How to use Twitter lists

Lists are a great way to organise the accounts you follow (and don’t follow!) on Twitter. Use them to curate content on a certain topic – for example, children’s books, or to organise people you follow, for example a list of bloggers. I have a list of the compers in my Lucky Learners Facebook group which has 706 members and 1265 subscribers, and is a great source of comps!

You can also group together companies who run giveaways. Set up a Twitter list depending on the type of prizes you’d like to win – local businesses, toys, football, books, etc –  to focus your comping. Lists can be public or private (a great way to see what your competitors are up to without them knowing!), and when you view a Twitter list, you see a timeline of tweets only from the list members.

You don’t need to follow someone to add them to a Twitter list. If you want to cut down on the number of people you follow, use lists as a way to organise them. If you have reached your 5,000 follow limit, use UnTweeps to unfollow lots of users at once (see my guide to using it here), and add them to lists instead.

View lists at www.twitter.com

Log in to www.twitter.com, then choose More and then Lists from the left hand menu. On the lists page you can see:

• Pinned Lists: lists you’ve pinned to the top of your profile (a padlock shows it’s a private list, only visible to you)
• Your Lists: lists you have created and lists you follow that have been created by others

You can also access lists you’ve been added to by tapping … at the top.

View the timeline of tweets from a Twitter list by clicking the list name. At the top you can view list members and list subscribers.

If you want to view a list frequently, save the link to your browser bookmarks using Cmd-D or Ctrl-D.

To view the lists that another user is a member of, or subscribes to, tap … on their profile and View Lists. The name of the list creator appears above the list name – to go to their profile, tap to view the list subscribers. The top subscriber is the person who created the list.

View lists on the Twitter app

On the Twitter Home page, tap your photo to go to your profile and select Lists to see all the lists you subscribe to.

• On the main list page, tap the pin icon to add a list to your favourites
• Tap Edit top right, and drag the pinned lists into your preferred order
• The timeline of tweets from your pinned lists is accessible by swiping left from your Twitter home page or tapping the list name tabs at the top of the screen
• To view lists you’ve been added to, tap the three dots at the top right of the screen

From the main Lists screen, tap a specific list name to view the tweets sent from members of that list.

• View a list of Members and Subscribers by tapping at the top
• Tap Edit List to update the list name, description, edit the members or change the privacy setting

Create a Twitter list

• Click on More and then Lists from the twitter.com home page (or from your profile if you’re using the Twitter app)
• Click the ‘create list’ icon (list & plus sign)
• Enter a name and description for your list
• If you want a secret list, tick the Make Private option so only you can access it – by default your list is public and anyone can view and subscribe to it.
• Click Next, add members if required (or do it later), then Done 

Add members to a Twitter list

• Go to a user’s profile page, click … and select Add/Remove from lists
• Click on the list(s) you want the person to be in, then Save

Remove members from a Twitter list

• On the Twitter website, you need to go to a user’s profile page, click … and select Add/Remove from lists
• It’s quicker using the Twitter mobile app – tap to view a list then tap Edit List and Manage Members to see a list of members – tap to remove each one.

Delete a list you’ve created

• View your list, then click Edit List and Delete List

Subscribe to a Twitter list

• When viewing a specific list, simply click the Subscribe button

Share a Twitter list

• If you want to share a link to a public Twitter list, copy the link from your browser address bar, for example https://twitter.com/SuperLuckyDi/lists/lucky-learners

Remove yourself from a Twitter list

Sometimes you might be added to a Twitter list you don’t want to be on – this might happen automatically because you’ve tweeted with a certain hashtag or word!

To remove yourself from a list, follow these instructions to block the list owner.

• Find the list under your Member tab and tap to view it – the creator’s name appears on the screen
• Tap … at the top of the screen, and Block the creator.

This removes you from the list. You can choose whether to leave them blocked, or unblock them again. If you want to unblock, you should be able to tap the pop up to Undo!

Search for Twitter lists

You don’t always have to start a list from scratch – you can search for other lists on the same topic, and either subscribe to them or add members to your own lists. Search for public lists that other users have already created using Google – for example, to find Twitter lists with the word compers in, use this search string:

site:twitter.com inurl:lists <compers>

This tells Google to only give results from Twitter that have the word lists in the web address – and compers in the list name. Swap the word compers for anything you like – your hobby or local town for example.

You can check out my public lists at twitter.com/SuperLuckyDi/lists (I have a lot of private ones too!)

View Twitter lists on Tweetdeck or Hootsuite

If you use Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to manage your Twitter account, add columns for each of your lists – at the top you can use the filters to search for the words win or competition. It’s a great way to find comps!

How do you use Twitter lists? Tell me in the comments!

Enjoyed this post? Check out:

• How to find, enter and win Twitter competitions
• Ten tips to win more prizes on Twitter 

You might also enjoy the 2019 edition of my comping book SuperLucky Secrets