Twitter lists for business development : Get dancing
My friend Steve Matthews (@stevematthews), founder of Stem, a web strategy and development company for law firms, shared last week why he is a big fan of Twitter lists.
Steve offered a number of reasons why he likes Twitter lists, including the ability to follow people via a list without actually “following” them and the ability to subscribe to other Twitter users’ lists so you don’t have to build all your Twitter lists on your own.
I am with Steve that Twitter lists are invaluable. Without lists, Twitter is akin to watching 153 channels on TV all at once. A lot of noise and static. With lists I can create groups (lists) of people to follow. Not random groups, but groups that are part of my strategic business development efforts.
Rather than give you tactics — what are lists and how to create them, I want to give you a taste of how to you use Twitter lists for your strategic business development.
Divide your audience into potential clients/partners and the influencers of those clients/partners. For example potential clients for me include leaders in law firms. A Twitter list for me could be the executives (managing partners, COO’s, CFO’s, CMO’s, executive chairs) of the 200 largest law firms in the United States (Am Law 200). I created such a list, it has 56 members.
Influencers of my potential clients, for me, includes reporters covering the courts across the United States. I created such a list, it’s about 250 people strong.
What do I do with the lists? I engage the people on the lists when I have the time and the opportunity is right. For example I made the acquaintance of a leader in a large law firm a couple weeks ago. I did that by re-tweeting some things she tweeted and complimented her on her stance on developing women leaders in the law. After a few pleasantries (all via Twitter), we agreed to talk about working on a project to showcase women leaders in the law. I am headed back to see her this fall. My gut tells we’ll also develop a relationship where my company may end up doing work for her firm.
In the case of reporters, I share (retweet) items of theirs that may be of Interest to my audience. I also share some of their original stories via Twitter giving them attribution by including their Twitter handle. The reporters then see me, perhaps appreciate me spreading the word on one of their stories, we may then connect on LinkedIn, and possibly meet face to face.
I also have lists for potential publishing partners, business leaders in Seattle, and more.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t check my lists and what is being Tweeted each day any more than you may go to a local networking event in person each and every day. But I’ll take my random use of Twitter in a strategic way over most people’s altogether random use of Twitter.
Are you a lawyer in a large metro doing business work? Have a list that includes business leaders, local reporters (including all business journal reporters), business associations, and leading local companies (company twitter handle and executives’ Twitter handles)? Why not? It’s a wonderful way to get to know and engage the people you need to for business development. By the time you meet face to face, perhaps at an event they asked you to speak at, you’ll be giving each other a hug.
All the while your competition cannot see the dancing you’re doing with the people they’d also love to know.