I am often asked, “What should I tweet about on Twitter?” One of the best things you can do to build your brand and build your credibility on social media platforms is by sharing relevant information.

On Twitter, one of the best ways to curate content is by using lists.

There are a number of different lists you can create, but I recommend creating a “Local News” list. This list will consist of local news and city sites that frequently tweet local information that you can retweet to your audience.

Here are six steps to creating a Local News list:

1. Google 10-15 of your favorite local news sites.

If you aren’t sure what to look for, put in “(your city) news on Twitter” — i.e., “San Francisco News on Twitter.” Or, if you know the name of the site, you can Google that — i.e., “sf gate on Twitter.”

2. Open up each Twitter page in a different window.

So now, you should have 10 or so windows open with various local Twitter handles

3. Click the “follow” button for each Twitter handle

(make sure you are signed into Twitter first). Note, as you are following people, pay attention to whom else Twitter recommends to you — they may be great additions to your list.

4. Click on the small arrow in the upper right-hand corner and click, “Add to list.”

You will then need to create a list. When you create a list, name it “Local News.” Then, click “Save.”

5. Repeat this for each one of the windows you have open.

You may need to refresh each page to make sure they are being added into your list.

6. To check who is on your list, click the small drop-down arrow in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

You can then see whom you added and who subscribed to your list!

Now what?

Now you can do two things:

The list you created has a unique URL, which means this would make a great tweet and Facebook post:

Twitter

Note: I “copied” or cc’d a few of the people on this list — so hopefully they will see this and retweet to their followers, thus increasing the number of people who see you! As you grow this list, send this tweet out once a month tagging different people each time.

Facebook

Notice on Facebook that I tagged four business pages. For more about tagging on Facebook, click here.

Also notice that both status updates are similar, but they are both unique and catered to each platform.

Add your list to your HootSuite dashboard.

I use HootSuite to manage my Twitter and many other social media accounts. One of the biggest benefits to using HootSuite is being able to add a list to one of your columns in HootSuite. By adding a column, you can easily view the tweets from your list and then retweet them immediately. Or if they aren’t timely, retweet but schedule them to tweet out later. Here are a few simple screen shots on how to add your list to your HootSuite dashboard:

For additional information check out:

How do you curate content on Twitter? I’d love your feedback; leave me a comment below!

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