How Twitter Lists Can Help You Organise Your Twitter Business Account

Twitter lists are often overlooked yet they are a great tool particularly when you have many accounts which you follow. Twitter lists are great as you can add accounts to your list and see their tweets without following them. You can create many different lists to organise your Twitter interests and you can keep those lists private (so no one knows they have been added to the list) or public (whereby they will receive a notification informing them that they have been added to your list).

Creating a List

1. Visit the lists page by clicking lists on your profile page or click on the gear icon drop-down menu.

2. Click create list

3. Name the list and add a description (optional)

4. Make it either public or private

5. Save

Now when you find a Twitter account and want to add it to a list click the three dots (i.e. more actions) and click add to list. You then select which list and add.

How to use and organise your lists

If you are using your Twitter account purely for business, my recommendations would be to create 5 lists as follows...

1. Competitors – this is the best way to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing as you do not need to follow them. You just need to click on this list and a newsfeed with all their recent tweets will appear. - keep this list private

2. Prospects – this list comprises the people or businesses with which you would like to do business with. Try and engage with them and share their tweets periodically. You want them to notice you. - keep this list private

3. Supporters – this list is compiled from all the accounts who regularly like (heart), retweet or comment (positively). They are helping to spread your reach and you should take the time to engage and/or retweet their posts from time to time.

4. Leaders In Your Field – whatever your niche is, this list should be comprised of those people and organisations who lead your industry. This would include journalists, magazines, chartered bodies, etc. Try to get your business known to them by engaging and sharing their tweets.

5. Partners – these are companies and people who you already do business with, you might sell to them, you might distribute for them, you might be a guest blogger for them, they might sell your products... these people or companies do not compete with you and therefore you can plug them on your pages, retweet their posts and like (heart) their content.

Now you have your lists organised you can start to have a more strategic approach to your interactions on Twitter.