Twitter lists – utility for good or potential spam source

Those of us who are in advertising or public relations are always searching for ways to segment our audience. Messages always have to be tailored, and so Twitter’s list feature development that allow users to group others according to whatever the lister chooses will be very useful once it is fully understood.

I’ve already begun to use it to group other communications professionals and members of the media. Just weeks ago, I assisted in executing a campaign that involved reaching out to The Greater Chicago Red Cross Twitter following. The objective was to spread our work to a very broad group of people, and we had isolated our top 10 followers on Twitter. While determining which of our followers had the broad influence for which we were searching was a difficult task (I spent about three days searching third-party applications before I came upon  Friend or Follow thanks to one of my contacts), remembering who they are is a whole different problem. Lists will prevent that problem from arising in the future.

However, although lists will be useful, there needs to be some exercise in moderation. Consider if the Greater Chicago Red Cross sent direct messages to their top followers on a weekly (or perhaps even monthly basis). The urgency and impact of the request would decrease substantially over time until eventually the users would stop responding, unfollow or even regard the account as a spammer.

This is very similar to what has happened with public relations practitioners and journalists. After years of sending out blanketed press releases and “Dear Editor” pitches, public relations practitioners have begun to be regarded as spammers.  Consider this post by Robert Scoble – he’s definitely the exception to the rule in that he actually reads all pitches. But would you be so bold as to think that all writers are like this?

-If you’re interested, you should also check out Shel Holtz’s response to get another perspective on the issue-

Twitter is a good place to pitch, but resist the temptation to send them out one right after another. What are your thoughts on the List feature? Do you see any potential for measurement opportunities or do you think being listed is only a popularity contest?