There’s no doubt about it: social media is a great way to inspire, educate and connect with your audience online.
One of the best ways to find individuals with similar interests is to use hashtags. By searching popular hashtags such as #socialmedia and #contentmarketing, I can find industry experts and thought leaders who I can both teach to, and learn from.
While I have been loving doing weekly Periscopes as a way to share value, when it comes to building influence and connecting with other influencers, Twitter is my favorite tool.
But I’ll admit it: I don’t use Twitter to it’s full potential.
Take for example, Twitter lists. I’m just starting to utilize this powerful tool as a part of my social media marketing strategy.
Twitter lists can be used as a form of prospecting, networking and social listening.
Here are five reasons why, if you’re not already, I encourage you to start utilizing Twitter lists as a part of your social media marketing strategy:
- Curate content: Twitter lists, if used strategically, can function as one-stop shops for content curation. By adding industry influencers to lists (take for example a Content Marketing Twitter list,) you can curate all content from these influencers and have one place to go when looking for new content to post on social media. These lists can also help you stay up to date with trends and evolving changes.
- Create connections: Since you add people to lists (and others can add you to theirs,) Twitter lists are a great way to create connections with others that have similar interests and expertise. You can create a list for prospects, customers, industry experts and/or speakers, to name a few. By creating multiple lists with specific descriptions, you have a way of segmenting your Twitter audience into valuable groups.
- Monitor the competition: Want an easy way to stay in the loop on what your competitors are doing online? Add them all to a private Twitter list! A private list means that other Twitter users can’t see it, and those added to the list won’t receive a notification. Once created, you have one place to go when you want to see all tweets from your competitors. You can use this as a way to differentiate yourself.
- Increase influence: Creating strong Twitter lists that others can follow is a great way to increase your value and influence online. Since people are always looking for new and different ways to save time online, building up strong, public lists is one way to do that.
- Stay in touch: Have a group of friends from a conference that you want to keep in touch with via Twitter? Add them all to a Twitter list so that you never forget them! Visit the list every once and while and reach out one or two people each month to stay in touch.
When it comes to social media marketing, you want to find unique ways to set yourself apart from the masses.
The best way to do that is to provide value, and Twitter lists are one powerful way to do that.
Do you use Twitter lists? Do you have any that you think I should be following?
Share your thoughts in the comments below!
