You’re bombarded with numbers everywhere you go in social media:

How many friends do you have?
How many people like your page?
How many circles are you in?
How many lists are you on?

Do these numbers matter?

Yes and no.

As a business, you want to build up a quality following. That means developing strategies that attract people who are interested in what you have to offer. Having a lot of people interested in what you do and say is a good thing.

But if you look at number alone, it really isn’t an indicator of your success in social media because follower numbers are inherently gamable (you can buy them and you can get high numbers of people that will never look at your content or engage with you).

It’s quality over quantity.

Do you have 50 followers? 500? 5000?

How many of those followers are actively engaged in conversation with your business, about your business or developing a relationship with you that could lead to a business relationship?

If you have 50 engaged and interested followers, that is far more valuable than 50,000 that barely know your account exists because they followed to increase their own numbers.

Don’t stop working on the numbers.

Although high numbers don’t necessarily mean a lot, low numbers can make people think you aren’t very established.

Working to steadily increase your number of engaged and quality followers, be it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or the number of people signed up to your newsletter, should continue to be a focus of your social media strategy. One of our best suggestions for doing this is to ask and remind on a regular basis.

Do you worry about the numbers?

And before you go, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and sign up for our newsletter. We’re always working on the numbers too.

If you’ve ever wondered how some Twitter users follow tens of thousands of people - or even just a few thousand - the answer is lists. No one follows thousands of people - not in an engaged way. But they may click follow and go back to looking at the lists they’ve created to filter out all the noise.

Why do we need lists on Twitter?

One of the challenges in social media is filtering content so that it’s easier to manage - and more valuable - to users. Every network has incorporated methods for users to accomplish this, with varying levels of success. Some of the better features out there exist on Twitter: hashtags (which I’ve discussed before) and lists. Hashtags allow users to to search tweets related to a hashtag at the click of a mouse. Lists give you the ability to group users into segments and isolate content so that it isn’t lost in the full timeline.

There are three basic reasons to use lists:

Users who follow many accounts can use lists to help pull out the information they deem most valuable.

Users who like to keep an eye on certain accounts can use lists to do so without having to follow them.

Users who want to arrange the people they’re following into categories for reference/smaller groupings.

Twitter allows you to create 20 public or private lists with a maximum of 500 accounts on each list. My primary list (and the one I’m best about updating) is private. It’s the list that I add the twitter accounts for the blogs I read. I use the list to retweet the posts from those people whose content I know and like enough to add to my RSS reader. This allows me to see other content that this group of users share.

There’s no right or wrong way to use lists, but having meaningful lists will enhance your Twitter experience. Meaningful lists with appropriate names. I wouldn’t recommend creating lists with names such as “people who suck” or similar. No one wants to be on that list.

Customize Your Experience

How you organize your lists is completely up to you. Many people use geographic regions as a categorization. Industry/expertise is another popular method. As are interests, like writing, blogging, photography and more. Choose the method that suits you best and creates the experience you want out of Twitter.

Managing lists - if you’re starting out when you follow thousands - is a big job. I wish I’d figured out how I wanted to use lists about 2,000 follows ago. If you’re like me and you haven’t kept it up, spend 10 minutes a day going through the people you follow to curate your lists. And throughout each day, be cognizant of lists and add the people you interact with or see in your stream as you go. Most mobile Twitter clients make it quick and easy to manage lists on the go.

Do you use Twitter lists? How have they improved your Twitter experience?