I received a question from a business owner who asked me “How do I get listed on Twitter?” I told this person that I would put the answer on my blog, since the answer would help many others as well. When you look at the question, what it really is asking is this: “How do I get others to like me so that they will pay closer attention to me and put me on a Twitter list?” Both questions arrive at the same result: “Likability”.
The above screen shot shows you how to find Twitter Lists on Twitter.
The above screen shot shows Twitter Lists you have made and a button to create them.
Twitter lists allow people to view a certain people in a filtered, less noisy way. The Twitter stream contains all the tweets from everyone the person is following. The Twitter Stream can be hard to follow. Lists make it easier to focus on a few good people. When someone puts you on a Twitter list, they are paying closer attention to what you have to say. This could be a good thing.
Now anytime someone goes and manually puts you on a Twitter list, they are making extra clicks with their mouse and putting extra thought and effort into it. The question now is this: “How do I make this happen?” Let’s look at what could get you on their list:
- Create great content: people want good information to follow that will help them and their businesses. If you can provide good content that will help them, this might get you listed.
- Create great connections: people put people on their Twitter lists so that they can connect and keep up with what is going on in their lives. If you are a great connector, and someone who builds great relationships, this could get you on a Twitter list.
- Be good at what you do: if they think you are an expert at what you do, this could get you on a list. They want to keep up with all the great things you are doing.
This is not an exhaustive list of all the things that could get you on someone’s list; but it is a good start. Start with those three points and work away at them. I hope that by doing this, you will get someone’s attention and get yourself “Listed”. When you get put on a Twitter List, you might just be taking your Twitter to a whole new level. The more the Lists you get put on, the more influence you are creating.
My social media class for business in Halifax will be discussing Twitter Lists today. Lists can make their job of Internet marketing a lot easier. I will be showing them how to bring Lists in a third-party Twitter application called Hootsuite. There’s more learning to come. Make sure you follow me on Twitter as @4JeffBrown. Don’t forget to say “Hi”.
