What is a Twitter list? And do you need one? Let’s take a brief look at what Twitter lists are and then how to create them for your social media agency.
No matter how many people you follow on Twitter, lists are a fantastic way to keep your feed organized and target specific users. When hosting or attending a virtual event, creating and using lists is the best way to ensure the right people see your content.
Interested in getting started building a Twitter List? Here’s an overview of what it is and tips for building your own Twitter lists.
What are Twitter lists?
Twitter lists are a way to categorize the accounts you follow on Twitter so you can find them more easily later.
When you only use your general Twitter feed, you’re subject to the whims of Twitter’s algorithm to tell you what it wants. Twitter lists put you in the driver’s seat.
As your account grows and becomes larger, the value of the lists becomes even higher. You’ll get the best results if you start building your Twitter lists early and make keeping them up to date a regular part of your social media maintenance.
How to make your first Twitter list
To get started, you need to sign in to your Twitter account. Remember that if you manage multiple accounts, you will need to make lists on each account you manage. You can also follow a list on an account from another account, but we’ll get into that more later.
Step 1. Click on the icon for “Create new list”
If you’ve already created Twitter lists, click on the individual list to edit the items as needed. You can follow the same process for editing a list as for starting one.
How to build your brand on Twitter
Step 2. Customize your Twitter list with an image
This is not required, but it will add personality to your list. Doing so is more important when it is on a public list.
You can always grab free images from Pexels or Unsplash if you have limited resources.
Step 3. Create a name and description for your list
Your name is limited to only 25 characters and your description to 100 characters. You will need to keep it short while maintaining clarity.
If it is one private list, you can use this name and description to help you keep track of your goal for the list.
If it is one public list, then it is important that anyone looking at the list can easily understand what it is about.
Do not hesitate to use hashtags if it is appropriate to communicate the purpose in short form.
How to use Twitter lists for events
Twitter lists also make it easier for attendees to stay on top of all the conversations during an event.
Here are some of the ways Twitter Lists has helped the Agorapulse Comms team get more out of our virtual events – and how it can help you during the events too!
Increase engagement with speakers
It’s easy to add attendees, sponsors, and speakers to lists so you can easily keep up with what they’re saying during an event. This helps create a meaningful connection between speakers and followers, allowing attendees to respond quickly and spark conversations.
Create noise for your speakers
When using lists, you can also reshare content from your speakers more efficiently by retweeting their posts within the list. This helps further spread their message and reinforces their reach beyond the confines of the event itself.
Discover new people
Lists are also great for finding new contacts at events who share relevant topics or have interesting perspectives that can help advance a conversation. Lists make it easier to follow conversations and access the best content from people you might not have noticed.
Twitter Lists: Private vs. Public
As mentioned, one of the options to decide when you’re creating your Twitter list is whether to make it public or private.
If the list is private, only you (and anyone on your team who has full account access) will be able to see any of the list’s details. This includes the list name, picture and who is on the list.
When to make a Twitter list private
If it includes…
- Internal sales and marketing processes
- Competitive analysis
- A list in progress that you want to release when it’s finished
- Information that is for any other internal company use only
When to make a Twitter list public
If it includes…
- Objectives for the list include building your credibility as an authority.
- You want to use Twitter lists to highlight influencers or partners publicly.
- The list is designed to provide a resource for external parties.
How to set up your lists on Twitter
Building your Twitter lists doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Approach it systematically and you can build your top Twitter lists in no time. (Well, OK, not in NO time…but like in 1-3 hours?)
Step 1. Brainstorm the lists you need (15 minutes)
Come up with all the different ways you can use Twitter lists in your business.
When you’re in the brainstorming stage, generate more ideas than you really need to help you come up with the best ones. (You’ll have more to choose from!)
I recommend you come up with at least 20 different potential lists. Does your team work together? Set a timer for 5 minutes. Have each person write down as many ideas as they can. Then take 5 minutes to share your lists and another 5 minutes to add new ideas that the collaborative brainstorming generates.
Step 2. Create your initial Twitter lists (10-20 minutes)
Narrow down your master list to 5-7 lists that will have the greatest impact on your overall social media goals. Create lists (either public Twitter lists or private Twitter lists) using the steps above. Be sure to mark your private lists as private!
Step 3. Gather the details for each list (30-45 minutes)
Ideally, you will be able to use the lists of people you have created in other marketing systems. You can put them in a spreadsheet or print a list. Whatever is easiest for you will work for this step.
Personally, I find it helpful to have a physical piece of paper in front of me to write on.
Some examples of existing databases to use:
- Your current customers (from CRM, billing software or another system)
- Potential customers you are approaching
- Influencers you’re actively targeting
- the competitors
If you use Agorapulse, you can also use the fans and followers feature to find your most engaged connections on social media. These are also good potential for different lists.
In Agorapulse, you can view all your most engaged users.
Interact with these people to build stronger relationships. You can write notes for each user and see their company information. You can also click the Twitter logo to go directly to their account to easily add them to a list.
Step 3. Find them on Twitter and add them to your Lists (1-2 hours)
Don’t be confused! It’s easy to engage in trending hashtags on Twitter or reply to your inbox while you’re there. Remember you have a job to do.
Some strategies that can help keep you on track are:
- Divide and conquer. Is there another member of your team who can help you with this process?
- Make it a friendly competition. See who can finish their lists first.
- Set a timer. Set a limit on how long it takes you to do this.
You may want to follow or unfollow these accounts at the same time you are adding them to the lists.
How to save your Twitter lists
Once you’ve put in the effort to build your Twitter lists, make a plan for managing your Twitter lists.
Like the rest of your social media, they will only continue to work for you if you work with them.
You’ll want to think about how Twitter lists interact with your long-term and short-term strategy.
- Add reviewing your lists to your daily and/or weekly social media to-do list.
- Review your Twitter lists as part of your regular auditing process.
- Categorize new people when you follow them or when they follow you.
You can also use lists in combination with user tags in Agorapulse to make this a simple part of your daily management.
Finally, don’t be afraid to delete a list when it no longer serves your purposes.
Want to see how else Agorapulse can help with your Twitter accounts? Sign up now for a FREE demo.
