Discover why Twitter Lists are such a brilliant idea
Have you been Listed on Twitter yet? Chances are if you are active on Twitter then you will have already been added to Twitter Lists, the latest innovation to the micro-blogging platform.
After a short beta period where only a few people could create a such a List, it has been open to all users since the start of November and already many thousands of lists have been created.
Initially they have simply been lists of great people to follow, often categorised and tenderly curated by their creators. However, they are growing more ambitious and being used for all manner of reasons ever more creative! One thing is certain is that Twitter Lists are a terrific innovation and will get you found and followed.
Here is how Twitter founder Biz Stone explained on Twitter’s blog: “We’ve been taking our time rolling out the lists feature to make sure things go smoothly and developers have a chance to begin experimenting with our Lists API. For example, TLISTS will provide tools to efficiently build, measure and distribute Lists, while Listorious hosts a directory of 'awesome lists' on Twitter.
“Anyone can curate and publish lists, so if you have an idea for one, just click "New list" in the sidebar of your Twitter account and you're on your way. Add accounts to a list using the "Lists" drop drown on a profile page. We believe Lists will be a new discovery mechanism for great tweets and accounts.”
So get creating lists and follow that interest you, not least as you can click on a list and see constant updates from those named in that list.
However brilliant, Twitter Lists, are not going to draw people back to the clumsy interface that is Twitter. There is simply not enough functionality on the main Twitter website, which is why third party applications need to offer support.
Tweetdeck are continuously improving its desktop interface for Twitter and hopefully they will add functionality for Twitter Lists soon. Already rival offering Seesmic has and hopefully Tweetdeck, our preferred choice of Twitter desktop client is not too far behind. Twitter Lists will be incorporated into our future Twitter Workshops, the dates of which have already been scheduled and are invaluable if you want to leverage Twitter for your business.