Several weeks ago I read about Twitter's latest addition that was about to be introduced, Twitter Lists. I thought...hmmm that is going to be a lot like blog rolls.

For those of you who are new to social media, blog rolls are links to other bloggers that the particular author(s) of the blog you are currently on reads and recommends. Through the years blog rolls have been hugely beneficial to me when I begin researching online conversations for my clients. My first step is to identify a few influentual and relevant blogs and from there I begin to follow the link trail of blog rolls and incoming links. I identify who is involved in the community, who is most active in the community, who is most influential in the community and overall what makes the networked community click.

So, I have been anxiously waiting to see what new insights Twitter Lists would bring me.

Last week Twitter Lists was rolled out to all Twitter users. Last week I read a report that claimed 6.5 Million lists have already been created. To me, this is a lot of market intelligence data to sort through.

I have been watching the dozen or so lists that my accounts have shown up on and I find it intriguing when I have been categorized as PR or SEO. This tells me not only what information people have been seeking from me, but in what bucket they put Social Media. It is also interesting to see who is in that bucket with me...what kind of company am I  keeping.

As I began to create my own Twitter lists I began to get a visual of who I am following and why I am following them, what are my expectations of the people I pay attention to?

On my Corporate Twitter Account (@concepthubinc) I decided to create lists of accounts that are related to the ways I would like people to categorize my brand (Gaming, Government 2.0, Enterprise 2.0...)

Today I read on Mashable how the NHL got their followers to create their lists for them by asking their fans which team lists they should be included on. That is absolutely BRILLIANT. They just enabled their fans to self segment themselves into categories where relevant information can be sent to them, deeper relationships can be developed, and true communities of like minds can form.

The best thing about Twitter Lists is that Twitter has given us a reason to examine and question our Twitter habits and to identify ways to make Twitter a valuable and insightful resource that community members can resonably manage for the good of all.