How to Create and Use Twitter Lists.

Get Organized-Twitter List
Lists are a powerful feature for keeping your Twitter stream organized, and for helping you stay on top of what's important. The ability to create Lists in Twitter is a feature that's seriously underutilized. Lists help you organize your Twitter feed so you can see tweets coming from people with specific interests and expertise, or that you might for any reason categorize into a group.

Get OrganizedHere, I briefly explain (in both the video and text that follows) how to create and manage Twitter Lists. Then I give several examples of types of lists you might create and why they'll make your Twitter reading a more organized experience.

How to Create a Twitter List
1 Sign into your Twitter account. These steps are essentially the same whether you're using Twitter on a Web browser or in the mobile app.
 
2 Click the gear icon in the upper right and select Lists.
 
3 On the page that opens, look for the button "Create new list" on the right. A pop-up box will appear asking you to name the list, give it a description, and mark it either public or private. I'll give some examples of lists in the next section.
 
4 The next page that appears will show you a blank list: no members, no followers, no tweets—nada. You can use the search box featured front and center to look for people to add to your lists, and you can add (and remove) users from your lists as you actually use Twitter, making changes to your list at any time.
 
5 As you use and explore Twitter and find accounts you want to add to your list, click the gear icon that appears on any user and select "Add or remove from lists."
I recommend looking through the list of people you currently follow to see if you want to group any of them into a list. You might also search for a hashtag and add the resulting users who pop up to make a list. You could also look at other user's accounts to see who they follow or who follows them and find people to add to your lists that way. The exploration method is entirely up to you. I'll give some more concrete suggestions for how to add Twitter list members in a moment.
And that's pretty much it. So let's get to what makes Lists so useful.
How to Follow Someone Else's List
There are many beautiful things about Twitter Lists, and one of them is that you don't have to build all your lists yourself. You can subscribe to other people's lists. So, say you visit the Twitter page of a really smart person, like tech writer Dan Patterson.
You can subscribe to any of his lists, such as curated lists of people who tweet primarily about comic books or science, and Twitter will essentially bookmark that list for you so you can visit it easily any time.
Why Twitter Lists Are Different From Your Feed
Twitter lists are useful because they let you see tweets from a select group of users. Think of lists almost like alternative Twitter logins, where you have a unique set of people you are following. You could have a list, for example, of just your real-life friends so that when you want to use Twitter to socialize with people you actually know, you don't have to wade through other non-friend tweets in your main Twitter feed.
Two very important things to know:
1. You don't have to be following a user in order to add him or her to a list.
2. Tweets from your lists do not show up in your primary feed.
Did you get that? If you find Twitter accounts that you are interested in reading from time to time, but you don't want to see every single thing they tweet in your primary feed, you can cordon them into a list and visit that list to read those tweets when the time is right for you.
Examples of Lists
Here are some examples of types of Twitter Lists you might create or subscribe to that others have created.
News sources. Groups of Twitter accounts tweeting news is one of the most common kinds of lists. You can create Lists with local news, global news, or even specific types of news, such as technology or science. For more related tips, see my recent Get Organized article on how to clean up your news feeds.
Competitors. Ah ha! If you're a small business owner, perhaps now you see the beauty of adding accounts to a private list to easily check in on what they're tweeting, without anyone else knowing you're keeping tabs on them.
Friends and family. Don't let your real-life friends get lost in your Twitter feed. Create a list just for them.
Colleagues or co-workers. You'll always seem like you're in the know if you follow your co-workers or esteemed colleagues on Twitter, and your life will be much easier if you have one central place to check in on all of them at once.
Topics of interest. Similar to how you might follow news, you might also follow bloggers, sports teams, authors, and other people who tweet about a particular topic of interest to you. For example, I follow a lot of people in the food world, specifically in Australia (not for any reason other than curiosity), and it's easy to see the trends happening there when I can drill down into all the Aussie food tweeters via a List. You might also consider making a list for humor or a private list of #NSFW ("not safe for work") tweeters.
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Sandhurst's sheikhs: Why do so many Gulf royals receive military training in the UK? A parade outside the building at Sandhurst Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine The death list that names 5,000 victims Is this woman an apostate? Voices from a WW1 prison camp The Swiss selfie scandal Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller. Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers. It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army. Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. Perhaps the most notable was King Hussein of Jordan. Continue reading the main story Find out more Matthew Teller presents Sandhurst and the Sheikhs, a Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4, on Wednesday 27 August 2014 at 11:00 BST It will be available on iPlayer shortly after broadcast Four reigning Arab monarchs are graduates of Sandhurst and its affiliated colleges - King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Tamim, Emir of Qatar, and Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Past monarchs include Sheikh Saad, Emir of Kuwait, and Sheikh Hamad, Emir of Qatar. Sandhurst's links have continued from the time when Britain was the major colonial power in the Gulf. "One thing the British were excellent at was consolidating their rule through spectacle," says Habiba Hamid, former foreign policy strategist to the rulers of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. "Pomp, ceremony, displays of military might, shock and awe - they all originate from the British military relationship." Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, King Abdullah, Sultan Qaboos Sandhurst alumni: King Hamad of Bahrain, King Abdullah of Jordan and Sultan Qaboos of Oman It's a place where future leaders get to know each other, says Michael Stephens, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute, Qatar. And Sandhurst gives the UK influence in the Gulf. "The [UK] gets the kind of attention from Gulf policy elites that countries of our size, like France and others, don't get. It gives us the ability to punch above our weight. "You have people who've spent time in Britain, they have… connections to their mates, their teachers. Familiarity in politics is very beneficial in the Gulf context." "For British people who are drifting around the world, as I did as a soldier," says Brigadier Peter Sincock, former defence attache to Saudi Arabia, "you find people who were at Sandhurst and you have an immediate rapport. I think that's very helpful, for example, in the field of military sales." The Emir of Dubai Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum with his son after his Passing Out Parade at Sandhurst in 2006 Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai, with his son in uniform at Sandhurst in 2006 Her Majesty The Queen's Representative His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, The Emir of Qatar inspects soldiers during the 144th Sovereign's Parade held at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on April 8, 2004 in Camberley, England. Some 470 Officer cadets took part of which 219 were commissioned into the British Army Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar until 2013, inspects soldiers at Sandhurst in 2004 Emotion doesn't always deliver. In 2013, despite the personal intervention of David Cameron, the UAE decided against buying the UK's Typhoon fighter jets. But elsewhere fellow feeling is paying dividends. "The Gulf monarchies have become important sources of capital," says Jane Kinninmont, deputy head of the Middle East/North Africa programme at the foreign affairs think tank Chatham House. "So you see the tallest building in London being financed by the Qataris, you see UK infrastructure and oilfield development being financed by the UAE. There's a desire - it can even seem like a desperation - to keep them onside for trade reasons." British policy in the Gulf is primarily "mercantile", says Dr Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, of the Baker Institute in Houston, Texas. Concerns over human rights and reform are secondary. The Shard at dusk The Shard was funded by Qatari investors In 2012 Sandhurst accepted a £15m donation from the UAE for a new accommodation block, named the Zayed Building after that country's founding ruler. In March 2013, Sandhurst's Mons Hall - a sports centre - was reopened as the King Hamad Hall, following a £3m donation from the monarch of Bahrain, who was educated at one of Sandhurst's affiliated colleges. The renaming proved controversial, partly because of the perceived slight towards the 1,600 British casualties at the Battle of Mons in August 1914 - and partly because of how Hamad and his government have dealt with political protest in Bahrain over the last three years. A critic might note that the third term of Sandhurst's Officer Commissioning Course covers counter-insurgency techniques and ways to manage public disorder. Since tension between Bahrain's majority Shia population and minority Sunni ruling elite boiled over in 2011, more than 80 civilians have died at the hands of the security forces, according to opposition estimates, though the government disputes the figures. Thirteen police officers have also lost their lives in the clashes. "The king has always felt that Sandhurst was a great place," says Sincock, chairman of the Bahrain Society, which promotes friendship between the UK and Bahrain. "Something like 20 of his immediate family have been there as cadets. He didn't really understand why there was such an outcry." David Cameron and King Hamad David Cameron meeting King Hamad in 2012... A protester is held back by police ... while protesters nearby opposed the Bahrain ruler's human rights record Crispin Black, a Sandhurst graduate and former instructor, says the academy should not have taken the money. "Everywhere you look there's a memorial to something, a building or a plaque that serves as a touchstone that takes you right to the heart of British military history. Calling this hall 'King Hamad Hall' ain't gonna do that." Sandhurst gave a written response to the criticism. "All donations to Sandhurst are in compliance with the UK's domestic and international legal obligations and our values as a nation. Over the years donations like this have saved the UK taxpayer a considerable amount of money." But what happens when Sandhurst's friends become enemies? In 2001, then-prime minister Tony Blair visited Damascus, marking a warming of relations between the UK and Syria. Shortly after, in 2003, Sandhurst was training officers from the Syrian armed forces. Now, of course, Syria is an international pariah. Journalist Michael Cockerell has written about Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi's time at the Army School of Education in Beaconsfield in 1966: "Three years [later], Gaddafi followed a tradition of foreign officers trained by the British Army. He made use of his newfound knowledge to seize political power in his own country." Ahmed Ali Sandhurst-trained Ahmed Ali was a key player in the Egyptian military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi That tradition persists. In the 1990s Egyptian colonel Ahmed Ali attended Sandhurst. In 2013 he was one of the key figures in the Egyptian military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, now rewarded by a post in President Sisi's inner circle of advisers. In the late 1990s there were moves by the British government under Tony Blair to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets. Major-General Arthur Denaro, Middle East adviser to the defence secretary and commandant at Sandhurst in the late 1990s, describes the idea as part of the "ethical foreign policy" advocated by the late Robin Cook, then-foreign secretary. Tony Blair and Robin Cook Tony Blair and Robin Cook at one point planned to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets The funeral of King Hussein in 1999 appears to have scuppered the plan. "Coming to that funeral were the heads of state of almost every country in the world - and our prime minister was there, Tony Blair," says Major-General Denaro. "He happened to see me talking to heads of state - the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman, the Bahrainis, the Saudis - and he said 'How do you know all these guys?' The answer was because they went to Sandhurst." Today, Sandhurst has reportedly trained more officer cadets from the UAE than from any other country bar the UK. The May 2014 intake included 72 overseas cadets, around 40% of whom were from the Middle East. "In the future," says Maryam al-Khawaja, acting president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, "people will look back at how much Britain messed up in the [Middle East] because they wanted to sell more Typhoon jets to Bahrain, rather than stand behind the values of human rights and democracy." "It's one thing saying we're inculcating benign values, but that's not happening," says Habiba Hamid. Sandhurst is "a relic of the colonial past. They're not [teaching] the civic values we ought to find in democratically elected leaders." line Who else went to Sandhurst? Princes William and Harry, Winston Churchill, Ian Fleming, Katie Hopkins, Antony Beevor, James Blunt, Josh Lewsey, Devon Harris (From left to right) Princes William and Harry Sir Winston Churchill Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond (but did not complete training) Katie Hopkins, reality TV star Antony Beevor, historian James Blunt, singer-songwriter Josh Lewsey, World Cup-winning England rugby player Devon Harris, member of Jamaica's first bobsleigh team line Sandhurst says that "building international relations through military exchanges and education is a key pillar of the UK's international engagement strategy". Sandhurst may be marvellous for the UK, a country where the army is subservient to government, but it is also delivering militarily-trained officers to Middle Eastern monarchies where, often, armies seem to exist to defend not the nation but the ruling family.

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