Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Who Do I Follow on Twitter ... and Why?

We've moved to a new site - WritingRiffs.com.

Appreciate you checking this article out at
WritingRiffs.com.

We'll be deleting all the content on this site over the next few weeks.

Thanks!

Steve







Below are a list of people on Twitter I follow. They're exceptional, interesting, prolific, and professional. They share good ideas, information and insights. Some are well known. Some aren't. Lotta talent on Twitter.

If I was starting with Twitter today ... these would be the first people I'd check out. Wish I had this list when I started.

Some of the people below have 15,000-30,000 followers and they follow that many too. That's not for me. I don't look at it that way. For me, it's all about good content.

Help me learn. Inform me. Educate me. Make me laugh. Challenge me. I don't care if they're rich, famous and everybody loves them, if that doesn't happen I remove them.

Note: I follow tech, industry analysts and news organizations. So these people might not be a good fit for you. If not, at the bottom of this list are more resources and articles to help you find additional people, companies and topics on Twitter.
  • Guy Kawasaki: AllTop: He's the Guy named Guy people talk about. Does a super job of communicating, keeps it light and funny, yet still promotes his latest project AllTop.
  • Jeremiah Owyang: Forrester Analyst: Exceptional. Shares great information, ideas, insights. Pleasant, courteous, consummate professional.
  • Louis Columbus: Author, Analyst, Friend. Prolific writer on social media and complex business processes.
  • Dion Hinchcliffe: Enterpise 2.0 Analyst - Interested in Enterprise 2.o apps, gaps, widgets and blidgets? He's your Analyst. Always interesting. Always informative.
  • David Meerman Scott: Author of the New Rules of Marketing & PR, Blogger, Speaker. One of the nicest guys around.Occasionally funny. But he needs to hire a real cartoon-torialist to help out. Real class act.
  • David Henderson: Author, Blogger, Emmy-Award Winning Former CBS Journalist. I've read his book "The Media Savvy Leader," it's excellent. He's a Twitter newbie but Tweeter Pro. A gazillion times better than me.
  • Meryl Evans: The Content Maven. Hardest working editor/writer I've ever met. Super Person. Stellar writer. Hangs with a bad crowd though ... bunch of other writers that drink too much and still like to break dance.
  • New Media Jim: Intersection of old and new media. Funny, good insights, good read.
  • Paulo Coelho: Author of "The Alchemist." Great writer - storyteller. One of the first novelists I've seen doing the Tweet-Tweet-Tweet.
  • Nettie Hartsock: Author, Blogger, PR Strategist, Friend.
  • Jennifer Leggio: Social Media & Tech Journalist for Zdnet. Prolific in a good way.
  • Shannon Whitley: Founder of PRX Builder. Super source of tech, PR and Marketing content. Disclaimer ... I'm a big fan of PRXbuilder.com.
  • Tim O'Reilly: Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media.
  • Scobelizer: What's a Scoble? Check him out. Have duct tape handy for your head - to keep it from exploding. Not for the slow-tech faint of heart. WARNING: You will get dizzy.
  • Peter Kim: Covers social media. Some excellent articles on Twitter and Social Media.
  • Andrew McAfee: Harvard Business Blogger. Interesting observations. Actively solicits input and feedback. Involves his audience. Real-time Web 2.0 research for business.
  • David Risley: Founder of PCMech. Wrote "Twitter: The User Manual You Can't Find." You want to keep up with the latest on Twitter and Social Networking Apps? Follow David.
  • Wayne Hurlbert: Blog Business Success Radio host.
  • Todd Defren: PR 2.0 & social media thought leader. Always helpful. Shares valuable information freely and often. Doesn't get enough credit for all the good work he does. Blogs at Pr2Squared.
  • Colby Palmer: Web Developer. I like Colby's iTweet app.
Lynne McTaggert: Author of "The Field" and "The Intention Experiment."

One of my favorite authors and people.

We did an interview and article together that allowed me to go to the dark side of physics, intentions, spirituality ... and my Cal and Chichen cartoons.



  • George Bush- The White House: Okay, this one is a hoot. They only follow 9 people. What happened to this Big Brother crap? I couldn't get a rise out of them with 10 Tweets asking why they weren't following me. And ... who are these people they ARE following?
  • Donna Hedge Burns: Marketer, writer, Public Relations maven. If she was running PR for the White House ... they'd have a bigger, more qualified following. And more friends.

  • Julie Devoll: Senior Publicist, New Media for Harvard Business Press. Why Julie? Well, truth be known, a couple years ago I wrote an interview/article with one of the Harvard's authors (Donald Sull) called "Good Companies Gone Bad ... The Donkey Goes to Harvard," (this was before Donkey O'Tee was world-famous like he is now) and Julie was great. Had a sense of humor. And really ... if you ever saw the "Honorary Harvard Donkey Scholar photo" you could see where they might object - if they were huffy-puffy-stuffy intellectual snobs. They didn't. Hmmm. But, now that I think of it, I haven't heard from Julie since.
  • Michael Pranikoff: Dir. Emerging Media at PR Newswire
  • David Wilson: Author, IT Manager. One of the reasons I like Twitter is because of folks like David. Never met him before. Probably never would have met him except for Twitter. But I had some questions on blogging platforms and David offered help and information within minutes of me posing the question. His answers were right on. Check him out.
  • Pam Gilchrist: Pammy is PR Chicken Soup for the Soul. Teacher. Author. Thinker. Friend.
  • John Mangan: Business Development, Analyst Relations expert, Most Excellent Friend (but never picks up a bar tab).
  • Me: Best cartoon-torials on the Twit based on my totally non-objective, spectacularly flawed and biased analysis.
BY POPULAR ACCLAIM - WRITE IN VOTES!

Shortly after publishing this article I received quite a few write-ins votes. All warranted.
Additional Resources:

14 Great Reads About Twitter for Business Use:
  1. Guide to Twitter for Business: By Shara Karasic, Work.com
  2. Top 8 Twitter Tips for Business: By Ellen Petry Leanse
  3. Question To Consider Before Using Twitter for Business: By Twitter Maven
  4. Why Twitter Matters: By Stephen Baker, Businessweek
  5. Tweeting for Companies 101: By Tara Hunt
  6. How To Listen for Opportunities on Twitter: By Chris Brogan
  7. The Evolution of Brands on Twitter: By Jeremiah Owyang
  8. Why Brands Are Unsuccessful on Twitter By Jeremiah Owyang (told you he was good)
  9. Is it Time for Corporations to Get a Twitter Presence?: By Valeria Maltoni
  10. Ultimate Guide to Twitter Tools and Resources for Journalists: By New Media Bytes
  11. Twitter for Business Reading List: By Pistachio Consulting
  12. The True Meaning of Twitter: Fortune Magazine, August 2008
  13. How Tweet It Is: Clay Shirky and Bob Garfield
  14. Huge Twitter Resource Page: http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com/
THE WILD WACKY WORLD OF WEB 2.0 COMMUNICATIONS



TAKE A TRIP ON THE WILD SIDE

NOTE: SLIDE 3 LOADS A LITTLE SLOW. IT'S A VIDEO.
CHECK IT OUT ON FULL-SCREEN. IT'S ENABLED.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Killer, I'm glad to have made this list! -Jeremiah

Mike Figliuolo said...

Great list - thanks for providing. I'll give a bunch of them a look. While you're at it, you've gotta add Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan), Brian Clark (@copyblogger), Jim Canterucci (@canterucci), Beth Harte (@bethharte), Beth Kanter (@kanter). They always put out some wonderful stuff. Thanks from (@Figliuolo)

Mary said...

This was a very helpful article. Thanks! I'd like to make my twitter experience more meaningful and connect with more folks of like interest. Can't wait to check out some of the resources you've listed and tweet with your recommended people.

Meryl K. Evans said...

Was wondering why I suddenly got a bunch of Twitter followers... I see who was behind it! Thanks, Steve. I hope I can live up to such an introduction!

Lisa McGrath said...

Great list ... thanks for sharing! Many of teh folks on your list are alos on mine. I made a few adds based on your editorials.

I'll share ones I'd add to your list:
Debbie Weil - corporate blogging pro
Mike Troiano - CEO of matchmine. Smart, insightful, leader who walks the walk & talks the talk. Featured in Business Week too.
Todd VanHoosear- Social media PR expert. Great guy and a friend.
Chris Selland - Marketing pro. Skeptic, but regular tweeter. Funny too.
Chris Brogan - Social media enthusaist and leader. He and David Meerman Scott both taught me so much trhough their tweets when I was first on.

Yu Yu said...

I think your list has the essential list of "peeps who tweet" that anyone working on social media and PR should be following. Most of the time when you're working on social network marketing, the field is so new that it's hard to find articles and knowledge base. I find twitter to be the best place that fills the gap.

Valeria Maltoni said...

Thank you for the link, Steve. You have quite a list of people on Twitter! If anyone here wants to follow me, I am ConversationAge (not enough characters to spell Agent).

Keep up the good work and thank you for sharing all of these resources.

Steve Kayser said...

Hmm.. That's funny. I had Copyblogger amd Chris Brogan on there originally. I'll add them back.

Who is this David Meerman Scott I keep hearing about?

Steve Kayser said...

Thanks Everyone for their additions. I have updated the post to include your "E-Write In" votes.

jamiegrove said...

I'd like to object to the comments about Meryl's crowd. We do not break dance. We're too old and fat for that.

Anonymous said...

Great list, but Christine Perkett would be a great addition. (@missusp)-- a true innovator in the PR industry.

Beth Harte said...

Hi Steve, thanks for adding me to your list! And thanks to @Figliuolo for suggesting me.

Might I add a few more to your list?

@AmberCadabra ( I mean she's a branding magician, how can you not want to tap in to that?!), @mackcollier, @ConnieReece, @SonnyGill, @ServantofChaos, @CamBeck, @FrankMartin.

Okay, I'll stop...otherwise you might end up with all of Twitter here. ;-)

Thanks again!

Beth Harte said...

BTW, a great list too! I have some new folks to follow and learn from. This is why I love this space.

Anonymous said...

Great article, and thanks for the mention! I've been looking for some fresh new additions to my Twitter pals, this is perfect!

Steve Kayser said...

Hey How Not To Write Jamie - f You're hanging with Meryl, Jack, Hank, Kimberly or Teri -- you still break dance (break has many meanings)

Michael said...

The link for Peter Kim is incorrect. It points to Jennifer Leggio. I thought you might want to know. Great post and I've learned so much just today. Thank you, @karagines

Jody Reale said...

Excellent! The next time someone asks me how to get started with Twitter, I can just send them here, instead of saying, "Um, it's microblogging..." and then breaking eye contact.

Unknown said...

Hey Steve-O. Helpful article and enjoyed the Web 2.0 slideshow (but then I'm a real visual fellow). Nice to see my Cal and Chichen cartoon get a mention.

Keep on bloggin' dude and pushing back the edge of that envelope.

Tom