Paul Kortman

I implore you to investigate Twitter lists. A New feature rolled out by twitter last week. A quote from twitter’s own non-micro-blog:

“We believe Lists will be a new discovery mechanism for great tweets and accounts.”

I have to underscore that. There are great list strategies and great twitter lists being created and curated everyday. I’ve tried to list some lists and catoroize them to give some inspiration. There is no way to include the thousands of lists, nor the many different list making strategies, I’ve tried to cover the basics with links to more information.

From lists that geographically tie people:

• http://twitter.com/SleepoverRover/local-las-vegas
• http://twitter.com/SuperDu/grand-rapids
• http://twitter.com/bcbeatty/chicago
• http://twitter.com/BillHR/grandrapids
• http://twitter.com/keithprivette/minnesota-twitheads

To lists that focus on people’s content

• http://twitter.com/PRsarahevans/social-groups-tech-app
• http://twitter.com/SashaWolff/socialmediaawesomesauce
• http://twitter.com/mashable/social-media-links
• http://twitter.com/chucksense/comedy
• http://twitter.com/glossolaliac/musicality

To Lists that are employment focused

• http://twitter.com/muckrack/chicago-tribune
• http://twitter.com/namtrok/team-ddm
• http://twitter.com/imaclurg/pomegranate-studios
• http://twitter.com/VarejoVerdeWM/walmart
• http://twitter.com/blackfridayweb/major-retailers

Or the lists that could only fall into the category of Too Much Information?

• http://twitter.com/jimconnolly/jims-inner-circle
• http://twitter.com/califmom/nutz-n-slutz
• http://twitter.com/damselesque/people-i-don-t-sleep-with
• http://twitter.com/lafix/guns-for-hire

Could The geographically focused lists fall into the category of TMI if a person doesn’t give their location away in their twitter account? Therein lies a significant problem with the list functionality: You are defined by what people list you as. Could someone add your account to a liars-cheats-conartists list? Could they be sued for defamation?

Possible Twitter List Strategies

No matter how you develop your lists, There are Etiquette and Strategies that are already emerging. As well as third party app support and integration for twitter lists.  But to me the most benefit of this new feature is the metrics this will enable.

Before twitter lists, one had to look at three numbers and 10 tweets to determine if an account was real and or worth their follow. Now we have a 4th number, listed.

For example, look at a famous twitteratti: Sarah Evans, She follows > 9,000 people and has 31,000 followers. She has posted 14,000 tweets. On these three numbers I am able to draw a few conclusions

• She either stopped following people in return, or she only follows a select few
• She is somehow famous in twitter, or ran a competition to get followers
• She posts a lot of content.

Now we add the list number; She has been listed over 500 times. This means that not only do people follow her for unknown reasons but now they specifically list her and essentially tell you why they list her. By glancing through the lists she is on a person can know what kind of content they will receive from her.

• marketing
• blogging
• social media
• chicago
• publicrelations
• must follow

Looking through these lists it also tells me what she is not

• photographer
• funny/humor
• west coast
• self promoter
• MLM entrepreneur

Twitter lists are a very powerful tool. It is your choice to use this power for good or for evil. I predict good will triumph in the long run but there will be evil shortly.

So what’s your Twitter List Strategy? Do you desire to be listed 100 times? Do you desire to gain respect and following by creating the most beneficial lists? A new fame could come from curating the best lists.

Related Posts: (automatically generated)

• Social Media and Blog Content (1)
• Social Media Policy (8)
• Why Just Twitter and Facebook? (12)
• Google’s Real-Time Updates, a crack in the wall? (3)

Spread the word: Tweet this article!