Tweeting through a Winning Week

"I wish I could get into comping on Twitter but there are so many messages I get overwhelmed and can never find the comps!" Have you ever said that to yourself? Or are you a regular Twitter comper who would like to speed  up your comping? Well,  Twitter lists can help you and here is one idea for a way to use them.

Many promoters have regular  weekly competitions which run on the same day every week. So if you know that Bloggs's Biscuits always run on a Tuesday, you need to remember to look out for their competition Tweet that day. Just looking in from time to time could  mean  that you miss it - wouldn't it be lovely to just be able to  see tweets from people who are running a competition that day? Using lists, you can do just that.

NOTE: at the moment, if you try to add somebody to a list using the official Twitter site,  you may get an error message. In fact while setting up my lists I found  that more than half of them failed to add. Therefore I am going to base the rest of today's instructions on  Tweet Deck. If you don't have Tweet Deck, I suggest you download it from http://www.tweetdeck.com/ and use it for creating your lists. Once they have been made, they will appear on your normal Twitter home  page and can be used with that or with any other Twitter  client you choose.

How it works

I have created lists  for every day of the working week - very few companies start new competitions at the weekend - and each day, I open the list either as a web page on my computer, by clicking on "Lists" at the top of my Twitter home page, or by clicking on the + sign at the top of  my Tweet Deck screen, selecting "groups/lists" from the "Add Column" menu that pops up, then selecting that day's list. When I have finished comping for the day, I can close the web page or click the "t" on the top right of the column and it's gone -until the next week.

How to create a list

Using your Twitter home page,   click on "Lists" at the top then scroll down to "Create a list" which will be below any lists you already have, then type in the name you want to give your list and save it. With Tweet Deck,  go to "Add Column" then "groups/lists" as above and  use the "New List" button at the top. My lists are  called - unsurprisingly - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

How to add somebody to a list (Tweet Deck only)

Before you start: click on the spanner on the top right of your Tweet Deck panel and in  the General section of the settings menu  that opens, make sure that the box next to "Open profiles in web pages" is NOT checked, as you will  need to view them using Tweet Deck to be sure of being able to add them to a list.

If you can see a tweet from the person you want to add to your list, hover your mouse pointer over their avatar and you will see a block  of four squares. Click on the bottom right one, "Other Actions" and move the mouse down to "User" from the mini-menu  that opens, then "Add to list" from the sub-menu. Select your chosen  list from the window  that opens  up and click "Finish".

If you can't see  a tweet from them, you need to use Tweet Deck to search for them. To do this, click on the circular symbol at the right of the line on the top left of your Tweet Deck screen (I think it's supposed to look like a torch) and type the user name into the search box. Their user profile will open up  and you can select any of their Tweets (but not a retweet) and use it to add them as  in the last paragraph.

Who to add

This is where YOU come in! The people listed below are those on my own lists, but if any of  you know of  other Twitter users that run  competitions on a regular day of the week, please add a comment and I will update the  lists as necessary.
I have just given user names rather than links to their Twitter  pages, since you  may not be able to add them to a list from their Twitter page. You probably ewon't want to add them all - some, like  TPExpressTrains are regional and some like deramores are connected to a hobby - knitting in this case - that you are not interested in, so check their profiles before adding them  to your list.

MONDAY

gowercottage
richersounds
BlurayReporter

TUESDAY

GettingPersonal
theatre_direct
BrowniesbyBB

WEDNESDAY

panasonicuk

THURSDAY

my Thursday list is empty - is yours?

FRIDAY

Moneywiseonline
cravendale
SodaStreamUK
mybagonline
BandBguide
thehut_com
Gifted_com
zavvionline
sendit_com
washbag_com
TPExpressTrains
lessonsinlegs
CharnosHosiery
crunchie
giraffetweet
BrowniesbyBB
GardenNewsmag
deramores
JamesonCultFilm
dabsdotcom
polydorrecords
VanityVan
DouweEgbertsUK
hallmarkUK
ShakeTastic
RibenaUK
DynaGirl
Accessorize
PsychologiesMag
V_and_A
Superbandz
GuitarHeroUK
TheLondonEye (not every week)
ElffieMakeup
Foyles
MonsoonTweets
sainsburys
InsideSoapMag
Illamasqua
MostlyAboutChoc
Official17
SEGA