Do you use Twitter lists? Do you even know what they are and how to use them?
Twitter has become my go to platform in recent times and is, for me at least, a great tool for increasing reach and visits to SideGains. But it can become a pain to manage as time passes and your Twitter followers grow.
Today I’m going to explain precisely what Twitter lists are and how you can use them to improve your your Twittering effectiveness!
More posts about Social Media.
A Brief Overview of Twitter Lists
When you’ve been using Twitter for a while and you’ve picked up a few hundred active followers, it can be difficult to keep up with their daily Tweets and interact with them.
If you currently only use your Home feed to see with what people are Tweeting, you’ll see a whole heap of other Tweets alongside those of the people whose activity you’re super interested in.
The Home feed can be pretty noisy and it’s a struggle to pick out the accounts you want to interact with regularly. This is where Twitter lists can be a very useful friend!
You can create a list in your account and add Twitterers to it, then when you view the timeline related to it you’ll only see a stream of Tweets belonging to the accounts on the list. In this way, lists are effectively a curated mini-Twitter feed.
The real beauty of lists is you can create multiple list sets and use them as a way to categorize different Twitter accounts in any way you’d like.
You might want to create a list of your favorite celebrities or pop stars. Perhaps you’re interested in politics and need a list to focus on the Tweets from certain politicians.
Twitter lists are like filters you can use to see a stream of Tweets from only those people you want to see.
What Lists Should I set up as a Blogger?
You can set up a list to categorize accounts in any way, but if you’re using Twitter to grow your blog following, here are a few suggestions:
- Influencers.
- Competitors.
- Specific followers.
- Potential followers.
- Potential Customers.
- Niche specific news or products.
- Partners.
- Twitterers who often retweet you.
Of course you can set up any list you like, but having a set of lists like these will help you to focus your attention more effectively on each different list category.
Private & Public Twitter Lists
The lists you create can be public or private.
Public lists are visible to anyone, and anyone can subscribe to them. Private lists are visible only to you.
When you add someone to a public list, they receive a notification. This can help you get some attention from Twitterers you’d like to notice you.
Conversely, adding someone to a private list remains, well… private. Nobody gets notification they’ve been added to a private list… it’s a list that only you can see.
Summary
- Twitter lists provide a way for you to view the Tweets of those accounts added to the list.
- Think of them as curated mini-Twitter feeds.
- Lists can be private or public.
- Adding someone to a public lists sends a notification to the person you’ve added.
- Adding someone to a private list remains does not send a notification to the person you’ve added.
That’s it for now.
Paul

Do you rely on Twitter lists? If not, how do you keep up with your favorite accounts on Twitter? Drop me a comment below and leave a question or tell me about how you use lists?
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