As the pressure mounts to put more effort and time into social media, the need for better organization of those social media activities also rises. Twitter, specifically, has a lot of noise in the tweet stream.

Following your total tweet stream, meaning all the tweets being sent by all the Twitter account you follow, works for many people for a while. But most users reach a point where there are so many tweets to read, weed through and keep up with, that segmenting Twitter handles into Twitter Lists is the only way to keep up and ensure you are seeing the most relevant tweets for you.

Twitter Lists can be used in many ways. They may be organized based on geography, industry, favorite Twitter friends, customers, competitors you want to keep an eye on, or a conference you are attending. However you would like to segment those you follow into smaller, more manageable groups is up to you. And then once your Twitter Lists have been created, you can add them to columns in Twitter management tools like HootSuite and Tweetdeck, and access them on desktop and on the Twitter app on your smartphone.

How to Create a Twitter List

If you need to create a Twitter List for the first time or access existing Twitter Lists, start by clicking on your profile picture located in the upper right hand corner.

Next, you’ll see any existing Twitter lists you have already created plus any public Twitter lists you are a part of, in the center of your screen. On the right side, you’ll see a “Create New List” button.

After clicking on the Create New List button, you’ll get a pop-up on your screen that asks you to name your List, give it a description (optional) and determine if it will be a public List or a private List.

Public Twitter Lists can be viewed by anyone on Twitter. They can see your List name, the people on your List, and can even choose to follow your Twitter List. 

Private Twitter Lists, however, can only be viewed and accessed by you. So, if you want to add competitor accounts to a Private List, for example, this would be a great way to seek competitive intelligence and no one else know it.

Note: You can add any account to a Twitter List; you do not need to follow that account first.

Adding a Twitter Account to a Twitter List

Once you’ve created at least 1 Twitter List, you can begin adding Twitter accounts to that List.

To add a Twitter account to a Twitter List, start by visiting their Twitter Profile page. Then click on the 3 dots located all the way to the right, just next to the Follow/Following button. Select Add or Remove from List from the dropdown.

From the Twitter List pop-up, choose which List you want to add that account you. It’s possible to add 1 Twitter account to more than 1 Twitter List.

How many Twitter lists do you use? Are you lists public or private?

{Post updated in March 2018}