9 Ways to Use Twitter Lists

If you automatically follow everyone who follows you, then you may find your home feed a bit overwhelming. In order to keep up with all of the people you want to follow based on their interests and your connection to them. Here are nine great Twitter lists to create and ways to use them.

1. Follow the Experts

Once you have found experts and influential Twitter users in your niche and industry, put them in a list so you can keep up with the latest conversation.

2. Learn About Your Subscribers

What better way to learn about your blog and mailing list subscribers than to follow their conversations on Twitter? This will give you a better insight into the topics they want to read about and the products they are looking for most and need! If you have a small list, simply export the emails to your address book and search for them on Twitter under Finding Friends, or use services like Flowtown that can find your customers and subscribers on any social network.

3. Monitor Your Competition

As a company owner or social media strategist looking for ways to use Twitter for business promotion, one great way to learn is by checking out how your competition utilizes it. Follow the top competitors for your business, and you will be able to see what works and what doesn’t.

4. Keep Track of Blogs to Comment On

If blog commenting is a part of your online marketing strategy, you know that being the first to comment means you will get the most exposure to all future commenters (assuming the blog dates comments in ascending order). Follow the blogger on Twitter – usually that is the first network they will update with their latest posts.

5. See the Latest Updates for Your Tools

Do you tools like HootSuite? Keep up with your favorite tools, software, and services on Twitter for their latest blog posts, news on upcoming features, and updates on any issues or outages.

6. Get to Know Your Current (or Future) Co-Workers

Is your company social? Create a Twitter list so you can keep up with office chatter. Planning to apply for a job? Why not find some people at the company to get a feel of who your interviewers might be?

7. Keep Yourself Entertained

Twitter doesn’t have to be all work and no play. You can create a list of your favorite shows, sports teams, or players and take a break from learning and networking to keep up with your favorite guilty pleasures and hobbies.

8. Don’t Miss Updates from Family & Friends

In the sea of people you follow for your business and your blog, what about when someone you really know adds you on Twitter? Be sure to keep a list of family and close friends so you never miss out on their updates.

9. Create Papers for Your Industry

Paper.li allows you to put Twitter updates in a newspaper like form. These papers can be created based on your own tweets, #hashtags, and of course, Twitter lists. So you can essentially create a list of your favorite sources on Twitter and then create papers for all of your followers that showcase the best of your Twitter list members’ updates.

Where to Find Lists

One of the best ways to find a solid Twitter list is to check out the ones created by experts in your industry – if they have created a list of the people they most respect in their niche, that will be a list to follow. There are also sites that help you find lists created by others including:

How to Organize Your Twitter Lists

You can access all of the Twitter lists you have created and are following from your Twitter homepage. Twitter management tools also help you view more of your Twitter lists simultaneously.

Twitter Lists in Tweetdeck

Twitter Lists in HootSuite

Tweetdeck and HootSuite, for example, allow you to create columns for each of your lists. HootSuite, my personal favorite, allows you to have 10 columns under each tab and an endless amount of tabs at your disposal, you can keep an eye on all of your lists easily.