The folks over at Twitter.com have been keeping very busy. From the looks of the developments they are rolling out, it would appear they are trying to keep pace with the features being offered via third-party Twitter apps like the TweetDeck Groups feature and Seesmic Desktop’s saved searches. TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop run neck & neck in rolling out similar features. Apparently Twitter was starting to notice folks abandoning their web site in favor of these feature filled third-party apps.

Twitter Lists

Recently Twitter web debuted their new lists feature. At first, this feature was only in beta for a select number of Twitter users. I happened to be one of those that got early access.

Anyone can create a list and your list can be public or private. Private lists can only be seen by you.

The benefit I see in such lists is the ability to segment people and group them by a similar demographic. For example, you can create a list for your local area (i.e., St Louis) and add only folks from St Louis to that group.

You can also do a search on Twitter for your area of interest and within those search results you can not only follow people, but add that person to a list of your choosing, and you do not need to follow someone to add them to your list.

Following a Twitter List

Not only are Twitter lists great for following individuals, but you can actually follow someone else’s list. Following a list simply adds that particular list to the Listed section of your profile.

When you click the Listed link, you will be taken to a page that shows the lists  you have been added to by others, and also a tab to display lists you have chosen to follow, including any lists you have personally created (public and private).

As you can see, Twitter Lists can be a quick and easy way to find people in a particular demographic. The only downside is that if you follow someone else’s list, you are acting on faith that their list description is accurate to the demographic they have actually added to that list.

Traci’s Twitter List Tips

• Create lists based on specific demographics (yes, use keywords!); then only add people to that list that fit in with the descriptive demographic of the list. This makes the lists not only useful for you, but also for others who may wish to follow your list.
• Use Seemic Desktop to pull in all of your Twitter lists and easily keep up with the tweetstream for each list all within one easy to use application. Logging in and out of the Twitter web site is a pain, if you have multiple Twitter accounts. It is my sincere hope that TweetDeck will very soon add Twitter Lists integration into their application.
• Don’t be easily offended if you are not on someone’s Twitter List. I hesitate to even mention this point, but have seen numerous posts and tweets on this. It’s a new feature that people are still trying to determine how best to use. Twitter Lists should first and foremost be for your own use when you create them, but if you are making your lists public – do keep in mind that others may also want to follow your list.  The opposite is also true, if you follow someone else’s list, they decide who to add and and may have their own guidelines for how/why to add someone to a list.

It appears Twitter has now made lists available to anyone. So go setup your lists!

Twitter Retweet

Twitter.com announced this week they are beta testing a retweet feature on a select few accounts. I’ve not found this feature enabled on any of my accounts as of yet, so will be curious to see how well this is received. I rarely use the Twitter web to actually tweet, so this new feature means little to me personally, but may mean a lot to those who still use the web site.

Edited: I now have the beta retweeting feature on one of my Twitter accounts. Found this interesting post on the Twitter Retweet feature.

That’s all the news for today.

To Your Success,

Traci Knoppe

P.S. Have you set up any Twitter Lists yet?

P.P.S. Do you tweet from the Twitter.com web site, or do you use a third-party app like TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop?