“What’s the benefit? Should I even bother?” I often get asked this by SMB owners and my clients.
Yes! Twitter lists are really useful! They help you organize the people you follow (and don’t follow) into a specific “group” and when you click to view a list, you’ll see a stream of Tweets from all the users included in that group.
The “group” or list are targeted people that you really want to keep your eye on, follow their tweets and news easily without having to go into their profile all the time.
Note: you don’t need to follow another user to add them to a list; if you want to read a user’s Tweets but not see their messages in your main timeline every day, lists allow you to do that. And following someone else’s list does not mean you follow all users in that list. Rather, you follow the list itself.
Twitter allows up to 20 lists per account with up to 500 names in each list. Lists can be public or private. Anyone can follow a public list.
Here are some great examples of lists that can help you keep focused: Industry experts, industry peers/professionals, networking, fans, clients, potential clients, competitors, vendors, journalists/editors, bloggers, analysts, magazines, industry events, celebrities, research, geographic targets, role models, news sites for top news in your industry (make sure your name is there too!).
See Listorious for a great compilation of lists to find and follow. You can also see the lists that I have created here for an example. I refer to my own lists, like “Social Media Stuff” a few times a day to stay up to date on social media news.
And I *try* and keep my lists updated. That’s to say, every time I follow someone new, I add them in a list straight away.
It’s really easy and worth while to start Twitter Lists: See SIMPLE instructions here.
Here’s to your organized Twitter lists!
As usual, would love to hear your comments – please add them below!
Best
Yasmin
I agree lists are very helpful. You may not have time to go through all the tweets in your stream so sometimes you have to jump in for 5 mins and then you want to catch the important ones! All the best, Ian
Absolutely, that’s exactly what I do. Thanks for your comments and input!
It doesn’t seem to be common knowledge that you don’t actually have to follow ANY of the accounts on your lists; you can add them & their tweets will always appear there. A rather nifty feature if you don’t wish to appear to follow anyone & everyone. I wouldn’t be without my 12 lists, they keep me sane in a Twitter world!
Excellent point! Yes, you can add anyone to your lists and follow them that way, without actually “following” them. That way, you can keep the ratio between following and followers in check.
Twitter lists ARE the best! Thanks for your comments.
Good post Yasmin,
I find Twitter lists are EXTREMELY helpful, as I barely even follow my home feed anymore.
You mentioned that you try to keep your lists updated. You should looking into using Formulists.com to build your Twitter list. It auto-updates your lists for you so you don’t have too. 🙂
Dave
Hey Dave, thanks SO MUCH for comment on Forumulists.com. Just been there and created/organized my lists. Fantastic!