Organization plays a huge role in life management. A key element in organization is lists. Yeah, I know. Lists seem boring and no fun. I’m with ya. There are to-do lists, lists of goals, grocery lists, wish lists. But, here’s a list that I do love – Twitter lists! I wouldn’t ever touch Twitter if I didn’t have my lists. It’s the only way I can navigate the Twitter jungle.

Twitter lists allow you to group people you follow together. Say you have your core group of college buds on Twitter, or a certain number of your colleagues tweet, you can create a list for each and name each list whatever you want. Then you add each person you want to that list. This allows you at one time to see the feed just for your “college buds” list or your “colleagues” list instead of wading through the sea that is your home feed.

Personally, I think Hootsuite has nailed it as far as being the best Twitter management tool especially with lists. I’m speaking about both the online dashboard and the app. I would consider Hootsuite a safe bet considering this article on PRdaily.com saying the majority of top brands use Hootesuite for their Twitter. I dislike with a double thumbs down the way the regular Twitter app treats lists. With the Hootsuite app you can simply swipe from list to list, using the same swipe motion those with iPhones are accustomed to.

But, here’s the thing, all off my Twitter lists are “super secret private” except for one. When you create a list on Twitter, you give it a name, a description (which is optional) and you can set it as “public” or super secret “private” (and I’m tacking on the “super secret” part because it’s more fun). See how it works?

Well, I’ve set all of mine, except for one, as super secret private. Public lists are viewable by others. The general Twitter public can see your list, what you’ve named it, the description, everyone you’ve included in that list, and those that are included get notification that you “listed” them. For super secret private lists, no one can see any of that.

The reason I have super secret private lists:

A. I don’t want Tweeps to know that I’ve listed them

B. I don’t want Tweeps to know the name of the list I’ve put them on

C. Sometimes secrets are really cool

Below is a glimpse of some of my lists to give you an idea. The one that's public is smarties and a great group of Twitter elite to follow. The rest are private, and if I follow you, you'll never know which list I put you in. Muahahaha.

If you have questions about lists, feel free to give me a tweet. I’m happy to help!

-Katie McKiever

@KatieMcKiever

Co-Chair of Social Media Charlotte