Successful Blog

The How & Why of Adding to Other People’s Twitter Lists

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By Nick Kellet

Until now first person curation has been the name of the game when it comes to Twitter Lists.

Making lists on Twitter has been a solo task.

If anyone wanted to be suggest omissions to your lists it meant asking. Asking always causes friction. The need to ask stops people from acting.

No longer. Enter Listly. Friction free crowdsourced Twitter Lists.

Now you can make a list on Twitter and manage it from Listly.

You get the best of both worlds:

  • Curate on Listly
  • Subscribe on Twitter

What that means is:

  • Anyone can add suggested omissions directly to the list
  • You can seed your lists from any number of other lists
  • Duplicates will be ignored.
  • You can auto accept suggestions or moderate suggestions via the Listly list queue
  • Items accepted to the list are added to your Twitter list (and the person added is notified via Twitter as normal)
  • Items removed from list or sent to the queue will be removed from your Twitter list.

People can get discovered for being on your list as you can embed the list on your blog (as can anyone).

If your blog is on WordPress (self-hosted), you can use the Listly plugin.

If not you can use the Javascript version, which works on just about every blogging platform except WordPress.com.

Here’e an example of a list of Doctors on Twitter – 600+ and growing fat – it’s been viewed 6k+ time and embedded on multiple blogs.

150+ people have helped to create this list.

List.ly list example

You can choose the layout you’d like to use to embed the list on your blog. Here’s a preview of this list in “Gallery” mode.

List.ly Example

Your Twitter lists become embeddable content that helps everyone on the list get found and in so doing, drives traffic to your blog.

As people can suggest omissions to your list over time your blog post will keep changing. People can also vote to change the ranking and order of the list. This keeps your content fresh in the eyes of search engines.

As your content evolves over time, new people will discover your lists and potentially share, vote and contribute. It’s a process that extends the lifecycle and value of your content.

With Listly, lists get better over time.

Here’s the workflow.

List.ly Twitter Infographic

Are you using Twitter Lists today?

Lists let you be more focused in the way you listen and engage. Lists are a segmentation tool. Smart marketing folk stay focused and segment their markets into targeted niches.

Segmenting on Twitter on your own is hard. It’s also a never ending task if you need to do all the work.

The Internet & The 1% Rule

Today we expect to be able to create, contribute or consume.

Regular Twitter Lists don’t follow this rule (no contribution) and that’s the issue Listly’s Twitter integration addresses.

Modern internet users expect to be able to participate.

Now, because anyone any can contribute Twitter Lists can follow the 1% rule

  • Create (1%)
  • Contribute (9%)
  • Consume (90%)

This means List become valuable resource where many people can help and consume what others have created. These lists get more valuable over time. People gravitate to trusted resources. Better lists get more subscribers.

These could be your lists.

You could be providing utility to your audience.

The real magic happens when you choose to collaborate and work with others.

Will you create resource for your local community?

Will you serve a global niche and help surface everyone in that niche?

This is how real communities form.

People connect around a passion.

Where will you begin?

Author’s Bio: Nick Kellet is Co-founder of Listly. Founder @Gifttrap & @AnswerSets. He creates & curates ideas, loves software & games, and is a master community builder. Connect with Nick on Google+ or LinkedIn.

Tailoring Twitter: Building a Powerful Network that Fits You Perfectly

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Finding People to Spread the News

insideout logo

Every minute we spend on our business is one that helps it grow … or not.
The idea is to connect to all of the people who help us thrive — colleagues, customers, vendors, partners, family, friends — people who want to see our business growing faster, more easily, and with more meaning.

Those people who already know us and love what we’re going are the network, the beating heart, that holds us up and spreads our message to the right people in the very best way. Having a powerful network of fans means our message is seen, heard, understood and spread with the speed and reach of the Internet.

How do you get a network like that?

I often call Twitter the world’s largest networking room, but that doesn’t do it justice. Networking rooms are physical and geographically limited. They can’t expand and contract in size. The people who visit the room are limited by those who can physically get to the location where the meeting and the room exists in space and time. And not every networking event collects the people who are interested in what we do.

Unlike that networking room, Twitter let us decide who is at our “networking event.”
How do we find that first group of friends that we invite to our Twitter networking event?

Building a Powerful Twitter Network that Works for You

Before you build a network, think about the people you want to attract. Who are the people who support what you’re doing and naturally pass it on? Those are the folks you want to attract. Be irresistible for them. Think too about the people who would rather not participate in your success, the people who see you as what you’re not, look things over to see that you’re not attracting them.

When we focus on serving the people who trust our abilities and love what we do, they tell their friends about it. If we work to convert people who don’t trust our abilities and value our service, they look for reasons that we’re not doing what they think we should do.

Concentrate on reaching that first group with the best you can offer.

Know What You Offer

  • Know and share who you are. Have one clear business message. Define yourself clearly as a business person. Use a photo. Write a professional bio. Name the metropolitan area you’re in. Link to a business site that tells more about you. Some folks link to a special page on their blog set up just for Twitter visitors. Add a unique background to further define yourself.
  • Research the ways you might connect. Check out how @DellOutlet , @ComcastCares , @TwelpForce , @AlyssaMilano , @WholeFoods , @SharnQuickBooks and others use Twitter to connect. You may not be as big as they are, but you can learn from their approach.
  • Know and share why you’re there. Manage expectations. Let people know from the beginning the way you intend to serve their needs. If you want Twitter to be your relationship command center, you’ll set it up differently than if you want it to be your idea lab, your outlet store, or your customer service base. Decide before you start.

Find the People Who’ll Value that

  • Start small with friends and their friends. Start by following the friends you already have. Look for people in your industry by using the Who to Follow option at right in the black bar at the top of your Twitter.com page.
    [click to enlarge]

    who to follow nav

    which will take you here. [click to enlarge]

    climeguy

    I’m going to a conference for the National Council of Teachers of Math (NCTM). When I started following folks who know the conference, I met a man who works for CLIME –The CLIME guy – CLIME is the math/tech affiliate of NCTM since 1988 http://clime.org After visiting his page to read his tweets, I knew I wanted to follow him.

    Then I took a look at the people @ClimeGuy follows and I found @samjshah. [click to enlarge]

    climeguyprofile1

    So I checked his profiles, read his tweets, and listed Sam in my list of STEM educators (Science Technology Engineering and Math Teachers) so that I could keep up with what Sam is talking about.

  • Check the curated lists and the hashtags to find who and what your heroes find relevant. Choose to follow a limited number a day.

    Tweeps make lists to follow whole conversations by a group of people that the value around a common thread. For example I have a list of Twitter people who commented on blog in 2005. I use it to check in on what my more experienced friends are talking about. You can check my lists from my profile page.

    You can check everyone’s curated lists by exploring sites like Listorious.com which collect the Twitter lists. [click to enlarge]

    listoriouseducation

    and Sulia (once called tlists to more channels of of Twitter people who share your interests.

    and Use the search function at hashtags.org to find and follow tweets that people mark with a hashtag such as #edchat. Or use Search.Twitter.com to go quickly to a hashtag you might already know.#nctm (the name of a conference) or #mathchat (the name of topic of interest.) See who’s sharing insights and information that you find relevant and follow them.

  • Listen before you join in. Get to know how they talk and what they talk about.
  • Following both ways allows you to have private conversations. When quality people follow you back, use that as opportunity to say hello to them in a unique and personal way. When new folks follow you first. check their profile and follow them back if you want to start a relationship. You have to be following both ways to share a private conversation via direct message. Direct message is how Twitter people share information they don’t want to share publicly.
  • Add value to the conversation. Be helpful, not hypeful, just as you might be in person. Use the @ sign (@lizstrauss) to make sure your comment about a person or to a person gets to the person you’re mentioning.

    Some things you might Tweet about and how to Tweet them.

    • Tweet to share an insight or something you’ve observed.
      The more I leave room for my soul to breathe, everyone around me gets nicer.
    • Tweet to respond to what someone said.
      @lizstrauss having margin in life is a good thing huh and not living right up the edge of the paper as someone once told me
    • Tweet to start a conversation by saying hello and asking a question..
      Good morning, Twitterville. How will you make someone’s life better today?
    • Tweet to share information or content using hashtags – especially when you can promote your friends.
      The free Entrepreneur Expo starts tomorrow, featuring our very own @starbucker http://bit.ly/em06Gp #sobcon
    • Retweet to pass on content by J_Bender using the RT button
      J_Bednar Jason Bednar [RT] by kjpmeyer
      “All the biggest miracles take place in classrooms. Nothing happens without teachers.” S. Frears quoted by Charlotte Danielson. #NAESP11
      The above Retweet would look like this if she had typed it — and we can edit / add to it!.
      I agree 100% RT @J_Bednar: “All the biggest miracles take place in classrooms. Nothing happens without teachers.” S. Frears
  • Start your Twitter list. This is my SOBCon list — people who attend our yearly business event – SOBCon.
    sobconlist

    Lists draw attention to and from people. Each list can focus on one group of people. Check the lists that other folks make, see what their lists say about them. Have a core list strategy. Lists might include a handful of advisors, thought leaders in your industry, partners and vendors, key customers and clients, people in your home location.

  • Decide early who you will follow – who you want at your networking event. Some folks follow only a few people and keep their followers limited to people in their business. Other folks look for input from a wider group.
  • If you’re looking for clients, don’t just talk to the people who do what you do. It’s fun and safe to talk business with our peers, but the folks who hire us are the folks who don’t know how to do what we do.

    • Like any networking event, Twitter is filled with opportunities to meet people who want to participate, engage, and be a part of what we’re doing. The difference is that some networking rooms are filled with people who have no business in common with us. On Twitter, we can reach out to folks who are interested in being at the same networking event as us.

    Have you figured out other other ways to tailor the Twitter experience to fit your best reason for being there?

    –ME “Liz” Strauss
    Work with Liz on your business!!

    Related:
    Tailoring Twitter: Does Your Twitter Profile Attract the Right People?
    Tailoring Twitter: Get Busy Folks to “Get” Twitter in 2 Minutes Flat!
    Tailoring Twitter: The ROI of Curating Content on Twitter

    Ask Letterman … What's Not to Love About a List?

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    Lists

    Have you noticed how much of our information has become lists — TV, magazines, the interwebs love lists? The ten most amazing, most marvelous, most something this or that . . . is ingrained in every media. Even children’s learn-to-read books have started to favor lists. David Letterman has the best of them … click the image to check them out.

    Here’s a list that lists why lists have taken center stage in the world of content.

    • Lists are easy to build.
    • They don’t require segues or transitional phrasing.
    • They don’t require deep research or extensive fact checking.
    • Most lists match the average attention span of a bus ride, coffee break, or other infosnack.
    • Lists can be built in a fraction of the time a piece of depth might take.
    • Lists are very bottom-line oriented.
    • A quality list is . . . what you see is what you get.

    Lists are the sound bytes of print. They’re easy, quick, and often useful. The writer makes a point and readers move on feeling satisfied that they’ve heard something complete and whole — without too much work.

    What’s not to love about that? Hmmmmm.

    –ME “Liz” Strauss
    Work with Liz!!

    Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.