Leveraging Twitter Lists For B2B Success
Tue, Oct 20, 2009
Communications, Marketing, Social Media 101, Social Networks, Twitter
Twitter, the popular micoblogging platform has long been known for its simplicity and its lack of new features. Historically, most of Twitter’s features have been enabled through third-party applications like Tweetdeck, instead of the Twitter web interface. However, this recently changed with the addition of a new Twitter feature called: Lists.
What Are Twitter Lists?
Twitter Lists is a feature that allows each Twitter user to make a defined list of users that have something in common. The common threads could be where the people are located, industries in which they work, hobbies, etc. See the Twitter Blog for additional information about Lists. Currently only a small number of users have access to the new list feature, because Twitter is still testing it and rolling it out slowly to its user base.
If you have access to create lists, you will notice a change in your profile page. A new column exists to the right of the “followers” column (see image above) that indicates how many and which lists your profile is a part of.
Implications of Twitter Lists For B2B
Twitter Lists may be a pretty simple feature, but it has the ability to change how users discover people and information on Twitter. A major issue for many new Twitter users has been finding people that are discussing topics of interest to them. Lists change this. The new List feature helps further develop niche communities of users within Twitter, which is a perfect fit for B2B organizations.
Ideas For Leveraging Twitter Lists for B2B:
1. Make a list of thought leaders in your industry
2. Thank people using an @reply who put you on a list
3. Make a list of potential sales leads for your sales team
4. Generate a list of influencers in your industry as a way to easily follow what they are saying and converse with them
5. If you have multiple Twitter accounts for your organization, make a list with all of them so those interested can follow everything your organization is saying.
Twitter Lists are only getting started. There are limits, currently a user can only create 20 lists and can not have more than 500 people on each list, so choose your lists wisely. Regardless of limits, it is clear that this feature will impact the future value for B2B companies.
Kipp Bodnar is publisher of SocialMediaB2B.com. Follow Kipp on Twitter @kippbodnar.
Tags: Twitter, Twitter Lists
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Question: Would lists allow users to tweet specifically to that last – such that it’s not visible for those outside of it?
Currently, I don’t think that functionality is planned, but since it is just launching I am sure they are planning improvements.
Kip,
I like the list features, but I wonder if it’s a little to late. I’ve set up my lists and have been working them within Seesmic Desktop. The thought I doing this over doesn’t seem very appealing. However, for those that use the web version only this will be a great addition.
Sounds like a good way of defining specific communities – I can imagine that established users will have their lists used by starters to build a structured following. In terms of usability, I don’t see that lists do anything you can’t already do with customised columns in Tweetdeck for example. Still interesting though… thanks for sharing, Kipp.