Yesterday, I showed you how to How to build a Twitter list.

Now that you can make them, how should you use them?

Types of lists

You could create lists of:

  • boards members and your assigned donors: you’ll be able to build relationships right from your desk
  • people with hobbies that interest you: social media is better when you’re actually interested
  • people in your area: it’s amazing what you can learn from people near you and what great relationships you can build
  • and of course your spouse and best friend!

You can see my lists here on Twitter. Here are some of mine:

  • My all501mp list was my failed attempt at tracking the Twitter presence of people involved with 501 Mission Place. A much better one is curated by @wicked_neat at members501mp. A great thing about lists is you can follow other people’s lists!
  • I have a list of current and former clients (sorry that’s private)
  • My mk337 list is of those in the “Marketing on the Internet” course I teach at Thomas College.
  • I have one I call “influencers.” This is one of people I feel have influence either based on their Klout, or retweets, or the number of people commenting on them, or their access to traditional media. Just about anything I think might make them people of influence. Sorry. That one’s private too.
  • My maine list is just that: people that are in Maine. (And a few who’ve made the ill decision to leave. 🙂
  • Finally, my nonprofittweeps is a list of people I see on Twitter even tangentially related to nonprofits.

Now you’re probably wondering how helpful this might be if you have to keep checking each of these lists?

Following the lists

That’s where tools like HootSuite [affiliate link], Pluggio [affiliate link], or TweetDeck. You can put each of these lists on streams and keep them in front of you like this [click on it to make the image larger]:

screen shot of lists being on HootSuite

This is makes it so much easier! Each column is a list. And they get refreshed throughout the day. This helps you keep the people you find interesting in front of you.

How about you? If you use lists, how do you use them?

I hope too that you might include me on a list! On Twitter, I’m @marcapitman.

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