Twitter Lists — Great New Tool for Marketing Professionals or Yet Another Way to Waste Time?



2009 October, 31st
Laura Spencer
Laura Spencer
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Twitter’s latest new feature, Twitter Lists, rolled out to most users this past week.

When I first noticed the new Twitter List on my Twitter home page, I was concerned.

I was afraid that the usefulness of one of my favorite places to connect with colleagues was about to be diluted by some overly complex feature that would distract from the simplicity of the Twitter concept.

Wasted time is the biggest enemy to a marketing professional’s productivity. Another time waster is the last thing that I need from my social media tools.

As it turns out, there was no need for me to be concerned. At least for now, Twitter’s simplicity and ease of use remains intact.

Although Twitter Lists initially seemed like it might be difficult to learn, I “mastered” the Twitter List concept in a little less than an hour — which is far less time than it took for me to master Facebook or LinkedIn.

Twitter Lists works a lot like an email folder. The feature allows you to set Twitter up to send all tweets from a single person, or a group of people, to a handy list. (In the case of Twitter, the tweets remain visible on your home page too.)

One difference between an email folder and a Twitter List is that other users can subscribe to your list and you can subscribe to the lists of other users. Most email systems do not allow users to subscribe to the folders of other users.

In fact, the subscription feature is where the Twitter List feature provides the most value to PRs and other marketing professionals. By carefully subscribing only to the lists of Twitter users who tweet the very best marketing and PR information a savvy marketer can “peek” at tweets that online marketing professionals are seeing.

There are three drawbacks to the Twitter List feature:

  • Content of lists – Tweeters who are included on a list must be considered carefully if a list is to have any real value to other Twitter users. If someone is sloppy or includes tweeters who don’t share valuable PR or marketing information on their list, then that list will have very little value to anyone.
  • Names of lists – If a list is being designed for subscribers as well as the list owner, the list name should reflect the potential content of that list to other Twitter users.
  • Multi-tasking tweeters – Many Twitter users tweet more than one type of information. There is no real way to segregate the marketing and PR information that a user may be tweeting from any other information that they share.

Are you using Twitter lists yet? What uses have you found for it?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

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About the Author

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About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 19 years of professional business writing experience. Laura blogs at Freelance Folder and WritingThoughts. In addition, Laura has written an e-book, How To Start A Freelance Writing Business.

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There Are 9 Responses So Far. »

  1. Pingback by Much Ado About Twitter Lists | Marketing Conversation™ on 1 November 2009:

    [...] to the sleek and simple twitter interface, but found that it increased simplicity as she states in Twitter Lists — Great New Tool for Marketing Professionals or Yet Another Way to Waste Time?: Although Twitter Lists initially seemed like it might be difficult to learn, I “mastered” the [...]

  2. Comment by Matt Churchill on 2 November 2009:

    I think that there are two primary uses for Twitter lists as a PR:

    1) They can be pulled together to share with third parties each member of your team and made public for clients to see

    2) You can pull together private lists that will enable you to keep track and build relationships with bloggers

    I’ll be interested to see how thier use develops over the next 6 months!

  3. Comment by Mihaela Lica on 2 November 2009:

    Laura, I gave this a spin and I can tell you it is by far the most useful thing Twitter came up with. I collected all my PR contacts in one list – and it is now a lot more easier to keep the pace with content strictly related to my profession. Thanks for covering this. :)

  4. Comment by Laura Spencer on 2 November 2009:

    Thanks for the feedback Matt and Mihaela!

    Matt – I think you did a good job of summarizing some of the value of Twitter lists for PR.

    Mihaela – I’m glad that you concur with my take on lists. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised.

  5. Comment by seth on 3 November 2009:

    Hello,

    I own http://www.lead-lists-on-demand.com it is a new site I am trying to get web traffic to? Do you think using twitter would be valuable? Also, several people I know recommended a software that automates tweets?? I am new to all this and yo seem very knowledgable.

    Thanks
    Seth

  6. Comment by Laura Spencer on 3 November 2009:

    Hi Seth!

    Thanks for your question. I think that social media marketing can help nearly any business IF (and this important) it is done correctly.

  7. Comment by Mihaela Lica on 3 November 2009:

    Hm, personally I would not even attempt to promote a site that sells emails to third parties, Seth.

  8. Comment by seth on 3 November 2009:

    I am not sure what you mean about selling emails? Who does that? My site is telemarketing and direct mailing software, and people pay list boker firms 10 cents per contact for what I am selling 14 million contacts for $99. Not sure where or what you mean? Please clarify?

  9. Comment by Mihaela Lica on 3 November 2009:

    Then I misunderstood – but direct mailing? Are these addresses you sell opt-in?