FollowFormation For the Olympics

With many programs out there to help you sort and filter the abundance of Twitter “noise” out there, the Vancouver service FollowFormation has come up with a solution. Using the concept of Twitter lists, they have a simple user interface that allows you to pick one of their lists, select how many people you’d like to follow, click a button and be done.

As it stands, Followformation is the easiest way to follow the top Twitterers by subject matter or topic. [Mashable – July 2009]

If you’re just getting started on Twitter, FollowFormation’s recommended lists are a good place find people of particular industries or categories to follow. If you’re a seasoned Twitter veteran, it can help filter your news stream.

For the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games they asked folks like CityCaucus.com and me to create our own recommendations. Currently featured on the front page of FollowFormation, you can see who I selected as my own top people to follow for Vancouver 2010 updates.

I know this post is a bit late for the Olympics as things come to an end this weekend however making Twitter follows much simpler is always a good idea. Whenever I give talks about social media and the benefits of Twitter or blogging for business the most frequently asked question is “how will I have time for all of this?” Having a way to filter my lists (to just view Restaurants, Tourism, or Family) makes following over 3,000 people manageable for me, which ultimately saves time.

Hopefully they’ll have themes like this going forward but for now you can still Follow by Interest or Follow by City even after the Olympics. If you don’t see someone on one of their lists that you think should be included, you may also suggest a user.

FollowFormation is a BC-based service created by 18 year old Sauder School of Business graduate, Brian Wong. In 2010, Mary McNeil, the Minister of State for the Olympics and ActNow BC recognized FollowFormation’s contribution to the province’s social media landscape during the Vancouver 2010 Games.

Other lists to follow, created by users for Vancouver 2010: