Here’s a Quick Way to Follow Cool Music Topics on Twitter

I’ve been meaning to write a post on this topic for some time.  I hope you find it useful, and you can always find me on Twitter (@jasonheath) if you want to see examples of more lists.

How I Used to Follow Stuff

I’ve been on Twitter for a long time now (since 2007), and for many years I barely used it.  Twitter was linked to my blog and Facebook profile and reposted content I put out there.  I preferred following along with my favorite sites using Google Reader.  I loved using Google Reader and accessing it via Flipboard on the iPad.  I would categorize all of my feeds and flip through them like sections in a magazine.

When I heard that Google Reader was being killed off, I started getting a lot more into Twitter, and I started to realize how, with a little organization, I could use it to combine the features of an RSS reader like Google Reader with the power of a social network.  After a fair amount of list management, I’ve now got a wicked tool for keeping up with all the subjects that I find interesting.

My New Way: Twitter Lists

It takes some discipline to keep various feeds organized into lists in Twitter (here’s a quick tutorial from Twitter on how to do it), but after a few sessions of cleanup and discovery, I found myself with a set of interesting and ever-expanding lists on topics that I find interesting.  I now browse through them on Flipboard like a never-ending digital magazine, favoriting, forwarding, and retweeting cool stories and photos to my heart’s content.

One of the great things about Twitter lists it that you can just follow the list without having to follow all the individual people on any given list.  A lot of people follow my posts this way (I’m on over 120 lists on Twitter).

I tend to follow people that post frequently and that share a lot of links (that’s how I feed my Flipboard stream), so a lot of people on these lists are pretty active.

My Favorite Lists

OK–here we go.  These are the ones I spend the most time looking through on any given day.  I try to pick one single list for a Twitter feed so that I don’t get the same content popping up when I flip between sections in Flipboard.  Obviously, many of the music people could also be in teaching, bass, or faves, but for my own sake I keep them in only one category.  You can see all of my lists here.

Teaching – This list contains people and organizations that I find interesting.  It’s not music-specific, but it definitely is slanted toward music teachers.

Music People – This list includes Twitter feeds from orchestras, music schools, arts organizations, individual musicians, etc.  It is mostly classical but with some jazz and rock thrown in as well.

Bass – Bass players on Twitter!  I’d love to build this list out more–send me recommendations or let me know if you’re a bassist–I’ll happily add you.

Chicago – I love this list–it’s a stream of news and happenings for Chicago and vicinity.  I check in with this list multiple times a day.

Tech – I’m a huge tech fan and have followed people like @leolaporte and all the TWiT people for almost 10 years now.  This is all tech insider stuff plus the usual suspects (Mashable, Engadget, etc.)