Twitter Lists
Twitter debuted is new Lists feature in late 2009.
Lists let you organize the people you follow into groups. It is a way to group Twitterers into common topics to streamline your reading experience.
I use this tool to put all my technology follows on one list, while all of my social media follows are on another. When I read through my tweet stream, reading them grouped by similar topics focuses my attention and prevents the distraction of jumping from topic to topic.
By putting people on Lists, you streamline your experience of reading tweets. If you are like me, you like to mentally check off tasks as you complete them. By organizing people I follow into Lists, I can group their tweets for quicker consumption.
If you prefer to keep your follows in a single stream, you may find it hard to keep up with the various streams of conversation because each tweet will jump from one topic to another.
By grouping follows into Lists, you maintain a manageable degree of similarity from post to post so you don’t have to do so many mental acrobatics to follow the thread of a conversation.
Some Twitterers use the number of Lists on which they appear as a measure of their reach and influence. This is akin to the sheer number of follows and followers a Twitterer accumulates as a badge of their popularity, and can be a competitive effort to see who can appear on the most lists.
As I constantly say, focus on the quality of your content and contributions – not the quantity. Popularity rises and falls with the times but quality will endure.
You may find it useful to peruse the Lists of others as a way to find interesting new people to follow, especially when you are new to Twitter.
Lists can be made public or private, depending on your preference.
See the Twitter help page for detailed steps to creating a List and adding people to it at http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/76460.
A Tweet Before We Go
Twitter is a popular, easy-to-use tool that engages users with frequent updates to topics that interest them and simplifies the process of sharing information across your social network.
I recommend diving in feet first with Twitter to experience it in full, then decide to what degree you want to pull back to make it both useful and not overwhelming. Finding balance takes some exercise, but you will quickly gauge what works for you.
Twitter is an incredible resource that will endure and evolve but it can feel like drinking from a fire hydrant for new users. Learning to moderate is the key to enjoying your Twitter experience.
Contribute, engage, share and always be of value are the primary goals to remember as you tweet, tweet, tweet.
How Do You Tweet?
Tweet us a Comment and we’ll tweet you right back. Tweet me @geofftucker.