Twitter recently introduced a new feature called lists to many users. This isn’t available to everyone – I’ve heard many reports of people who are unable to see anybodies lists. Basically, it allows you to organize the people you follow into several different categories. These can be made private and can be followed by others.

This is an awesome for those who are using the web interface as you can choose the groups you want to read at any time.

However, there are some considerations you need to make before embracing this feature.

1. People may be offended by not being included on a list.

Some of my friends created lists like ‘awesome friends’ and ‘top bloggers.’ They used these terms as generalist lists but some people took offense at not being included on a list.

This is very similar to the follow/unfollow situations that happened before people started to embrace groups on other clients.

So, what can you do to avoid offending?

• Have a disclaimer on your twitter landing page

• Make your list private

• Organize lists by geographic region – ie, Melbourne bloggers.

2. You can see what lists you appear on

This isn’t a bad aspect – in most cases, it helps show how people perceive you. This is especially helpful for people who don’t have a defined purpose on twitter. You may get categorized by geographic region or industry, but you may also get organized into trait specific lists. Examples are ‘helpful people’ or ‘interesting links.’

This can help you ascertain how you can be more useful on twitter.

3. You can easily get the tone of a group

You can organize people into groups like conference attendees or people who work at a company. This is more efficient than a hashtag as you can filter out the people you don’t want to hear from.

You can pick up on the overall vibe which will make it useful when reporting on it.

4. It may make it easier for companies to target you

I actually wrote about how twitter lists can help with buyer personas over at the Think Tank Media (http://thinktankmedia.com.au/blog/how-to-use-twitter-lists-in-your-business/) blog, but I can also see it as another way some companies may be able to find, and then spam you. This is important to be aware of.

5. You can easily identify what types of people users follow

Seeing the lists in the sidebar can let you know what type of people, and content, certain users follow. This can be useful when networking. You can see that you have a mutual interest and follow some of the same people and start a conversation. This can be useful if you are trying to join a community or connect with a new person.

6. You can use it as an extension of the groups function

I’m a bit slack on tweetdeck – I only have three columns. One for my mentions, DM’s and one for a group of people I talk to regularly. I always pop onto the web version to have general chats but this can become unmanagable when I’m following so many cool people.

I’m now planning to create certain lists and then dive into them at certain times of the day. This can help me assess the conversation across many fields of interest and geographic regions.

7. You can see how many lists OTHERS are on

This may be used as another method of assessing popularity. As I write this, I’m on 2 lists and Chris Brogran is on 144 – which is the way it should be. This could be a really useful method but is also open to abuse and may impact on user experience. It will be interesting to see if spammers try to manipulate this feature.

8. You are able to follow other peoples lists

I am not sure what twitters intentions were with this feature, but I really like it as it saves time. Some users can also use it to establish authority by finding the best users and creating popular lists around them.

Over to you

What do you think of this new feature? Do you think it will help you twitter experience? Let us know how you intend to use it in the comments.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Essential: 8 Things to Consider Before Using Twitter Lists

I went last year, and I’m excited knowing that I’ll be there this year (as will Darren). I loved meeting all the people in person that I’ve grown to know for their online personas on Twitter and in their blogs, and can’t wait to see old friends and meet some new ones!

Yes, you read me right: Darren’s going to be at Blog World Expo.

So… are you going?

If you are, and you’d like to meet up, catch me on Twitter (@larakulpa)!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Are You Planning to Attend Blog World Expo 2009?

Making money online is not only one of the most frequent topics in blogging, it’s also one of the hottest searches on any search engine, and it’s becoming ever more popular on twitter too.

I’ve left this topic until now because most of the people who start out with the sole objective of creating money making blogs, and more recently twitter accounts, do tend to be a bit obvious.  If they succeed, they also tend to get short-lived success, mostly along the lines of niche blogs – they build one tiny area up to be profitable, then move on to another area.  We’re seeing something similar on twitter where people are setting up multiple accounts.

Trend-surfing this way may get you a few big wins, or enough small ones to support yourself, but it isn’t the same as being one of the big-guns of blogging, earning 6 or 7 figures a year in stable and ever increasing income.  There are very, very few of those (and they all have big followings, as I mentioned in the last post).  While the average income for blogs in 2008 was $6,000, that was influenced heavily by the top 1% of bloggers who earnt $200k plus.  Look at the top 10%, and the average income is down to only $19k.

You may be surprised to know that most of the blogging big names didn’t start out earning their income that way.  In fact, very few of them earnt their livelihood from blogs to start with.  Some of them, like Cris Brogan and Robert Scoble, still have offline jobs. Darren Rowse of Problogger paid his bills with multiple part time jobs while he built his blog up to the level where it would support himself, and kept going from there to the income levels of today. Yaro Starak of Entrepreneurs-Journey supported himself with an editing business and a gamers site before he grew big enough to earn a full time income from blogging.  David Risley of davidrisley.com (Confessions of a 6 Figure Blogger) has made his income online for years, but when he started most of that income came from consulting work, not blogging.

Every single one of these Blogging-Income Masters say the same thing: you don’t get that level of income unless you treat it seriously.  Blogging is a business.  If you want to turn it into your income, you need to have a Business Plan.

Twitter is the same.

There are no shortage of ways to turn blogging into an income, although not quite so many on twitter yet. Already, though, the “Make Money with Twitter” offers are starting to flood in. A lot of them are going to make money for the people selling them, and not many others. The tried and true methods that have worked for the top names in blogging, though, are summarised below:

Have a plan. It’s as true on twitter as it is elsewhere. Failing to plan = planning to fail.

Build a list. Yes, twitter is a list of sorts, but if your follower has 348 other people tweeting at the same time, your update will be all too fleeting. Convert them to your mailing list, or at the very least your blog’s rss feed!  Remember: the money’s in the list.

Over-deliver on value. Your followers are not going to throw money at you just because you put your hand out for it – especially not as any kind of sustainable income. Prove to them that you deliver the goods, and they’ll think of you down the track when they need what you have to offer.

Build a reputation. The trust and credibility people give you is the equivalent of brakes to your online income. If you don’t have much, you won’t get much. I saw a tweet not long ago by a well known social media expert on how someone with a tiny fraction of his follower count was trying to sell him a system to build more followers. Needless to say, there was zero credibility there.

Find out what your followers want. The way to make money is to offer solutions. You can’t do that until you know what problems people are facing, and decide which of them you have the skills and know-how to help them overcome.

Be Consistent and Persistent. This feeds back into all of the above.  If you’ve created a plan, make sure you follow it – it’s sad but true that the majority of people give up before they succeed. Keep taking action past the point where others drop out, and you win the race by default.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter Tips for Beginners: Lessons from the Evolution of Blogging Part 5 – Monetisation

Is there rhyme to your twitter reason? Do you have a plan when it comes to your tweets, or are you a spontaneous tweeter? Believe it or not, there can be a happy medium.

If you let it, Twitter can easily steal your time and work efficiency. And as much I enjoy conversing with others in the comforts of my home office, it can be extremely distracting if you are tuned into Twitter all day long. So how do you stop diluting your work day but also take advantage of this rockin’ social media channel… especially, if it’s not in your regular job description (if it is, lucky you)? Simply put, you need a Tweet Plan. With a Tweet Plan you can pre-organize and categorize your tweets for future use… keeping you more on track during your work day. Hey, you plan your blog posts, why not your tweets?!

FOLLOWING YOUR OWN TWEET PLAN

1. Select your twitter check-in times

If you are really trying to purge the noise, stick to “Tweet w/Coffee” or “Tweet w/Chocolate”. My cute way of saying first thing in the morning or after dinner. This will be the time of day that you spend organizing and planning your tweets.

2. Start with your Daily 5, which are 5 pre-planned tweets

First decide on what you plan to tweet. If you use twitter for personal use, your options are endless. But if you utilize Twitter for business too, then you may need to think more strategically about tweeting a combination of industry value and personal flavor. So your Daily 5 should include a variety of tweet types and various media. Don’t flood followers with only blog post updates. And on the flip, we don’t want to hear how many times your puppy crapped on the floor in one day. So like most vices in life, you need to find your middle ground. Here a few examples of tweet types for your Daily 5.

• Images – Share pictures you take or find. Try Snaptweet, TwitPic, or I prefer the Gyazickr app (which also posts to Flickr) on my iPhone.
• Videos – Share your own videos or favorites from other networks like YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Seesmic, UStream, etc.
• Blog Post Updates – You can auto update your blog posts to Twitter by installing the Twitter Updater Plugin on your blog.
• Witty Joke or Comment – If you come across a funny sign or just interesting thought, jot it down and share later on Twitter.
• Helpful Industry Resources – Scan your RSS reader and/or social bookmarking sites, or favorite industry blogs for helpful tips and advice or cool tools. Share links to them!
• Make a Tweet Plan to Get the Most from Twitter – Have a favorite author or poet, share an occasional quote – it’s even better when you can relate it to a current event.
• Announcements /Events – Share information about an event your company is hosting, holiday food drives, and/or other news.
• Ask Questions – That pertain to business or personal. Try creating a poll especially for Twitter at Polldaddy.

3. Make a Tweetlist categorized by your Daily 5

Here’s an example of what your 5 planned tweets could be for the day: (1) blog post update (2) inspiring quote (3) cool image or picture (4) helpful resource (5) witty joke or comment. Now start scanning your resources and collecting tidbits to later become your planned tweets. You could plan for the day or plan for more than one day. BTW-Notice I said pre-planned “tweets”, NOT direct messages. Please DO NOT spam your followers with DMs, unless you want to get unfollowed. Save DMs for continuing personal or professional conversations that you don’t want to share with all your followers.

4. Next, head over to Twuffer or TweetLater

Choose one of these online solutions which will allow you to schedule your tweets. Schedule for the day, week for longer. Just enter your 140 character tweets, set your date and time and you’re done. Twuffer/Tweetlater will deliver on-time, while you are getting work done or out of the office at appointments.

5. Set up Tweetlater to automate a welcome response to new followers

I love receiving news that I have a new follower and usually visit their Twitter profile, check out their Website and/or interests, read their recent update stream, and send a hello or welcome DM. That can take a lot of time if you get a lot of new followers. So I created this message that is sent via Tweetlater to my new followers: “Wooohooo, we’re Twitter friends! Check out this video I made for you: http://budurl.com/niknik.”

6. Your daily 5 should be supplemented by 1-3 spontaneous tweets

that makes your tweet total for the day around 6-8. Tweet personal, business, or random experiences in your day. When and if something hits you, waste no time and tweet it. But remember what your task at hand is and get back to it!

MEASURE YOUR TWEET PLAN

If you are the type of person who enjoys measuring your efforts, you may want to check out a suggestion from the other half of the nik_nik equation, @cyberhomes. Reggie Nicolay, Director of Social Media at Cyberhomes, measures the media he tweets with BudURL. He finds the tool helpful in discerning what people like and want to hear more of, by measuring his blog posts and other resources he shares on Twitter.

TWEET PLAN DISCLAIMER: This plan may work great for those with little time in their day to tweet, or employers who don’t want you tweeting. For some, taking time to organize tweets may actually be more time consuming that just tweeting off the cuff. This is NOT a plan for spontaneous tweeters and those of us that have adopted Twitter as a member of the family. This plan is for twits that want to tweet but are finding it hard to do so during their work day. Just remember, this is one Tweet Plan example, what does your Tweet Plan look like?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Make a Tweet Plan to Get the Most from Twitter