4 Great Ways to Use the New Twitter Lists

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New Twitter List Example (@NealSchaffer)

Twitter is slowly rolling out their promised Twitter lists to all of their users now.  Apparently, a great number of users just started receiving access to this new functionality yesterday.  If you now have access to it, you will notice it when you log into Twitter by the prominent text bar above your timeline with the red “New!” line.  Although Twitter has slowly been rolling out changes like the Twitter one-click spammer reporting or small changes in the user interface of deleting Direct Messages (it now says “Reply” or “Delete” instead of just an icon) or replying to tweets (it now says “Reply” instead of just an icon), this is the first new major functionality that has been added to Twitter in some time.  And it is a new functionality that you should be leveraging.

Four Great Ways of Using the New Twitter Lists

1) Organize Your Timeline

This is the most obvious use for the new Twitter List and the reason why it was created.  As you start following many people, you need a way to filter out users and make better use of the information.  Up until now, you had to install a separate Twitter application like Tweetdeck (or use the web service HootSuite) in order to create a group of people that you wanted to filter out of the main timeline.  Twitter Lists give you one more reason to use Twitter.com as your main Twitter interface (that is, if you don’t have multiple accounts…).  I haven’t seen a limitation as to how many lists you can create, and you can name them however you like.  There is an option to make your list either private or public when you create it, so if you make it public and it becomes public domain and thus seen by everyone and can even be followed by everyone, you may want to be careful as to how you name them.  Also, the people that you include on your list can find this information out, which is another good reason to name your list in a way that would flatter someone who is on it.  Note that the lists can only be created of users and not keywords, so this may not be enough to get everyone to switch from Tweetdeck or HootSuite…Twitter, are you listening?

2) Find Great Tweeters to Follow

By looking at the Lists of those people that you respect, you can get a good idea of who they follow which may give you some good people to follow yourself.  Sure, up until now you could go to Chris Brogan‘s timeline and see who he communicates with and follows, but it would take you a long time to decipher that information to figure out who you should follow.   Unfortunately, when I checked today, Chris hadn’t created any lists ;-(  (I understand, Chris, because I haven’t had time to create extensive lists either!)  But for instance you could go to another social media thought leader like Jeremiah Owyang and get some ideas by looking at the lists he’s created.  As more and more people create lists, it will be fun to see who they recommend you follow.  It is a mass improvement and a democratization of the Twitter Suggested Users List and even the Tweetdeck.com Directory, both of which I was never satisfied with (although the Tweetdeck does categorize tweeters by subject the selection process is unclear and questionable).  Indeed, some can say that is the birth of Twitter 2.0 by allowing the users to catalog users to help other users find relevant people to follow.

3) Get Tweeters to Follow You

Just as you may @Reply or follow someone new in hopes that they may notice you or follow you back, putting someone on one of your Twitter Lists is a sign of deep respect that just may get you noticed.  It can be used as a similar strategy, but don’t think Oprah will follow you just because you placed her on one of your Twitter lists  Which leads me to perhaps the most importan way of using Twitter Lists…

4) Brand Your Twitter Presence

Just as who you follow and what you tweet is part of your Personal Branding on Twitter, so is what types of lists you have and who is on your lists.  If you want to be considered a subject matter expert in your field to elevate your Twitter Brand, being the person that has created the best, most comprehensive lists for your subject matter will surely add to your Twitter Brand and further show that you are an expert.  The lists should be relevant to your brand, but it is another important way to help differentiate yourself from the other tweeple out there.

[Although not part of the original blog post, one of my Twitter followers Tom Voute had a 5th suggestion: use the Twitter List to "mirror" someone.  Have you ever wondered what the Twitter timeline someone else sees looks like?  You can make a Twitter List and add all of the people that that person follows on the list.  In doing so, you can mirror their timeline!  Definitely a creative and unique way of using Twitter lists, so thank you Tom for the input!]

[Another addition to the blog post prompted by another reader.  It isn't easy to figure out how to edit the lists once they are created.  One of the commenters to this post, Racer 48, asked how to add a new person to an existing list.  I thought that this should be possible, and I knew I had done it before, but I couldn't find any way to do this by looking at the options on my own profile page.  Another commenter, Sue, quickly pointed out that it can be easily done, but the catch is that you have to go to the profile of the person that you want to add or delete from one of your lists.  Thank you Sue!  Would be nice if this functionality was also added to your own Profile page...especially if you want to delete several people at once, it would make it much easier to do this from one page.]

Since Twitter Lists are new, the etiquette of whether or not you thank someone if they add you to the list has yet to be determined.  I suppose it is similar to a ReTweet or a #FollowFriday, but then again people could add you to a list just so that you notice them or follow you back as I suggested in 3) above.  Will you thank the people that add you to their Twitter List?

Finally, perhaps a year from now, the number of lists that you are on may say something greater than the number of followers you have as it is a sign of true respect.  I can see people using multiple accounts and making multiple lists of themselves to try to show off the numbers of lists that they are on.  And with this, I see the potential for Twitter limiting how many lists each account can create if people start using it in ways it wasn’t intended for.

Bottom line: Create, leverage and enjoy the Twitter Lists while you have them!

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