I recently did a great interview with Efe Cakarel, founder of The Auteurs, and wanted to share an insight he had.

“As we near the end of the 2000s, people are creating more and more “Best of the Decade” lists. It really came home to us how important keeping track of and ranking your favorite films is to people, how much that says about who you are and what you like, and what is important to you. “

Until now, members had been posting their lists in the site’s forum. To give members the tools to really get engaged with lists, The Auteurs just introduced a new purpose-built list feature.

A week after it launched, the List feature is having a measurable impact on member engagement and repeat traffic.

This is a great strategy that can work for almost any niche social networking site, and since it’s subjective and personal, it’s a great way of sparking discussion, comparison and even a little heat!

As we come to the end of a year AND the end of a decade, how are you letting your members tap into this natural response to start listing, ranking, and categorizing?

(Lists, by the way, are also handy “hooks” that can be used in a media release to generate even more PR for your site…)