Bridget Willard

Be More Efficient on Twitter with Twitter Lists

Updated 1/3/2021.

Twitter lists are the most efficient way to use Twitter for the busy marketing professional or small business owner. Heck, it’s the only way I run my business.

Time and time again, I am asked how to be more efficient in one’s use of Twitter. The answer is simple. Use lists.

This allows you to spend more time engaging your targeted audiences, curate content for all platforms, and, more importantly, listen. For more on why Twitter is the best for business to business marketing, read this post.

This post has been updated in January of 2021 and includes a few videos. Read up from Twitter on everything you need to know about lists.

Table of Contents hide
1 You know you don’t have to read every tweet, right?
2 How do you create a list on Twitter?
3 How do you list users on Twitter?
4 What do you need to know about listing on Twitter?
5 Listing by Relationship:
6 Listing by Topic
7 Listing by Geography
8 Organization is the Key to Being Effective
9 Bonus:
10 Happy Listing.

You know you don’t have to read every tweet, right?

Often those new to Twitter complain that there is so much to read. They unfollow “prolific” (often used as a derogatory term) tweeters because they “clog up” their Twitter stream.

You can scroll. And you can filter.

Twitter Lists are the most under-utilized tool available to Twitter users second to the reply button. Share on X

How do you create a list on Twitter?

The one good update from Twitter is the prominence of lists on the sidebar. Go to your username (slash) lists like https://twitter.com/BridgetMWillard/lists and click on the +List icon at the top. Or you can click on the Lists link on the sidebar.

Be intentional about your list names. You should lists clients, categories, industry, etc. More on that is below.

How do you list users on Twitter?

You can create and edit lists on Twitter’s web app for desktop.

When you go to a user’s profile, click the three dots, choose “add or remove from lists,” and then choose the list. You can add users to more than one list. Twitter just changed how this looks now (July 2019).

You can add people to existing lists from Twitter desktop, mobile, or Hootsuite. I primarily use HootsuitePro because the columns you setup are the same on desktop or mobile.

For In-Depth Tutorials See:

What do you need to know about listing on Twitter?

You do not have to follow someone to be able to list them.  This can be helpful for celebrities and news people (that you make lists for).

So give your lists some thought. Think keywords.  It is so much work to go backward and fix these.

Lists can be public or private. When you add people to a list, they will be notified that they are listed and the name of the list. Twitter users can subscribe to your public lists.  I don’t use private lists.

More: Twitter Help Center:  Using Twitter Lists

Listing by Relationship:

In my talk, “You Are What You Tweet,” I emphasized the importance of listing and relationships. It is important to think about what relationships you may want to list.

Pencil out some of the choices you might have. Think about your business and or interests. Humor, automobiles, travel, politics, and sports are just a few of the endless possibilities.

Think of your three target demographics you need to stay in touch with. Write those down. Be aware that they will be notified of the name of the list.

When I worked for Riggins Construction, I put our clients and brokers on and another for our subcontractors. Those were people whose tweets I always want to see, reply to, and share.

When I worked for GiveWP, I wanted to see our team, nonprofits, and WordPress users.

Listing can be done for any industry.

Listing by Topic

Sometimes it’s hard to remember a follower when you need to. Usernames are often hard to remember (exactly) and avatars frequently change.

When I wanted to remember the two painters I followed in Orange County, I was so frustrated.  I had a “construction” list for the @RigginsConst account, but it was too diverse.

I finally ended up making several lists and put the floor and tile people together the HVAC and roofing people together, the General Contractors on their own list, etc.

For GiveWP, I started an #NPChat list. This helped me engage with those who are participating in our weekly chat during the week.

Listing by Geography

There are many benefits to listing by geography.

For business and networking purposes, it’s good to put people who live in your vicinity, say county, on a list. This is especially important for brick-and-mortar businesses who depend upon local clientele.

For example, I have an Orange County list, I can go to that column on Hootsuite, and read only those tweets.  The list filters out my whole twitter stream (currently following 11,600) to show only the 376 on that list. Obviously, making the information more relevant and manageable for me. This gives me the ability to scroll through tweets and find gems even from four hours ago that I missed while otherwise occupied. I simply reply to start a conversation or share (retweet) their post.

Another reason to list by geography is if you’re researching an area to travel and/or move.

My backup plan, should I ever have to leave California, is to move to Arizona.  I started putting people on a list with other Arizonans.  I can read their tweets, interact, get to know the area, learn new things, and make friends before I even move.

Organization is the Key to Being Effective

Listing is the only way I think I could be truly effective at building relationships on Twitter. Prioritizing who you engage with is not bad, it’s common sense.

There are a lot of non-sense tweets, check-ins, and such, but those are also the tweets that show an individual’s humanity and personality. Discovering shared interests is the start of any friendship.

Bonus:

Go read: “Twitter Lists for the Power User” by Carol Stephen for more ideas.

Happy Listing.

Feel free to check out my lists here.

Bridget Willard

,

37 responses to “Be More Efficient on Twitter with Twitter Lists”

  5. Hi can u tell me how someone created a ‘list’ on my profile?
    I didn’t create it, but noticed it was there one day.
    It’s showing in the area on the profile called ‘Listed’, not actually in my account Lists.

    How’d that get there? Should I be worried someone may have access to my account, or is this normal, and not someone getting into it with my password?

  7. If you’d look at my profile it would be easier to see what I mean 🙂
    I’m new to twitter and may not be explaining the area correctly.

    @GHsoapViewer is the account.

    To bad I can’t just attach a screen capture here. lol

    Thanks for replying, BTW

  8. Looking from a browser I don’t see this showing, but when I look using my twitter client I see it. How can I have you see it too?

  9. Could this be something I’m seeing listed on someone else’s account, linked to mine, and my client ‘TweetBot’ shows it?

    As I said, I’m new to all this twitter listing stuff.

    Maybe I can post the screen capture on a photo site, and put that link here for you to browse to it. Unless attachments are able to be placed directly here.

  12. Ahhh, so my client is showing me someone else’s list of my twitter name, that THEY put onto their own account?

    If so, if I ever want to remove it, I simply block them?
    Not that I want to now, I’m just curious.

  14. Thanks for explaining it.
    Your blog is very helpful for us newbies to twitter 😉

  23. Hi Bridget!
    I’ve been on Twitter for years and don’t understand why I can no longer create a new list? I have four lists and wanted a fifth. My good friend just wanted to make his first list today too, and he also got an error message. I’ve Googled everywhere to find the answer but hit a deadend. Got all excited that perhaps Tweetdeck would fix it; Tweetdeck is now gone, lol. Any advice is so appreciated!

  24. Annette,

    Good question.

    Make the list on Twitter (dot) com not in a third party app like TweetDeck (though owned by Twitter) or Hootsuite.

    Also, subscribed lists can mess you up. Both my friend and I had to UNSUBSCRIBE from all but ten of other people’s lists.

    Let me know if that helps.

  25. Thank you so much for your suggestions! I tried both with no luck. Just amazed that Twitter doesn’t have that covered in their FAQs.

  27. Don’t ask me how or why but at least this worked to make two new lists. Instead of going to Lists on the PC on my main page to create one, I found a person to add to a new list, but I went to THEIR page, then clicked on their drop-down to add/remove to list, and in that pop-up window, I clicked on “Create a New List.” Day made, thanks!

  29. Hi Bridget! Thanks for this article. I made a list in Tweetdeck called “BASEBALL”. How can I filter my “HOME” list so that I don’t see tweets from members of the “BASEBALL” list? Can I do this without unfollowing them? Thanks in advance!