Social Media Networking With Twitter Lists

International Networking On Social Media

For various reasons I have only just got around to setting up my Twitter Lists. They have been active for several weeks, and although I have tinkered with them a little, I had not really taken to the time to think about how I wanted to use them. You see I already have my own hand picked list of people I recommend you follow to develop your Cross-Cultural and International skills. I use this list to network with peers in related industries. And lately I’ve been having lots of fun doing Cross-Cultural Twitter Interviews with the people on this list.

My Twitter List Strategy

Now, I’ve read a few articles on how to use Twitter lists, but I have to say there are too many social media cheerleaders out there and very few business savvy people who know how to apply social media to business goals. So I decided to spend some time sorting out the Twitter Lists on my @CindyKing profile and deciding on the best Twitter list strategy for my own business.

And this is what I decided:

My own list of Cross-Cultural and International People published here on this blog is expanded to include links to everyone’s blogs, websites, Facebook and LinkedIn pages. This is a much stronger networking tool for me than the Twitter Lists found on my Twitter profile and it deserves the extra special attention. The relationships I have with most of the people on this list are now also very much outside of Twitter.

For my blog readers, this is still probably the most valuable list of the three. There is also a link to my TweepML list, which has the same people listed as here on my blog. The TweepML list makes it easy for others to follow everyone if they want to.

Public Twitter Lists – I came up with 4 public lists and I will try to keep them limited to this small number.

• Culture Tweets – On a wide variety of cultural topics
• Interesting Tweets – Places to go to open your mindset to different points of view
• International Business – From professors, active professionals and other various experts
• International Social Media – Social media savvy people with cross-cultural networking skills

Everyone on the main Cross-cultural and International people list on my blog is also here on at least one of these Public Twitter Lists. And I also follow a few more additional people. These are the people I’m currently checking out before adding them to the Cross-cultural and International people list on my blog.

Private Twitter Lists – This is where I have many different lists. These are for my different networking buddies and they are separated by group.

• Authority Bloggers
• Bloggertone friends
• Probloggers
• Product Launch Managers
• Remarkable Marketers
• Special sales expert friends
• Special social media friends
• WishList friends
• and a few private group projects

My Two Main Twitter List Objectives

A Branding Tool – I decided to keep my public lists limited to 4 very easy to follow lists that represent why I am online. Let’s face it, international business is a vast area, and when you mix this with soft cultural skills it can be confusing to passers by.

When Twitter friends want to find out more, they get lots more detailed information on my list of Cross-Cultural and International People over on my blog.  They find this as soon as they click on the link in my Twitter profile.

With only 4 Twitter Lists it also makes it easy for people on Twitter to choose whether they want to connect with me or not.  This short list positions me more strongly.  It’s a good sign post for people who do not know me very well.

A More Efficient Networking Tool – I like networking with a variety of different groups online. Where the public groups are limited in numbers, I decided to go for a large number of Private Titter Lists.  So I separated people into very specific networking groups in these private lists. This makes it very easy to dive into these private Twitter Lists for a quick 2-minute visit: “let’s see if there is anything new happening in this group right now”.

I also use the FireFox Bookmark feature for networking with these groups.  This allows you to open all the windows in a bookmark group at the same time.  This is great to follow what others have been up to, but it takes up more time.  With the Private Twitter Lists I can have a quick look at the latest news and be in and out within a few very short minutes.

Developing My Business Network

My primary business goal is still to develop my business network on social media within a manageable amount of time.  This is why I chose to set up my Twitter Lists like this.  But it’s not the only way to set them up…

What about you?

• How have you set up your Twitter Lists?
• How do you use your Twitter Lists for your social media networking?
• What other ways do you network with your Twitter Lists?

More on International Networking On Social Media

• Links And International Social Networking
• Is Social Media Changing Business Networking?

Tagged as: International Business, International Business Development, international networking, International Social Media, networking, social media, twitter, twitter list, twitter list strategy

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