Twitter listing – X Factor for social media types

I must confess I am sometimes a bit slow on the uptake and certain new social media thingies just slip by relatively un-noticed.  Thus it was with the announcement of Twitter lists a week or so ago.  I had a quick glance at it, reckoned that there was nothing a Twitter list could do that my User Lists in Seesmic don’t already do, and let it pass.

But today it has hit me.  Forget listing other people – the number of times people list me is (or will rapidly become) my highly visible social media popularity score.  Its basically the X Factor / Pop Idol for social media types.  I checked my home page (something a rarely have reason to do) and found I was listed by one other person.  I checked Antony Mayfield (example of bona fide social media expert) – he is listed by 28 already – and he hasn’t even made any lists himself yet.  Inferiority complex looms.  What could be worse than being in a competition you never asked to enter (but I guess that is not a bad definition of social media for you).

Forget numbers of followers, forget blog subscribers – its the number of lists you are one that is going to be the key “performance metric”.  Also, of course, the names of the lists you are on are pretty revealing.  Being on a list labelled “total plonkers” is not good.  Being on a list called “social media gurus” is nice.  My one listing to date is under “cultura-digital” – think I quite like that.  Antony has a “must read” and “social media smarts” on his list of listings as well as the “movers and shakers” I listed him under on the one list I have made to date.  But then I notice that the person who has him on the “social media smarts” list is someone who also follows me.  So I didn’t make the cut!

Oh dear – this is going to get messy.

(Encouraging update: I now notice my listings have grown to three – just while writing this post.  Perhaps all is not lost)

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