One of the most overlooked tools on Twitter is the Twitter List function. Twitter lists allow you categorize the people you’re following or interested in (you don’t have to follow someone to have them on your list), so that you can quickly access the information you’re interested in while cutting out all the other noise in your Twitter feed. Abby Gilmore urges that “They can also be shared with the public, yielding a range of marketing and branding benefits” in her recently published how-to guide, “Twitter for Business: A How-To Guide”.
Twitter lists can be used to carry out a wide range of business applications.
Here are just a few of the ways you can use Twitter lists for business:
- Create private lists for sensitive tasks—Twitter gives you the option to create private lists that no one else can see. This is an ideal feature for tracking your competitors, monitoring employees, performing market research, and carrying out a range of other sensitive tasks that you don’t want others to know about.
- Keep in touch with others in your industry—Networking with your industry peers can be very helpful for your business. But keeping track of all your peers and important contacts can be hard when you have a huge stream of Twitter updates coming from all different types of people. By creating a Twitter list devoted specifically to your industry contacts, you can simply view your list to see only those updates you’re interested in.
- Give your clients some love—You can even use Twitter lists to promote your clients. By creating a list of your “Featured Clients,” you can give a little love to your customers, rewarding them for their loyalty to you. This goes a long way to showing your customers that you care and helping to keep them satisfied. However, this might not be a wise tactic for all businesses, as there are some cases where you may need to keep the names of your clients confidential. You’ll just want to keep this in mind.
- Showcase your employees—If your employees Tweet on behalf of your company or you feel comfortable with them representing your company on a personal level, create a Twitter list for your staff. This is a great way for others to get to know the people at your company, helping to add a personal touch to your branding efforts.
Twitter lists can be very helpful for your social media marketing efforts, but you have to put some careful thought into how your company can best leverage the powerhouse social media platform to its advantage. This depends on your specific marketing objectives and your business’s demographic.
Do you use Twitter lists for your business?
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