Who should you follow?

// March 31st, 2009 // Blog

Between February 2008 and February 2009, Twitter jumped from 475,000 to 7 million unique visitors – a 1,374% increase. So it’s no surprise that many of my friends and colleagues are jumping into the twittersphere. Their two top questions: what do I say; and who should I follow?
So here’s the scoop, tweeples. At first, say very little. Listen a lot. Only speak up when you have something to add of value. Don’t post tweets such as: “mmm good coffee or i hate mondays”. Not until you have an audience that’s demonstrated they give a shit. Do post things like, “how to find your social media audience webinar: http://www.bossdev.com/aprilwebinar.html” or “southwest airlines west coast flights canceled for next 4 hours”.
A great way to find out what’s of value to your community is to follow some of the thought leaders. So, here’s my short list of must follows. It’s a combination of individuals, nonprofits and corporations:
Pistachio
scottmonty
SmallCanBeBig
comcastcares
etradebaby
Zappos
elliottdotorg
ItalyArtTravel
sockington
nytimesdining
WholeFoods
jowyang
To find these twitterers, go to summize.com, twitter’s search engine. Search for their handle (their twitter name), click on it, then, when you’re taken to their twitter profile page, click on the “follow” button. On their profile, there are often links to their websites/blogs, etc. that you can click on to learn about what they do, what they care about, blogs and people they track, etc. While you’re at summize, search terms for things that you’re interested in such as tour de france, red wine, grammys, weather, uglydoll, travel, to find other twitterers you might want to follow.
Coming soon: a post on some of the cool tools you can use once you get comfortable in the twittersphere.