The List Goes On…
Twitter list-making has almost turned into a sort of technological modern day scrap booking. People can now organize and categorize their interests and influencers and easily share them with others. Twitter lists have also created nice clean SEO-friendly URL’s to keep all the search engines happy and thriving. When it comes to your business on Twitter however, there’s much more going on here…
Customers (Humans) Are Control Freaks
Businesses should pay a little attention to the plain list numbers (quantity) but really should be paying to attention to more than just how many lists they are on. The number of lists is an ok high-level metric and is always good for business/SEO. However, the quantity of lists is, in my opinion, irrelevant when it comes to the real benefit. It is irrelevant in the same way the number of followers became irrelevant on Twitter after it exploded early last year. When your company is added to a list on Twitter and eventually (and hopefully) 100’s and 1000’s of lists, you immediately get insight into what people and partners are thinking about your company, how they are categorizing you in their minds, and are essentially giving away their perception of where your company stands inside their heads. Humans need to assign categories to everything based on how they feel about it emotionally and Twitter lists are no exception. Because of this, businesses should be paying close attention to these lists as they continue to grow.
As you expand your Twitter footprint, continue the ongoing perception analysis as the social media expert for your company and clients, I highly recommend including Twitter list analysis into your overall marketing/social media dashboard.
Onward.
I agree, if you’re on lists that are labeled as “uncool” or “seriously-uncool”, it’s not worth bragging about it
(On a sidenote, I do have lists labeled “cool”, “seriously-cool” and “sub-zero” 
)
The only addition I have is that–by analyzing lists–you’re also able to identify new and interesting people (whether influencers, idols, fans, friends, etc.) with whom you might/should have something in common.
Ken –
Completely agree…on the business side, you can also possibly discover new leads, markets, and even up and coming competitors if you drill down a little bit…lots of good stuff.
-R
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