Twitter 101: Twitter lists and how to use them

October 30, 1:47 PMDC Technology ExaminerTanya Gupta

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Twitter lists, which have just been introduced on Twitter, allow you to group the people that you follow into different lists.  When you log into Twitter, you will see an announcement about the beta version of Twitter lists.  The announcement explains that Twitter lists are timelines that you build for yourself, consisting of anyone you want to add to it.

Step 1:  Click on "Create a new list" .  This will bring you to another screen:

Step 2:  I can now type in the list name and either make it public - which means everyone can see it or or keep it private.  For example if I want to have a personal list of my closest friends that I don't necessarily want the whole world to see, I would want to create a private list.  For this particular example, I created a public list called politics and clicked on "create list". 

Step 3: Now I get to pick who I want to put on this list.  There are two ways of doing this. Either I can search for the people I want to add to this list, or pick them directly from the people I follow.  The first option is better is when I want to add people that I don't follow to my list.  Let's say I want to follow President Obama.  In the screen that appears, I can search for people I want to add to the list.  I type in Obama and press enter

This brings me to a list of people with the word Obama in their name. Next I click on the "list" icon with the drop box, right next to President Obama's name and pick my list name "Politics.  This adds President Obama to my list.

I would do the same for all the other people I want to add to this list.  The second way to add people to a list that I have already created is to go through the "following" link which appears when I first tried to add people to my list (see below).  When I click on this link, it takes me to the list of people I follow.  I can now click next to the list icon in front of their names and add them to my list. 

I can also directly click on the people I follow.  To do this I go to my profile page and click on "following".  Once I do so, I will see the list icon next to their names, which I can then use to add them to a list

Deleting or editing lists

Created a list by mistake ?  You can delete it.  If you go to your profile page, you will see a list of lists that you created on the side bar.  Click on the one you want to edit.  When you do that, on the top right side you will see an edit and a delete option.  If you press delete, it will get rid of that list

Following a list instead of a person

Remember you can not only follow people but also follow other people's lists.  For instance I follow Tim O'Reilly.  If I go to his page, I can see his lists on the right side.  If I click on the list I want to follow (circled in red), it will take me to another page where I can choose to follow the list (see below)

This takes me to his list, and on top of that page, there is a "follow this list" icon, and if I click on that, I start to follow his list.

That is it!  You are all set to create your Twitter lists now.

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