There is a new currency in town and its called a Twitter list.
If you want to win followers and influence tweeters than you’d better understand the impact a twitter list is going have on the twittering ecosystem.
A twitter list is a relatively new feature to Twitter. It allows you to segment your followers into a special group. It’s a bit tedious to set up but very useful.I didn’t pay much attention to twitter lists since I don’t use Twitters’ clunky website. I’m a tweetdeck fan with a constant eye to
Hootsuite which I suspect would be better for managing multiple twitter accounts on behalf of clients. Tweetdeck and Hootsuite recently incorporated Twitter lists into their own offering. But the rapid succession of adding twitter lists to their offering raised some alarm bells for me.
Consider:
Start now to get on a powerful list
If you are interested in twitter influence, then you should be looking to get onto powerful twitter lists. You might create one yourself but like a blog needs comments, a twitter list needs followers. The powerful lists will be the ones people follow. And the list is just one person’s perspective of who represents that segment.
For now – I’ve seen mostly local or national based subject matter lists. But I expect to see definitive segments on niche topics. And I expect gaining entry to a list will get harder in the future. Its not just about gaining followers anymore. Its about getting yourself on a power list.
Diversify yourself – get on different kinds of lists
I’m still a list virgin but my intention is to get on a number lists – right now I’m on a number of Toronto based social media lists but I’m grateful to also be on some non-profit social media lists. Any sort of freelance, independent, subject matter or consultant should be looking a diversification.
The metric of how many people follow you is confused. It’s just one metric in a sea of bad or highly fragmented twitter measurements, but it is confused now as you could have 100 followers but be on 10 powerful lists that are followed by double digit people. In searching for a list, keep eye for how many people now follow the list.
Seeking who to follow is watered down by looking for the right list. In some situations, I will just rely on a number of people who I follow and use their created lists. It’s the kind of ‘I trust people I know’ that will make social search rocket.
That makes power be to the owner of the list. It is a painful process to go thru a long list of followers and segment them. I expect that the lists owners may become rather protective of who is on the list. And so list ownership could be a new currency. Check out this owner of top Japan related people to follow. He takes his list quite seriously I'm sure.
That said, I would like to see a ‘last updated’ date and twitter list rating system. I want to make sure the owner keeps lists up to date from both adding and subtracting people.
Switching between twitter platforms is easy
I’ve long managed my tweetdeck columns by promoting tweeters from my ‘all follower’ category to one of my various columns. And it is this hard work of setting up a group that always prevented me from moving over to hootsuite. The switching burden was more than I had time for.
But with twitter lists – I merely subscribe to the lists and the switching barrier from tweetdeck to hootsuite is disappearing.
Consider:
Start now to get on a powerful list
If you are interested in twitter influence, then you should be looking to get onto powerful twitter lists. You might create one yourself but like a blog needs comments, a twitter list needs followers. The powerful lists will be the ones people follow. And the list is just one person’s perspective of who represents that segment.
For now – I’ve seen mostly local or national based subject matter lists. But I expect to see definitive segments on niche topics. And I expect gaining entry to a list will get harder in the future. Its not just about gaining followers anymore. Its about getting yourself on a power list.
Diversify yourself – get on different kinds of lists
I’m still a list virgin but my intention is to get on a number lists – right now I’m on a number of Toronto based social media lists but I’m grateful to also be on some non-profit social media lists. Any sort of freelance, independent, subject matter or consultant should be looking a diversification.
The metric of how many people follow you is confused. It’s just one metric in a sea of bad or highly fragmented twitter measurements, but it is confused now as you could have 100 followers but be on 10 powerful lists that are followed by double digit people. In searching for a list, keep eye for how many people now follow the list.
Seeking who to follow is watered down by looking for the right list. In some situations, I will just rely on a number of people who I follow and use their created lists. It’s the kind of ‘I trust people I know’ that will make social search rocket.
That makes power be to the owner of the list. It is a painful process to go thru a long list of followers and segment them. I expect that the lists owners may become rather protective of who is on the list. And so list ownership could be a new currency. Check out this owner of top Japan related people to follow. He takes his list quite seriously I'm sure.
That said, I would like to see a ‘last updated’ date and twitter list rating system. I want to make sure the owner keeps lists up to date from both adding and subtracting people.
Switching between twitter platforms is easy
I’ve long managed my tweetdeck columns by promoting tweeters from my ‘all follower’ category to one of my various columns. And it is this hard work of setting up a group that always prevented me from moving over to hootsuite. The switching burden was more than I had time for.
But with twitter lists – I merely subscribe to the lists and the switching barrier from tweetdeck to hootsuite is disappearing.
Well there is. My twitter lists tactics out in the open. I could be right off my twitter rocker so tell me your thoughts and deep strategies.
Laurie Dillon-Schalk is the Chief Marketing Strategist and founder of Social Wisdom - a Toronto based digital marketing agency that helps firms and individuals use social media and the web wisely.
I got used to setting up lists on Friendfeed (see http://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/how-i-stay-informed-reading-social-media-with-facebook-friendfeed-feeddemon-twitter ), so conceptually, it didn't take me long to figure out how to do it on Twitter.
In the end, however, I've found the functionality on Twitter to be less than that on Friendfeed. On Friendfeed, I was able to create a feed from the list, while on Twitter, I've had to reconstruct my own aggregated feed by subscribing to each of the individual people (now in RssOwl, rather than FeedDemon).
Currently, Twitter use seems to rely on the use of Flex clients (i.e. Tweetdeck, Seesmic), and following individuals seems to be more intensive than following the list -- so that I hit the API limits regularly.
I don't use Twitter for self-promotion, so I'm not really interested in being on someone's Twitter list. I may be more of a blogger than a tweeter, so I might be in the minority for the people who are using the technology
Posted by: David Ing | December 22, 2009 at 02:29 AM
Colleen - excellent ad and list strategy on direct messaging (DM) people upon first follow. I will follow up with you separately - thank you for the linkedin invite.
Laurie.
Posted by: laurie | December 14, 2009 at 08:30 PM
Hi Laurie. I am a relatively new Twitter user and have also decided that being on key lists is very important. It is a metric I definitely monitor.
It is also not just about the number of lists I am on but the types of lists where I am being listed. I want to make sure that I am getting on the "right" lists so when someone starts to follow me, I let them know by a DM what I tweet about which is consistent with my Twitter profile.
Great post!
Posted by: Colleen Bruemmer | December 13, 2009 at 01:40 PM
Janet - Thank you for your kind words. It is quite gratifying to get on a few lists isn't it? I love the idea of 'absolutely-awesome' - I'm going to look up that list following these comments.
Tim - How is the blogging contest going for you? Thanks for dropping in to comment.
Hey - Twitter lists allow you to parse up your big following list into tidy groups. I've noticed you are using typepad to post tweets so you might not see the groups that I mentionned with Tweetdeck. You are following close to 600 people - so imagine making a list of local twitterers, social media tweeters, etc.
You are actually on five lists already including the one I set up for all blogging contestants.
Cheers!
Laurie.
Posted by: laurie | December 10, 2009 at 03:59 PM
Laurie,
The writing in this post is amazing. I was a little lost on what a twitter list actually is..You go into using them and how they benefit you, but you didnt talk about what it actually is, and what it is used for.
Posted by: Tim | December 10, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Like you, I'm a Tweetdeck user, so I didn't pay much attention to the list feature until the recent upgrade, although I did create one list as a way to promote the members of my local VA network. I'm still figuring out how to use lists effectively, so your post is quite helpful.
I'm very happy to note that I've been added to quite a few lists, which are quite varied. One is called "absolutely-awesome" :)
Posted by: Janet Barclay | December 10, 2009 at 11:47 AM