Twitter Lists (note to self: Do not call them Twists... do NOT call them Twists...) were implemented a little while back, so I figured it's about time I try my hand at explaining them! At the most basic level, they're the same idea as friend lists in Facebook or groups in TweetDeck. They're a way to create groupings of people you follow based on whatever criteria you want. For example, you could have one for family members, another one for the funniest people you follow, another one for travel-related Twitterers, etc. Unfortunately, as with many Twittery things, it's a bit of a challenge to figure out how you actually use them.

Creating Your Own Lists

• Go to your Twitter home page.
• Click the New List link in the right-hand panel.
  
• Give your list a name, which will create the URL for the list by adding it on to your Twitter name. Add a description if you want.
  
  Note: The public and private options are exactly what they sound like; anybody can see the former, only you can see the latter. However, like with anything on the Internet, I would never trust that something can be 100% private, regardless of what controls are in place.
• Click Create List.

You'll now be taken to a page that lets you search for people to add to your list and the list will now appear in your right-hand panel. Clicking that link will take you back to this page at any time.

When you search on a name or keyword, you'll get a list of Twitterers that shows if you're currently following them individually.

If you're not following them, they'll have three buttons to the right. The first is to let you follow the person. The third provides a dropdown list of standard actions, like mention, direct message, block, etc. The middle button (which also appears beside people you follow) is the one related to lists. Note you don't have to follow someone individually to add them to a list.

This dropdown will display all lists you've created so you can add a person to several lists at the same time, which is nice. And because adding someone doesn't force a page reload, it's easy to go down the list of people to quickly add others.

Note: These buttons will appear on any page that lists Twitter names, including a people search and the lists of people you follow and who follow you. The option also appears on each person's individual pages.

Now when I click the link in my right-hand panel, the page shows everyone I've added to the list.

Now this is where the interface gets really bizarre. While you can see the people on the list here, you can't add or delete anybody. Instead, you need to click the View List Page link at the top right of the names. And once you get to that page, you still can't add people. I'm not quite sure why they couldn't have consolidated all those functions on that previous page.

And if that isn't bad enough, depending on which page you're on when you click that link in your right-hand panel (e.g. home page vs. followers page), you'll go to different pages—sometimes the one where you can delete people, sometimes not.

Note: And in case you're looking for more confusion, the screenshot above shows a number of followers. That number will be the total number of people on the list, even if some of them are not people you follow individually. And the number of "following" refers to the number of people following your list (see below), NOT following you necessarily. Got that?

Finally, if you want to know whose lists you appear on, go to your home page and click the Listed link under your name in the top right. You'll see any public list that people have created that include you. Clicking on one of those lists will let you see who else is on it as well.

Following Other People's Lists

If you create a public list, other people can follow/subscribe to it themselves and you can follow other people's. When you go to someone else's Twitter page, you'll see their list of lists. (Dear Twitter: It would have been really helpful if you'd called these darned things Groups or Categories or, well, anything but Lists!)

When you click one of those links, you'll see all the people on it as well as a button that says Follow This List.

If you click that button and go back to your own Twitter home page, you'll now see that list added to your right-hand panel as well.

Note: When you follow a list, it doesn't mean you're following each individual Twitterer on that list. In fact, that's one of the nice things about lists. You don't have to see people's tweets in your main stream—you can just see them when you check out what's happening on that list.

Okay, so that's a lot of information. And some of it IS rather confusing. I would suggest if you're interested in really understanding Twitter lists, you go ahead and create some and follow some that other people create and it will all become clearer. You can always delete them again at any time.

Having said that, I don't actually use them at all, but that's because I use TweetDeck for all things Twitter. At the moment, it doesn't support the lists function, although I've heard the next release will. But since it already has its own ability to create groups, which I do use a lot, I'm not sure if there will be much, if any, benefit.

One last thing... Since today is the first of December and all, it might be a good idea to see if you appear on one of this jolly guy's lists. :)

Do you use Twitter lists much? Do you find them especially helpful for certain purposes? Share your comments below.

Posted in How To, Social Media, Twitter