Basics: How to Use Twitter Lists

Twitter rolled out its “Lists” feature last week.  This seems to be Twitter’s new initiative to help its users filter out all the unnecessary voices in the Twitterverse. Personally,  I am very excited about this new feature. Two days after Twitter lists were launched, WebStudio13 was one of the first reporting the most popular Twitter lists. As a social media enthusiast, I wanted to write a tutorial on how to use Twitter lists. There are 4 main points in this how-to guide.

1. What Is It About?

According to the Twitter blog, “The (Twitter lists) idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts. For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses, friends, or any compilation that makes sense.”

When you create a list, you can either make it public or private.  Twitter enables you to share your public lists with other Twitter users, and anyone else can follow the list you created if it’s made public.  So far, the Twitter Team is the most popular and mot followed list.

2. How Can You Leverage It?

There are many innovative ways you can use Twitter lists for.  Let’s name a few here.

• For tech geeks, they can create a list of influential techies, like what Robert Scoble has done – Most Influential in Tech
• For news blogs, they tend to create a list of their contributing authors or team members.  Not only does this strengthen team spirits, it’s also an effective way to allow readers to get targeted and focused news.  For example, both Mashable and ReadWriteWeb have done this.
• For big groups, it can be an effective way to facilitate communications among group members.  I created a networking group called NY Entrepreneurs Business Network in New York City.  The group continues to grow bigger and bigger, but seemingly there aren’t enough communication tools among NYEBN’s members.  A NYEBN list bridges the gap and creates a better community. Anyone can follow this list here.

The examples can go on and on.  Depending on your specific purposes, you should create different lists and name them accordingly. There are no limits in terms of the number of lists you can create or follow, but be mindful that too many lists can be overwhelming and difficult to manage.

3. How Do You Create It?

First of all, make sure you understand the basic terminology that people use in the Twitter world, such as Follow, Unfollow, Mention, Tweet, etc.  Check out Twitter 101 if you need to catch up with those basics.  Here are the steps on how to create your own lists.

I. Log in your Twitter account

II. Find the “Lists” section on your Twitter screen, and then click on “New list” (see graph)

III. Name the group, and make it either public or private. Create a public list to share with others

IV. Go find different Twitter users whom you would like to add to your group. You don’t have to add them all at once. Instead, I encourage you to  repeat Step IV (this step) daily as you discover more and more Tweeps to fit into different groups you’ve created.

After you’ve created your own groups, promote it among the people you meet online or offline.  This is always the rule of  thumb on Twitter – The more people who are following your lists, the more influential your lists become.

4. How Do You Follow It?

If you would rather follow other people’s lists instead of creating your own, Twitter makes this process easier for you as well.  There are three steps that help you find and follow lists created by others.

I. Take Jason Calacanis, the founder of Mahalo, for example.  If you try to follow his lists, simply go to his Twitter profile

II. Click on “View all” in the “Lists” section

III. If you see a list you would like to follow in particular, click on the link

IV. Follow it

All in all, if you like Twitter, the concept of having your own lists sounds innovative.  It certainly will help you better manage your Twitter profile.  Plus, by looking at how many of them you are listed on, it indirectly reflects your popularity on Twitter.  What do you think of the “Lists” idea?  List your pros and cons.

Note: There is another how-to article on how to use Twitter Lists on Mashable. Check it out here.