Twitter recently revealed a new feature called Lists. Lists are a great way to organize the people you follow into various categories. They become collections of your favorite influencers for others to comb though and discover, and they make it a snap to find a particular tweep not showing up in your current tweet stream. Lists allow the cream to float to the top.
List creation has got to be a dream come true for people who have thousands, if not tens of thousands of people they follow. Even though I follow fewer than two thousand people, my first attempt to sort everyone into categories proved daunting, so I gave up and deleted my new lists. I needed to figure out who and why I wanted to categorize people.
NOT EVERYONE CAN BE ON THE A-LIST
I quickly realized the downside of lists. When I made a list public, I would run the risk of some of my tweeps feeling excluded from my must-follow clubs. This is not my intention. My interpretation of lists is not for a popularity contest, but rather a snapshot of who I follow and for what reason. Yes, I’m giving props to certain A-listers, and @chrisbrogan is on my Social Media Godliness list as he is on 5,000 others’. If I don’t include him as a rockstar influencer, will his feelings be hurt? Doubtful, I imagine Chris is cool like that. If I don’t list him, will you assume I’ve never heard of him? Maybe. Lists are like a permanent #FollowFriday nod. Not everyone can be on an A-list, otherwise, what’s the point of categorizing?
ITS MY LIST
In the end I decided I would create lists to include the people that interest me the most with any given topic. The ones with consistently good content. Those whose blogs, insight and tweets are always gold. With the exception of my local area list, which pretty much includes everyone with an (802) area code – so I reduce the risk of being run out of town :), I’ve created lists for only MY best of the best.
