How to Follow someone on Twitter without them knowing

I got asked the other day.. “How do I follow someone on Twitter without them knowing” The answer is very simple. If you simply followed them, then they will get a notification from Twitter of a new follower – You… So the answer lies in Lists. You create a list and add people that you don’t want to know that you are following them. These could be work colleagues, competitors, employees, your kids, anyone that it would be awkward if they knew you were following them.

But.. You must make the list Private at the very beginning. You get two options when you set up a list.. After you have created the name and given a description, you then have the option to make the list public or private. Make it private and no one will know you have created the list and added them to this list. You can then follow them. You won’t get their tweets in your stream, as you are technically following a list.. so you need to create a column in Hootsuite or Tweetdeck and add the stream of that list or view the list from your Twitter profile… and bingo, all the tweets of people in that list will appear….

cheers

Mark