Would you like to have a list of targeted Twitter accounts for your niche that you can connect with?  You can use Twitter Lists to find new highly targeted followers and to organize the people you are following to be more engaged with the people you want to connect with most.

First what is a Twitter List?  Twitter’s own definition says it best with “A list is a curated group of Twitter users. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by others”  Lists can be public or private.  If the list is public, anyone can see them, see the members, and subscribe to them.  Private lists are great for things like your clients or competitors you want to keep an eye on.

You can click on a list and see all the tweets from just that group.  That is extremely valuable if you don’t want to miss a tweet from a certain group of people.  First let’s dive into creating and accessing your own lists, then we’ll explore using Twitter lists to find targeted followers.

Creating a Twitter List

Your first step is to access your Lists by going to your profile page (click Me at the top of Twitter) then click the More link under your profile and select Lists.

Now you see all the Lists you have created or are Subscribed to.  If you haven’t created any, this section is blank.  But you can also click on Member Of to find out who has put you on a Public list.

You can also create a new Twitter list from here to add people to later.  Just click Create new list and name your list and choose your privacy settings.

Now you can go through the people you are following and add them to your list.  Create several lists and then start organizing your people.

Possible ways to organize your Twitter followers:

• Geographical – any time you connect with someone on Twitter in your area, add them to this list.
• People you’ve met at a conference – great for continuing to connect after the conference
• People in your niche – watch for news in your area of expertise
• Favorite blogs – watch for posts from your favorite bloggers
• Clients – keep this list private for only you to access
• Awesome Peeps – catch all list for people who retweet your content and talk to you on Twitter

Now go and add people to your new Lists!

Use Twitter Lists to Find Targeted Followers

The best way to grow your Twitter following is to go out and follow others.  But it’s best to find the RIGHT people to follow.  Searches and other tools can help but the easiest way to find targeted people to follow is to find a good Twitter List.

You can start with places you are listed.  Maybe you want to connect with other influencers in your niche.  To do that, see what Lists you are on and look at the Members of those Lists.

To access the members of any list, click on the List Name and then select List members.

You can find targeted lists of people to follow by finding someone who might be your “ideal client”.  Now go and see what Lists they are on by going to their profile, clicking the More link and select Lists (just like your own profile).  See what lists they are a Member of and find an appropriate list.  For example if you are a local business, it’s usually fairly easy to find local lists of people.  See which profile look like they might be similar to your ideal client profile and start following them and interacting with them.

Use Twitter Search to Find Lists

Twitter rolled out the capability to search for lists.  All you have to do to find lists of people is to use the search function and select Timelines on the left sidebar to filter by Lists.

Now you can explore these lists to find ideal clients.  So powerful!

And if you like to see all of this Twitter List functionality in action, Grandma Mary has a great tutorial for you here:

What about you, are you using Twitter Lists?  Make sure you connect with Andrea Vahl and Grandma Mary on Twitter 🙂