twitter lists

5 ways to use Twitter lists for PR, marketing, spying

12/13/2010 By Joan 4 Comments

Anne Deeter Gallaher has written a helpful blog post on How to add Twitter to your PR to mix in 9 easy steps.

I commented and suggested using Twitter lists these five ways. All were discussed in more detail during the webinar I hosted on How to Use Twitter Lists & Directories to Generate Publicity & Build Your Brand.

1. Spy on your competitors.

Go to your competitors’ Twitter profiles and check out which lists they have created. You might learn, for instance, that a competitor who is also an excellent blogger follows six other top-tier bloggers who YOU can follow and learn from. You can find their lists on the menu bar under their photo, to the right.

2. Find journalists who cover your industry.

They are probably on somebody’s list. I just Googled “health care reporters” and found the AARP’s Twitter list called “Health Reporters.” Even though there are only two people on the list, it might grow. When you find a good list, you can follow the entire list, or you can select certain people on that list and follow them.

3. Learn how people perceive your brand.

Go to your own Twitter profile page. On the right side, at the top, you’ll see the word “Listed” with a number under it. I’m on 784 lists. I clicked on “Listed,” scanned it, and learned very quickly that people perceive me to be an expert in PR, publicity, public relations, social media and Internet marketing (all are correct). But I was surprised to see that a few people put me on lists for geeks, uber-geeks and green.

4. Promote your expertise.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to people on Twitter who have created lists that you think you or your clients should be on. They might be thrilled to hear from you and add you to their lists.

5. Save time.

Create your own list of experts in a certain field, perhaps people who offer the best content worth retweeting. Check in periodically with that list and you can quickly find all their tweets without having to sort through your miles-long feed looking for the golden nuggets.

How do you use Twitter or Twitter lists in your PR, publicity or marketing campaigns?

Filed Under: PR Consultants/Publicists, Twitter Tagged With: aarp, anne deeter gallaher, health reporters, twitter lists

5 ways to be included on other people’s Twitter lists

9/1/2010 By Joan 5 Comments

When I hosted the recorded webinar last week on How to Use Twitter Lists & Directories to Promote Your Expertise and Build Your Brand, I encouraged participants to get onto as many Twitter lists as possible because lists are a powerful form of free advertising.

One of my suggestions was to write a blog post telling readers the types of lists where you’d be a perfect fit, and then suggesting that they add you to existing lists on those topics, or create new ones.

But before you do that, it’s helpful to first find out how people on Twitter perceive you. This will give you other ideas to add to the list of topics on which you’re an expert, and some of them might surprise you. The instructions below are included on the handouts from last week’s webinar, and the entire package is available here.

To see whose lists you’re on:

Log into your Twitter account
Go to your Home page
Look in the upper right corner, near your gravatar, for the word “Listed.” It will tell you how many lists you’re on.
Click on it. You’ll see all the names of the lists and the gravatars of the people who created them. The names of the lists will be in bold.

Scan the list and you should start to see a pattern. The screenshot above shows some of the 668 lists I’m on. Many of the lists are devoted to PR, publicity, marketing communications, book marketing and social media.

Now that you have a good idea how you’re perceived, write a blog post like this one, suggesting that your Twitter followers add you to their lists on certain topics.

Add Me to These Lists

Here are topics for other lists you can consider adding me to, based on many of the other lists on which I appear:

Writing or Writers

Editing or Editors

Journalists or Journalism

Marketing

Authors

Business Women

Small Business

Online Marketing

Digital Marketing

Self-promotion

Shoestring Marketing

Book Publicity

Resources for Authors

Inspiring Quotes

Humor

Entrepreneurs

Advertising/Marketing

PR Pros

Press Releases

Blogging or Bloggers

Dog Jokes (I include a dog joke in each issue of The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week, my free weekly ezine, and often share it on Twitter)

Other Ways to be Included on Twitter Lists

1. Tweet helpful, relevant content frequently and forego the “here’s what I’m doing today” tweets. Help people solve their problems!

2. Add yourself to your own lists if you’re a perfect fit. Remember that other people will be subscribing to your lists. If you’re a small business expert, for example, and somebody is following your list of small business experts, you want to be on it.

3. Include a short blurb in your email signature suggesting that people add you to their lists, with a link to your Twitter page.

4. Ask! Don’t be shy about suggesting that people add you to a particular list they’ve created. They might be grateful that you’ve helped them grow their lists.

Be sure to reciprocate. Welcome requests from other people who ask you to put them on your lists.

What other ways do you use Twitter lists? Is there anything about lists that you don’t understand? Share your own tips here on how to get onto other people’s lists.

Filed Under: Advertising, Authors & Publishers, Blogs, Business Promotion, Press Releases/News Releases, Social media marketing, Special Events, Twitter Tagged With: Bloggers, Blogging, free advertising, online marketing, PR, public relations, self-promotion, twitter lists

5 ways to use Twitter lists for PR, publicity

8/20/2010 By Joan 5 Comments

I’ve been inundated with questions from Publicity Hounds about how to use Twitter lists.

Lists are all the rage right now, for so many reasons.

They save you time two major ways. First, they help you categorize, group and isolate the tweets of people within a specific industry, niche or topic so you don’t have to search through your miles-long Twitter feed for their tweets. Lists also one of the most powerful research tools on the planet if you’re looking for experts within a niche.

They help you spy on your competitors and let you know instantly which influential people they’re following on Twitter. Lists also help position you as an expert in your field. I’m on 660 lists, many devoted to the topics of PR, publicity and social media. That’s a ton of free advertising!

When I host the webinar How to Use Twitter Lists & Directories to Generate Publicity and Build Your Brand on Thursday, Aug. 26, I’ll be discussing and illustrating dozens of tips, including these five ways to use Twitter lists in a publicity or PR campaign. You can use some of these tips even if you aren’t tweeting:

Save hours of time researching journalists, broadcasters, Internet radio hosts, freelancers, beat reporters, editors and others by looking for lists that other people on Twitter have created. Within seconds, you can even find lists of journalists in specific cities, like this list of Milwaukee media that Tom Snyder, president of a Milwaukee web design company, created on Twitter. (You can do this even if you aren’t tweeting.)
Want to get in front of influential bloggers who write about a particular topic? Save hours of time by finding them on Twitter lists that other people have created. (You can do this even if you aren’t tweeting.)
If your favorite journalists, or journalists who you want to notice you, are on Twitter, and you have a Twitter account, create a “(Fill in the blank) Journalists” list and add them. If you have a food-related story to pitch, for example, and you want to get in front of food journalists, add them to a “Favorite Food Journalists” list. And then let them know you’ve done so. They’ll be flattered. This is a great way to start a relationship with journalists before you pitch them.
Position yourself as a super-valuable source. Let journalists or bloggers who are interviewing you know about Twitter lists you’ve created where they can find other sources on a specific topic. They’ll love you for doing this!
Pull journalists to your Twitter profile by including links to your own Twitter lists in your online media room.

I’ll be sharing more tips like these, and giving you step-by-step directions on how to use Twitter lists and directories, during the webinar. If you can’t make it, register anyway and I’ll send you the replay link where you can watch the video, as well as the MP3 link if you’d rather listen on your iPod.

As a special bonus, you’ll also get my special report “How to Use Twitter for Business to Network, Promote, Sell, Recruit & Profit.”

This webinar is filling up fast because Twitter lists are such a hot topic. Hope to see you there.