Twitter lists came out a few months ago to much fan-fare and everybody rushed to “curate” their own lists of Twitter followers. There was a flurry of posts about people mass un-following and following a list of people related to their area of interest instead.
I’m not a big advocate of just following Twitter lists with a couple of notable exceptions, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
What’s a Twitter List?
A Twitter List is literally a list of Twitter users. Generally they are categorized by the subject matter they tweet about, location or some relationship to the person who built the list. The person who built the list is called the “curator” of that list and everyone on the list is someone they follow.
Why are there Twitter lists?
If you’ve got a lot of followers you are probably using an application that lets you group people in some way. Maybe your friends, your neighbors, business associates, people who tweet about iPhone apps, whatever. These lists are useful when you want to quickly scan for information without having to read your entire Twitter home page. Twitter lists are an easy way to group people too and help you keep things in perspective.
Why follow a list?
Let’s say there’s a list of everyone going to or speaking at a conference you plan to attend. Maybe you don’t want to follow all of them but you want to keep tabs on what’s going on. Following the list is an easy way to sort out who among the people on that list you might want to interact with further.
Use Twitter lists to find new connections
Watch the list and find the people you want to talk to more and follow them individually. This is important. Why? Because just following the list, even if you’re on the list yourself doesn’t really give you a way to create a relationship with the people on the list. Sure you see each other’s posts and you might even re-tweet or reply to a conversation, but until you actually follow each other you’re not connected. After the conference discussion dies down you may lose contact altogether.
When following just the list is not enough.
There are lots of tweets out there you may just want to keep an eye on, but not so much you have to connect on a 1 to 1 level. Some great examples are lists of Tech news, or news outlets. Sure you want to get the latest news around the world but you don’t want to read every single news story? Follow some good lists related to what your interests are and scan the lists periodically for news to share with your networks. I like to follow the lists of the big brand names just to keep on top of their new initiatives but I don’t really feel the need to connect directly with them.
Why create a Twitter list?
Because you are unique. You may be the only one who has pulled together a list of journalists and media critics who really matter to your point of view or smaller niches like comic book creators or classical musicians. Your perspective on who should be on the list and who isn’t is valuable to anyone trying to learn more about that space.
Why NOT to follow Twitter lists
If you just follow the list for news and information OK, but it’s kind of shallow engagement in most cases. If you want to be an effective Twitter user you need to create a relationship, have a conversation. Share information and help each other. To do that you need to follow and get followed back on a 1 on 1 basis. So I’m not saying you should never follow a list. I’m saying follow a list and then find the people you want to talk to more and connect with them. Search for lists that interest you on sites like Listorious and use them as a jumping-off point for a deeper relationship.
Just say no to mass following
Browse the lists for people who are interesting and resist the urge to mass follow. You’ll get a whole lot more out of your relationships!
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