This post is Terametric’s Twitter ROI Series leading up to the December 9, 2010 Webinar: “How to measure and improve your Twitter Marketing ROI” with Jim Sterne and Kyle Lacy.

Creating lists is one of the most critical outbound Twitter metrics in maximizing Twitter marketing ROI.

WHAT?
“Lists” on Twitter is similar to the “Groups” feature on Facebook. It is an easy way to organize the users you follow into groups on Twitter. By creating a list, you can get a snapshot of the things those users are saying by viewing that list’s page. You can be on someone’s Twitter list, even if they don’t follow you. Twitter allows a user to create up to 20 lists with up to 500 people in each.

Some examples of lists that you can create are: Industry Peers and Professionals, Experts, Employee Directories, etc.

Source: http://blog.inigral.com

HOW?
Creating a Twitter Lists is simple. When you are logged into Twitter you’ll see a new “Lists” section right below the search box. Click on the “New list” link to start creating a new list.

You will be asked to name your list. The name that you provide for your list will also be used in your list’s URL. Then you will have to make the choice between a private or public list.

Private Lists – Only the creator of a private list can view or subscribe to this list. The users that are listed on a private list will not be able to see the list. (Tip: Private lists are beneficial in creating a list of competitors and monitoring their activity without their knowing.)

Public Lists – Anyone can see and/or follow a public list. Public lists are ideal for lists of recommended follows.

Once you have clicked on the “Create List” button, you can begin to add users to your list. There are two ways to add users. First, you can add users directly from their profile page. You can also add a single user to multiple lists. Second, you can add people from any “following” page (click on either the “Followers” or “Following” links from any profile). You’ll also see the lists button next to users that appear on these pages, and can add anyone to your lists by clicking on the list.

WHY?
Twitter Lists can be created and useful for a variety of reasons:

• Lists increase reach of each Tweet
• Create groups to find specific types of content that you are looking for much quicker
• Share a list to recommend a group of people (or Tweeple) you find relavent
• Follow people that you “technically” aren’t following
• View curated Twitter streams of the latest tweets from a particular group of users
• Keep up with relevant tweets, and conversely, allow the Twitter-verse to keep up with you
• Segment conversations, thereby making it easier to manage conversations and topics
• Gain a better understand of what your audience might expect from you by monitoring their tweets
• An employee list can help personalize and humanize your company

Twitter List Resources
Listorious is a third-party site that maintains a categorized directory of Twitter lists and enables browsing through lists by category, and finding the most popular lists. Having your lists on Listorious will make you more visible in search.

Just as the number of followers or following you have is just one part of the success of your Twitter engagement and optimization activities, the number of lists you have created or are following should be based not only on quantity but be more focused on quality.

Tags: inbound, Influence, marketing performance, tweets, twitter, Twitter followers, Twitter ROI

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 at 9:48 AM by anureddy and is filed under Social Media ROI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.