By popular demand, Twitter users can now organize users they follow (or users that they don’t) into groups, or “lists”. This article will help you get started with some lists basics and hopefully get you ready to make your own!

Before we get started, it should be noted that following a user is not a requirement to add someone to a list; if you want to add a user but not necessarily regularly follow them, lists allow you to do that.

 

Creating a list

There are a few ways to create a new list, the easiest way is by clicking “New list” on the twitter sidebar. Clicking on this link will pop up a box, as shown above. Here you can name your list. You can also make the list public (everyone can see it) or private (only you can see it). Current limits are:

• 20 lists per account
• List names cannot begin with a numerical character
  

 

Add People to a list

You can add users (including yourself!) from most places on Twitter where profiles are listed. This includes the following:

• “Find people” searches.
• Profile pages (including your own).
• Yours and other users followers and following lists.

Just keep an eye out for the “lists” button next to any profile:

You can remove users from a list in the same fashion as you added them; just uncheck the box.

 

Checking out your Lists stats

On your Twitter home page, clicking on the “listed” number (which is next to your “followers” number) will bring up the following page:

The first tab you will see displays the lists that currently list you as a member. The first column of numbers represent the number of members of this list. The second column displays the number of subscribers to that particular list.

The second tab lists any lists you may have created with the same information listed in the first tab.

 

The Lists page

Now that you’ve created a list, you can visit the list page, as shown above. Here, you can perform lists maintenance, such as editing the list name (in blue) and deleting the list in it’s entirety (in red).

Note: Renaming a list will break any links you've posted to that list.

 

Subscribing/Following Lists

Following a list is as simple as following any other Twitter user. Simply navigate to the list page and click on “Follow”, underneath the name of the list. You can quickly view your subscribed lists, as well as your own, on the sidebar.

You can also consequently remove yourself from a list by blocking the creator of the list.

Note: If the owner of a list that you're following includes a public user that you've blocked, you will still see the updates of the blocked user. This behavior is similar to visiting the profile page of a public user that you've blocked: you're still able to read their tweets.

 

Mentioning Lists

You can @mention any Twitter List as you would any Twitter user, just add a forward slash “/” followed by the list name to list owners username:

@<username>/<listname>

Currently lists links will only appear on the Twitter web application, but will see more usage in third party applications as they are updated to recognize them.