does not work, the value of marketing it has for the user, and a great deal of insight into the necessity for social networking in the business environment.
With Twitter's new "List" feature, I was apprehensive at first to really get my feet wet, and see what it was really about. It did seem straightforward, categorize your friends into different types of list. Great! That's going to take forever. However, once I noticed that you could build a following BASED on those lists, I immediately saw the value in it for my purposes. So here's the process I came up with.
1. use www.locafollow.com to search out a keyword and city. For the purposes of demonstration, I'll use "Attorney" and "Chicago".
2. Then, I Ctrl + Click each person's picture icon to launch their twitter profile in a new tab. (using FireFox)
3. Go through each of the 8 pages of results and keep doing this.
4. Go through each tab, follow the person, and add them to a list.
Tips: For the names of the lists, I found that it is best if you cross reference people instead of creating highly targeted lists. For example, when I first started, I tried creating groups for Chicago Attorney, Chicago Consultants, Chicago Designers, etc... but I found it best if you consolidate your local interested to a list called "Chicago", and then create specific topics by themselves "Attorneys", "Consultants", "CEO's", etc. Then, when you go an follow someone, add them to the "Chicago" list, if it applies, and then any other category that they fall under. It is not unusual to categorize someone 3-4 times, based on their versatility. The great part is, each time you categorize someone into a list, you get a permanent listing in the members "Lists" section. Another great feature is that there is a "Lists" link right on the homepage next to the Follower and Following count... Maximum Exposure Potential! Categorize someone 3 times, and you have 3 instances of your listing inside that person's list page.
Obviously, this shouldn't be abused for the fact that this could easily become a spammer's paradise. So, for most purposes, categorize someone 1 or 2 times, and call it a day.
Now, once you've spent some time building your lists from people you found in LocaFollow.com, we'll move on to the second approach.
Next, I want you to open up www.wefollow.com. (First, add yourself if you haven't already. If you did, do it again!) Now, search the most relevant keyword in your industry. Ctrl + Click people that show up in the listings that have the look of a real user, with a real picture. Go through a few pages repeating that process.
First, you do want to follow and categorize this new group of people. Then go to each one and click on their "Lists" link (next to Follower & Following #'s). Next, take note of the different categories that other people have listed this user in. Sometimes they are listed in other relevant categories that you might be interested in. Other times, people list them in categories like "my friends", or "great twitter people". Those are less relevant obviously, and the type we're looking for is the similar category. When you've identified those who would be relevant, CTRL + Click a few of the lists that they are on.
For example, if I notice that on a user's Lists Page, that they were listed by someone else in a category called "Chicago Business", it's a fairly safe bet that there will be a handful of relevant people ready to be followed and Listed. In this case, the group would have a list of people who were in "Chicago Business". Now, when I Ctrl + Click the list "Chicago Business", I'm presented with a timeline of posts from people in that list. When I go to the top right of that list, and click "Following", I am able to see a full list of people who are listed on it.
Now, I simply CTRL + Click each profile that seems worthy, follow them, and add them to my own list.
OK! So now that you've got a big bunch of new lists to boast, and you feel proud of having categorized everyone into a micro community, let's dive in and see how we can use it.
If you go to my profile, and click on my lists tab and click on "Chicago", that there is a timeline of tweets for the people on that list. Since you know that you listed and categorized reputable people from the websites that I mentioned earlier, you know that you won't be seeing a lot of spam-filled messages. If there are people who are spamming, you can later remove that person from your list. What happens now is the ability to interact with Twitter users in a much simpler format. Before, it used to take me 10 minutes to find even 1 post worthy of a ReTweet. Now, I can just browse through my lists every now and then, and find plenty of posts worthy of ReTweeting. I can also jump in on conversations that seem relevant, answer people's questions in the lists that are most relevant to my profession, and so on.
Basically, this solves the crisis that many people face when asked the question "Is it better to have a large list of followers over a small and more focused list of followers?". Most people would say "The smaller list is better, because I interact with most of my community. Whereas someone who has many thousands of followers, may only interact with a handful." Up until now, I was the latter of those two types of users. Now, I'm able to filter out all the noise, and focus in on the people who are most relevant to my purpose on Twitter. Also, the freebie of adding people to lists is a permanent listing in their Lists section. You can't go wrong! Also, if you wish to get listed, it's very important to create a detailed bio about your profession, interests, and so on. Otherwise from what I've noticed, those people just get skipped over (even though they may be a superstar Twitter user).
List me today on @chicagodesign and @graphicsms under "Chicago" and "Web Designers"
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