Twitter has recently introduced Twitter lists to all their users allowing them to classify (or list) followers in seperate groups.
It is fairly easy to create a group and add people to it, but why the need for it? Well, they are there to enable users to recommend lists of followers for other users to also follow.
So, how can a business use Twitter lists?
Firstly, businesses can create an employee list and encourage all the brand followers to follow the employees also. The benefit? It groups together everyone associated with the brand which makes it easier for customers, fans or stakeholders to follow all the employees of their favourite brand, from a corporate perspective making the employees equally as popular as the company allows the brand message to reach a wider audience and allows the brand personality to shine through, see NME magazines employee list. For larger companies creating numerous employee lists based on geographic location, office location or department will help to put the customer in touch with exactly the people they want to speak to.
Secondly, it can allow businesses to give customers a little bit extra by compiling lists of Twitterers that they feel will be of interest or relevant to the service/product they are buying. For example if you are selling bathroom suites online perhaps you could create a list of decorators or DIY shops that also appear online, a sort of recommended Twitterers almost. The main benefit this could bring is by establishing your Twitter account as a bit of resource for your industry and opens up the possibility of creating relationships with the companies or individuals on the list.
Thirdly, use Twitter lists to manage fans following enabling them to connect with other fans in their geographic area or sharing the same interests. For example the NHL has created NHL fan lists, they did so by send out a tweet to all their followers asking them to tell them what team they supported accompanied by #myfavouritenhlteam. As a result the NHL Twitter account has 20 lists of different fan groups and is in the process of asking Twitter to allow them the ability to have even more. The result being that NHL have turned their Twitter account into a mini social community where fans connect with other fans.
Fourthly, if you are hosting an event or are an events company then the Twitter list can be used to group together attendees of the event, this allows potential attendees to see who will be present and gives those within the list to socialise with one another prior to and after the event itself.
In conclusion there really are many different way a business can utilise the Twitter lists, with a little thought and creativity they can provide benefit to any business and hopefully this blog post gives you a starting point.
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