Oct 30
The Emerging Twitter List Arms Race
I use Twitter a lot, but I was not among the very first to see the new Lists feature. I can now, though. And what I find much more interesting than actually using the feature myself is the fact that I woke up this morning to find that I was on dozens of other people's lists. Even though the irony is that Twitter introduced lists about a year after I stopped wanting such a feature, I do think there is some value in having other people put me on their lists. Braggadocio. Oh yes, braggadocio. I'm talking about the incredible hubris that comes from knowing I'm on Ezra Butler's list of people he'd take a rubber bullet for, the chutzpah of telling everyone that luminary Tim O'Reilly's list of Government 2.0 people includes me among its few members, and the extra swagger in my step that comes from the radiant energy of being on professor Jay Rosen's list of the best mindcasters he knows. I always knew I was awesome, but now I can prove it. I'm joking a bit, of course. But when getting retweeted has been boiled down to a science ("Adding 'please' increases retweets by 12.3%!"), every maven is in search of a social media metric that shows who has "authority." Being on someone's Twitter list is a difficult thing to game because it's about organic usefulness to a community. I recently read Gary Vaynerchuk's inspiring book Crush It, and to me, Twitter lists have the potential to be a metric that measures how generous you are to the communities you're a member of. So forget about counting your number of followers, or how many retweets you get, or the many "Follow Friday" mentions you land - Those metrics have been blown out for a long time now. The new high fidelity for my vanity is the Twitter list.
Comments (8)
Oct 30, 2009
Elaine Spitz said...
I was afraid of this! I was one of the early users of the Beta version of the list and not fully committed to the idea. You're right, though, Mark - tongue in cheeky aside, it'll be the new yardstick.
Oct 30, 2009
Scott Burns said...
I hadn't even noticed the "listed" thing until you pointed it out. I want to be on more cool lists now. Anyone reading this, please put me on your "handsome and interesting" list. @smburns Mark, I'm adding a new list for you right now.
Oct 30, 2009
Mark Drapeau said...
Elaine, early data suggests that # lists correlates with # of followers, but in a few weeks I'll take a more quantitative look.
Oct 30, 2009
Mark Drapeau said...
Scott, you will be happy to know that @GovLoop is already on over 60 lists!
Oct 30, 2009
mhil1 said...
Twitter really needs a new vanity measure? I'd like the list feature w/o broadcasting # lists you're on
Oct 30, 2009
Justin Houk said...
I agree that lists are the new ubermetric. They have a much more qualitative dimension because the show why people are valued from a followers/friend perspective. When I see someone on a list I immediately have some context for why they are important to the person that put them there. The next question I have to ask is do I trust the maker of the list. Does that person offer lists of excellent value for information content or lists based on, friends, people who paid to be on the list, and so on...
Someone who understands engagement and offers great value will end up on the lists of many depending on the size of the community and interest in the topics they tweet about.
Oct 30, 2009
Mark Drapeau said...
Justin, now you can even ask, How many lists is the list maker on? That shows how much people trust them, and so forth. Maybe. :)
