As entrepreneurs creating start-up businesses our time is highly limited. That’s why finding ways to use technology to maximize everything from schedules to email campaigns to analytics reports becomes paramount. Getting the right information at the right time often can make the difference between meeting the perfect angel investor or losing out to the person who got there first.

Twitter is one of the easiest and quickest ways to learn what’s happening, who’s doing it and how to get involved. Not just for entrepreneurs but for anyone who wants to become an expert in their chosen field. Yes, you’ve got to spend some time following the smartest people in your particular business segment, organizing them into lists and then, oh yes, you must start engaging. That means commenting on their Tweets, retweeting relevant information and reaching out with @messages when it’s appropriate.

For a quicker start, check out VentureMaven.com — where the motto is, “If you want to know what’s really going on, just follow the money,” for a firehose of information from venture capitalists and angel investors Tweeting their hearts out. Huffington Post also gives us a head start by providing the eight best entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. Of course, the folks at Mashable also weigh in with eight ways entrepreneurs can get more out of Twitter.

Once you’ve followed hundreds — hopefully thousands — of the best and brightest people in the world Tweeting about entrepreneurship you’ll want to organize them all into one or more Twitter lists.  Here’s an example:

Once you create your lists you can continuously populate them with relevant Tweeps and quickly interact. Another time saving tool which harnesses the power of Twitter lists is HootSuite.com. The free tool let’s you view up to 10 columns of Twitter information at one time. By importing your lists into HootSuite you can even more quickly digest huge amounts of information. Here’s what it looks like:

Don’t forget to delineate your list as either public or private. It’s a good idea to keep lists of clients and prospects private. Public lists can be followed by others and seen by everyone.  You will need to spend some time preparing your lists but once they are created you’ll have a ready-made information feed of customized information from sources you’ve chosen.

How do you use Twitter lists to maximize efficiency? We’d love to hear from you.

Kathleen Colan is a social media expert and owner of YourStorySEO.com. Follow her on Twitter @consumerati