Politics and political organization is no easy venture. Part of winning a political campaign is the maintenance and use of good lists. These could be donor lists, voter lists, or any other kind of lists.  Did you know that Twitter allows you to create lists of Twitter accounts to help you wage an effective campaign?  In this post, I’ll show you how to create a list and then how to use them for your campaign.  Let’s get started!

Creating the List

Twitter has a how-to on creating a list so why try to explain something already?  Here’s what Twitter says about creating a list:

1. Visit the profile of the first user you would like to add to your list
2. Click the person icon. This brings up a drop-down Actions menu.
3. Select “Add to list”
4. Enter the credentials of your list and choose whether others can see it or whether it is private
5. Check to see if the user you wanted to add was successfully included in that list: to do this, click the person icon and select “Add to list”. A checkmark will be added next to lists in which that user is included (shown below under “Adding or Removing People”).

That’s it!

List Building: Oh the Possibilities!

When creating a list you have infinite possibilities.  As a campaign manager, new media director for a state party, or candidate you might want to create a list of liberal bloggers’ twitter accounts, traditional press members, or even influential Twitter-ers.  For example, I wanted an easy way to track all the Republican candidates in Kentucky, I wanted to allow others to follow the same list, and have a separate timeline for their tweets.  For your purposes, get creative with your own lists and what you want to listen to or track.

Examples of Lists I’ve Created:

I’ve created lists mostly for political candidates and elected officials. I’ll just list my lists here:

• Kentucky Statewide Democratic Candidates
• Kentucky Statewide Republican Candidates

There are other lists that I’ve created. To look at all of them, you can click here.

Why Lists are Cool

Lists are especially helpful for listening to what people are saying about you or your candidate with out explicitly following individual accounts.  Further, any list you create can be hidden or made private. You can follow whole sections of people without anyone knowing. Mostly though, it’s a way to manage and maintain your Twitter connections.

Your Turn

So, I’ve explained how to create lists in Twitter, examples of my lists, and why lists might be used.  How are you using lists and what can we learn from you?