Taking a long overdue page from the Seesmic and Tweetdeck playbook, Twitter.com recently launched Twitter lists, enabling you to segment the people you follow on Twitter into groups.
This is particularly useful in organizing people by industry, geography, or even the type of content they typically tweet.
But what’s more interesting is that Twitter Lists help define your personal brand.
You Are What You Are. Not What You Wish You Were
A long-standing tenet of search engine optimization is that the search terms that people use to find your Web site reflect the reality of how your site is perceived by Google (and thus by searchers). Sure, you may want to be ranked #1 for “financial services PR”. But, if nobody ever finds your site when searching for that term, you’re not “financial services PR” – but rather something else entirely.
Twitter Lists work exactly the same way. The names of the Twitter lists on which you appear gives you a tremendous pool of information about how your personal brand is perceived by Twitter users.
If you’re in public relations, but very few of the Twitter lists you’re on are about public relations, maybe you need to increase the amount of public relations content that you’re tweeting?
Gaze Into My Crystal Ball of Twitter List Linguistics
To better understand this effect, my friend (and programming warlock) Joseph Jaramillo created a Twitter List Converter. It’s freely available at http://twitterlists.convinceandconvert.com
- Just go to http://twitter.com and click on “listed” below your name in the right hand corner.
- Highlight all of the Twitter list information on the page, and copy it.
- Then, paste into the “Input” box on the Twitter List Converter. (you may need to do this a few times if you’re on many lists, as Twitter only shows 20 at a time).
- Check the “remove hyphens” box, and press Submit.
- Voila! A list of all the Twitter lists that you’re on, in an easy-to-browse fashion.
Want an even better understanding of how you’re viewed on Twitter?
- Copy the “Output” column from the Twitter List Convertor.
- Go to Wordle and click “create”.
- Paste into the box, and click “Go”. Presto! Now you have a visual word cloud that shows the frequency/density of the words used to describe YOU on Twitter.
I’m Not Funny. But I Know Social Media
Here’s the Twitter List word cloud for me, vs. the word cloud for @shitmydadsays (perhaps the funniest Twitter account in existence).
On the social Web, “tags” are how we organize information. Are you being “tagged” the way you want to be on Twitter Lists?
I’ve just started working on this concept, and Joseph was nice enough to build me a tool. Use it, and let us know what you think about Twitter Lists and personal branding.
About Jay Baer
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RT @jaybaer: What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool) #twittertools
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What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (via @woley @jaybaer)
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RT@ValerieSimon
Interesting RT @jaybaer: What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool)
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Very fun! RT @TomMartin: RT @jaybaer: What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool)
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Interesting RT @jaybaer: What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool)
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Great idea RT @jaybaer: What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool)
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Couple great tools, thanks Jay. RT @jaybaer: What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool)
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RT @jaybaer What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool)
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RT @TomMartin Great idea (via @jaybaer): What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool)
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RT @LoisMarketing Great idea (via @TomMartin @jaybaer) What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool)
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What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] #socialmedia #news
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RT @SocialMedia411: What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?(Jay Baer): [link to post] [Very cool]
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RT @Sisarina: What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (via @woley @jaybaer)
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What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool)
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RT @FarrukhSiddiqui RT @LoisMarketing via @TomMartin @jaybaer) What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post]
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RT @MaryBeallAdler @Sisarina: What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (via @woley @jaybaer)
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What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?(Jay Baer): [link to post] [Very cool]
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What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?(Jay Baer): [link to post]
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RT @SocialMedia411: What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?(Jay Baer): [link to post]
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RT @SocialMedia411: What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?(Jay Baer): [link to post] [Very cool] Indeed!
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Interesting RT @SocialMedia411: What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?(Jay Baer): [link to post] [Very cool]
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darin auch: Listen-Cloud erstellen RT @SocialMedia411 What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?(Jay Baer): [link to post]
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RT @jaybaer: What do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? [link to post] (easy tool)
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What twitter lists can tell you about your brand [link to post]
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RT @jaybaer “What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?” [link to post] #twitter #socialmedia #lists #groups
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[...] Wordle was created from the names of the Twitter lists I’m on, following a suggestion by Jay Baer, and using the Twitter List Converter. My Twitter list [...]
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That was fun – what do your lists say about you? [link to post] (Thanks @ChuckReynolds) http://pic.gd/cfebae
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Via @stefsull: what do your Twitter lists say about you? [link to post] (here’s mine: http://bit.ly/37bltc)
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“What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?” – [link to post]
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What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?
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“What Do #twitter Lists Say abt yr Personal Brand?” [link to post] RT @the_gman @zaibatsu @PageRankSEO @jaybaer #socialmedia
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RT @Twitter_Tips: Are #TwitterLists tags how you want to be known? [link to post] –Share: http://bit.ly/1t5B80
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Article: “What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?” [link to post]
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Are #TwitterLists tags how you want to be known? [link to post] –Share: http://bit.ly/1t5B80
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What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand | Social Media … [link to post]
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RT @RetiredTeacherD: What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand | Social Media … [link to post]
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[...] Convince & Convert: “What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?” [...]
[...] What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand? Via @AndrewBates Jay Baer at Convince and Convert lets you know it’s not just the naughty and nice lists you need to worry about. Read My Lips: Twitter Lists Are Meant to be Exclusionary Via @DannielScocco Jan Geronimo at Waiting to Exhale takes a contrary view to Chris Brogan on the nature of lists. [...]
[...] social media strategist Jason Baer’s site, I found out about a tool created by Joseph Jaramillo . This tools allows you to pull the words out [...]
[...] 2009 · No Comments Like so many others in the past few days, I read a great blog post on what twitter lists can say about your personal brand by Jay [...]
[...] as a single group, based on topic. A few weeks back the most excellent Jay Baer posted on his Convince and Convert blog an idea to take all the lists you are a part of and make a tag cloud. It would give you a [...]