At first I couldn’t see the point of them. I’d already created several groups within Hootsuite (and in Seesmic and Tweetdeck before that) and was quite satisfied with them.
I’ll admit that I didn’t ‘get’ how lists worked until I read a few blog posts making everything clearer. (see below for links)
But I’m still not sure. Here’s my dilemma.
The groups I created in my twitter client – and in my Facebook and FriendFeed accounts are private – for my eyes only. Twitter lists are more usually public, indeed that’s part of their purpose.
So if I create a list called ‘interesting people’ – does that mean everyone I don’t include on that list isn’t interesting? An extreme example perhaps, but not everyone takes kindly to being labelled.
On the other hand, it can be useful to find ‘ready-made’ lists of people with similar interests or skills. But surely there are more comprehensive lists available on sites such as Twellow or Mr Tweet and to which individuals have ascribed themselves?
And then there’s the attached etiquette. Each time someone includes you on a list, it’s considered polite to tweet a thank you (just as you do with RTs and Follow Friday recommendations). While I’m all in favour of good manners, I really don’t need another lot of tweets to type.
For whose benefit am I creating twitter lists? Have I got this all wrong? What do you think?
Further reading: http://delicious.com/LouiseBJ/lists
