Twitter: who do you follow?

Now that Twitter is getting a bit bigger, and certainly more stable, I’ve been following more folks and, some folks whose work I like have been following me (it’s probably usually automatic, but still ;-)! I get a tiny unexpected rush to see someone decide to follow me. It also is great motivation to write more.

Via someone’s tweet, I noticed that there are services like Qwitter; Catching Twitter quitters, that informs you when people unfollow you. Hmmm…I don’t know if I really feel comfortable with that: but, it’s going to happen, it’s the nature of modern communications: so I’ll get used to it. For the folks who saw my new media presentation at FEW(Foreign Executive Women in Japan), remember when I mentioned that it’s best to assume that nothing is completely private with services like this? That’s how it goes with communications tools. Now there’s a good chance someone will see if I unfollow them: if it means that much to them, hopefully they’ll ask me about it, and if it doesn’t, no harm done.

Where was I…oh yeah, I wanted to explore who I’m following, and why, just to give folks who aren’t on Twitter a sense of what it’s like, what the service adds to my awareness of news, interesting thinking and linkage. This is completely random, as I follow Twitter via the TwitKit add-on for Firefox. Here’s what TwitKit looks like in action: a stream of tweets on the left hand side of my screen.

Now for a few of the folks I follow:
Chris Pirillo: I am so excited, because here’s a case where he followed me first, and I feel really good about that, as I’m a fan of the way he shares information, his always-on webcast (the chair is empty now;-), and the way his site mixes excellent how-to content with his Google Ads. I had him on my mental list of people to follow, so as soon as I got up and saw this, I grinned and followed him back. Go Chris!

Jeremiah Owyang posts great stuff for social media mavens, like this: Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and Engagement by the Numbers in 2008. You can see why he’s a must follow for me. He keeps a finger on the pulse of the whole industry: and shares information. Arigato Jeremiah!

Shaquille O’Neal: let me illustrate how much I’m into basketball: I had to google Shaq’s name to get the spelling right(lol). It’s hard to describe how little interest I have in sports. But, but, I do know that he’s a very public figure, because of his great playing, apparently, and also because he is pretty smart and pithy…also apparently. Anyway, Wayne Sutton (about whom more below) tweeted that Shaq was twittering, via the NY Times: The Real O’Neal Puts His Cyber Foot Down, and I was curious, so I followed him. And, lo and behold he is indeed, funny! Now, one problem is that folks may think I’m following him because I’m into the sport and are now following me, and so there’s a stream of basketball talk in my TwitKit now…sigh. I’ll let it keep going for a while, until it overwhelms: it’s interesting to see what folks who have very different interests from me are thinking about. Hope you enjoyed that burger, Shaq!

Wayne Sutton: He’s a New Media & Social Media Evangelist, who is also African American, and tweeted something I found kind of interesting: in the interests of getting a sense of how many AfricanAmericans are on Twitter, he promoted the idea of adding a hashtag (#blck) to your tweet if you are AfricanAmerican, and we can follow the the tag in one spot to see who’s there…I’m still thinking about this. Will post more on hashtags, and this particular program, when I’ve had a chance to think it through. But, kudos to Wayne for coming up with the idea!

Problogger is Darren Rowse, and he is, indeed, a Pro! I’ve been reading his blog for ages, and he posts excellent links to social media oriented articles, plus his own tips on how to be a more effective blogger. He also suffers from migraines, like me, and I find myself wincing in sympathy…Be well, Darren!

There are a lot more, and I had fun with this, so I’m going to continue this little series. Having said that, I have to head over to my other writing space, Fighting Liberals, and talk about some podcasts I’ve been listening to re: the gap in thinking between haves and have-nots.

See ya!

ps: oh, for folks who are new to Twitter, if you want to find people and follow them, you can use Twitter invitations, or google: {Twitter: person’s name}, or if they’re well known, you can use services like Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop: All the Top Twitter News, without the fail whale (don’t blame me, that is the page title).

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