Something for #Bloggers who Tweet

I’ve started building a public Twitter list called “A Big List of Bloggers.” Eventually, it will include every blogger who follows @Sourcererblog on Twitter. As I write this, it already includes 115 bloggers.

I’m not making any distinctions based on content, frequency of updates, or size of followings for this list. If you have a blog, and I like you enough to give you a followback, you’re eligible for this list. It doesn’t matter whether you only post a couple of times a month, or whether you blog every day.

I’m using it to keep track of bloggers I interact with regularly. Twitter lists are perfect for aggregating headlines and links, and they give me an easy way to keep track of what a lot of bloggers are doing and share things my readers might be interested in without having to load 250 pages every day. It’s also a good way for me to keep up with just how many bloggers I’m following on Twitter. I think it might be useful to others, because it provides a good way for bloggers who are just getting started with Twitter to find other bloggers there.

It’s going to take awhile to build the list, because I have to look at every account and make sure I can actually find a blog associated with it before I add people to it. And because I’m reviewing more than 400 accounts, there’s always a chance I will miss someone. Once I’ve done the best I can, I’ll post a note to let folks know that if they’re not on the list they should bring it to my attention.

On Jan 19, my Twitter following stood at around 60. Since then I’ve picked up around 350 followers. The number isn’t nearly as important to me as the fact that most of these followers are real people who I share interests with. Two things have a allowed me to improve my Twitter presence – other people have helped me meet a lot of bloggers, and I’ve been spending a little time every day interacting with people and having conversations on #blogs, #blogging, and #wordpress.

I’ve also spent some time looking at my followers’ profiles and doing things such as commenting on their blogs, liking their Facebook pages, subscribing to their YouTube channels, sending shout-outs and giving FollowFriday recommendations. It seems to be working pretty well, and it’s something I can do without it taking an inordinate amount of my time, now that I’ve worked out how to organize my Twitter activities. Spending two weeks getting up to speed was worth it, even though it cost me a lot of writing time, because now I have a way to keep in touch with bloggers, and a way to have direct conversations with lots of bloggers all at once.

(edited 12/14/14: A list of every blogger who follows @Sourcererblog is quite impossible at this point. But the Big List of Bloggers still exists, and it isn’t that difficult to get on it 🙂 )