Twitter Lists

Emily MacNair - November 12, 2009

If you’re an avid Twitter user, the announcement of Twitter Lists is probably old news.  If you are not, then you may find this post helpful to manage the many different types of people or companies that you follow on Twitter.

In mid October, Twitter announced a new feature called Twitter Lists.  Lists are basically a way for users to organize those who they follow into groups, referred to as lists. Any Twitter user can create a list and by default these lists are public but can also be made private.  Lists can be created around any subject or theme and are viewable on the page of the user who created the list.  You can also follow others’ lists to see what is being discussed about a particular topic. Following lists enables you to easily find users that you can connect with and see the information discussed about that topic.  Just as you can follow others’ lists, other Twitter users can follow your lists as well if they are public.

Creating lists is easy.  Simply log into Twitter and look toward the right-hand side of your homepage.  You will see a link to create a new list. Once a list is created it can be easily shared, as each list has a unique URL.

There are a few ways to add users to lists however, at this time there does not appear to be a way to add multiple users to a list.  Instead, you have to do this one by one. You can add users to a list just about anywhere that profiles are listed. Just look for the list button next to the profile. When clicked, it will show the lists that you’ve created and allow you to add them to your list of choice. You can also add users to a list when viewing their page.

So where do you go to find lists that might interest you to follow? You can browse lists created by another Twitter user by viewing their profile and browsing through all of the lists that they’ve created.  Another place to look is http://listorious.com/, a site that offers many different lists available to follow. You can also add your list to this site too.