How to use Twitter Lists to monitor topics of interest

Posted • November 11, 2009 • 1 Comment

Twitter lists is twitter’s version of groups

It’s similar to a group you might create on Tweetdeck or Seesmic, but there are several advantages to creating a list on twitter. The list feature allows you to organize the people you’re following on Twitter, or find new people to follow. When you look at the list you can get an overview of what those people are up to. So far that sounds like what Tweetdeck and Seesmic offer with their group feature, BUT the lists feature also allows you to add someone to your list that you aren’t following. So, for example, if you know someone who tweets a bit too often for your taste, but you’d still like to keep an eye on them, you can add them to a twitter list and then check up on them, without having to actually follow them.

Still, you might wonder at the wisdom of creating a list on twitter, as opposed to creating a group on Tweetdeck or Seesmic. In my opinion, you can and should create both. While you’ll likely be using Tweetdeck or Seemic more to monitor and manage your conversations, creating a list on Twitter allows you to also add the group functionality on the site. Additionally, because you can add people to the list that you don’t follow, you can keep up with what they are doing, by checking your list on twitter. Finally, because lists are public (unless you choose to make them private), other people can actually see your list, and you can also see who has added you to a list. This is a functionality that isn’t offered by other platforms, and it can be useful for determining what kinds of lists you appear on.

I would suggest creating the following types of lists:

• Industry: Create a list following people in your industry and related industries. This could also be a list where you keep  track of your competition and anything new they are doing. I’d suggest making this list private, if you don’t want to tip people off that you are keeping track of them.
• Co-worker/Employee: A company or employee may want to create an employee or co-worker list to keep track of what employees or co-workers are saying. This can have its advantages and disadvantages in terms of how people may respond to that. On the one hand, it’s useful for monitoring what is being said by representatives of the company, and on the other hand it can come across as big brotherish. If you do create this list, you may want to keep it private.
• Networking/Referral/mentors: If you do a lot of networking, you may want to create list for people who you network with on a regular basis. It can help you see what they are up to and also help you think of them. I’d also include mentors in this list because these are people you want to network with and learn from.
• Local: It can be useful to create a list of local people, to keep up with what they are doing, or what’s happening in your city or hometown.
• Media: Keep track of editors of magazines, radio shows, or TV people you want to stay in touch with or work with. This list allows you to focus exclusively on those people.

These are just a few examples of lists you can create. You can create up to twenty lists, with a maximum of 500 followers per list, though this number will likely change as times goes on. I do recommend creating lists and logging into twitter to check them, especially to see what the people you aren’t following are saying.

You can also see what lists you are on by selecting the listed link. You can even choose to follow someone else’s list, by clicking on the name of list, and then on the list page selecting the Follow this list button.

There are also several third party sites that provide information on lists. Listorious is maintains a categorized directory of Twitter lists that you can search or browse through. TweetMeme Lists is another tools, which focused on the most popular lists, the ones that have been tweeted about the most. Using either of these sites can help you find more lists, if you want to follow the lists other people create. Personally, I’ve opted to just create my own lists and keep track of them. I might look at another person’s list occasionally for people I’d like to add to my lists, but I’d prefer to only keep track of my own.

How to create a twitter list

Creating a new list is easy to do. Login to twitter and click on the new List link. After you’ve done that a new window will appear asking you to name the list and indicate if it is a public or private list. Choose a name for it that is descriptive for you. I chose the name of example, but you can obviously pick a more descriptive name than that.

After you’ve created the list you’ll be taken to a page where you can start to find people to add them to your list. You’ll also have the option of going to your follow page to add someone there.

Once you’re on the follow page, select the lists icon and then select the checkbox next to the list(s) you want to add a person to. Remember you don’t need to follow the person to have him/her on the list.

If you ever want to edit or delete a list, select view lists and then select the link to the list you want to edit or delete. Delete gets rid of the list, while edit allows you to edit the name and the privacy settings of the list. You can also get off of someone else’s list, by blocking them, which will then remove you from their list.

Taylor Ellwood
Business, Writing, & Social Media Coach

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