RSS
Home
Twitter lists released to the public.
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Twitter brought lists to users over the last few weeks. Since most users are using web or phone apps to access the service, they may not have noticed. The lists do provide another number in your statistics, as the service tracks the number of lists you are a member of. It also adds an element on the sidebar that allows you to select lists you created, as well as those that you follow. Essentially this feature serves three functions for the site.
The first and most obvious use of the lists is to organize the people you follow on the site. I quickly set up a list of tech news tweeters, which filters through the 200 people I follow to a much smaller group. You can set up the lists by going through your following list easily, so it shouldn’t be too hard for even long time users to set up a list or two. I think if you are following thousands of people, it might be as not as feasible of an option. Allowing you to break up the groups makes it much easier to follow a larger number of people, but the initial time investment may be off-putting to some users.
The other use of lists is to allow to Twitter to hype another number for the leading edge users to obsess over. After the celebrity influx, many of the biggest tech users like Robert Scoble and Leo Laporte ended up dwarfed by Oprah and Miley Cyrus. Those users have another number they can build and mold, as Twitter can present itself as the whuffie of social media again. Whether the faith in that currency can last in the face of long celebrity shadows, I don’t know but this is the best chance to Twitter to keep those active users posting.
The lists final and maybe best use is to help new users get a ton of activity in their feed and quickly. Considering the recommended user list was as useful as tea leaves in predicting which users are entertaining, the lists will allow you to pick up easily what your friends are following and why. The orphaned account rate has been a sore spot in the authenticity of Twitter’s user ranks, and retention of new users is likely weighing heavily on any plans they’re making. Now that both Microsoft and Google are paying for access to the fire hose, Twitter needs to make sure that there’s more than SEO specialists and social media marketers. (Which as an aside, just stop following me to pitch your “consulting” services as a social media expert, I’m not buying your Lulu book on using my blog to work from home, nor am I interested in doubling my followers for the low low cost of my Paypal account.)
Twitter is adding new features, and Lists is going to reengage some users that we’re drifting away after the casting of Oprah’s shadow over the service. Of course this hasn’t been built into many of the Twitter clients, so this may be a ploy to pull users back to Twitter proper. I think this is a good step in rebuilding a direct relationship with their users, though I may just stick with Threadsy and iTweet.
