Did you just take the big leap and open your first Twitter account? Is it for work, business, or pleasure?

A few months ago I joined Twitter, primarily as a way to network, but also to help people, and as a way to promote Train for Humanity and my small business.

When you start using Twitter for the first time it can feel a bit overwhelming, almost like entering a really crowded train station during rush hour on a Friday afternoon. There are lots of conversations and commotion going on everywhere, but you are in the station by yourself, an outsider, and certainly not a participant.

Of course, I went through the usual routine that I assume most newbies go through. I started following some names and faces that I recognized from around the web and I also added some of my early adopter, real life (i.e. non-internet) friends.

However, I quickly realized that if I was going to make the most of this new tool then at some point I would need to know who the thought leaders and trust agents were and begin to follow them. Perhaps, even more importantly, I was going to have to engage in tweet conversation with them.

Where do you begin?

Twitter can be an amazing networking tool, nevertheless, the problem most people face when they first sign up is they don’t necessarily know who they should be following or where they should look to find the leaders (Tweaders?).

Additionally, the thought of connecting with the major Twitter players can be semi-intimidating at first, but even to this day, I am consistently amazed at how accessible people on twitter are. (Even those users with over 20,000 followers.)

To help make your transition into Twitter a bit more welcoming, below I have listed ten people that all Twitter beginners should be following.

The individuals on this list have not been statistically quantified as the most influential, however, they all have large followings and the messages that they tweet are typically filled with value.

In no particular order, they are as follows:

1. Guy Kawasaki: @guykawasaki – Twitter Bio Online magazine editor.
2. Jeff Pulver: @jeffpulver – Twitter Bio Technology Anthropologist”; Entrepreneur; Early-Stage Seed Investor; speaker, Living in Social Media.
3. Chris Brogan: @chrisbrogan – Twitter Bio Social media type, but love the emerging enterprise tech space, too.
4. Liz Strauss: @lizstrauss – Twitter Bio Social Web Strategist – I show businesses & universities how to choose and use social media tools to make business growth faster and easier.
5. Jim Long: @newmediajim – Twitter Bio New media soul trapped in an old media body.
6. Brian Solis: @briansolis – Twitter Bio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Solis
7. Laura Fitton: @Pistachio – Twitter Bio Much excitement and geekiness about where this all leads.
8. Steve Rubel: @steverubel – Twitter Bio (from website) Exploring how emerging technologies are revolutionizing marketing communications.
9. Robert Scoble: @scobleizer – Twitter Bio Tech geek blogger @ http://scobleizer.com.
10. Gary Vaynerchuk: @garyvee – Twitter Bio I do this: http://tv.winelibrary.com and I care about this: The health and happiness of my Family and Friends. Keep it simple!

As an added BONUS, you probably ought to follow Darren Rowse @ProBlogger, too!

What do you think? Do you agree that beginners should follow the ten people listed above? Feel free to add your beginner “must follow” recommendations in the comments.

Update from Darren – the many comments below inspired me to issue a challenge – Construct Your Own Top 10 Must Follow List as it Relates to Your own Niche. Looking forward to seeing your lists!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Ten People All Twitter Beginners Should be Following

In this interview I ask Steve about his journey with Twitter, how he uses it, about growing follower numbers, for his suggestions on monetizing Twitter and for his views on the future of Twitter (and more).

Note: I asked my followers on Twitter to submit their questions for Steve and have acknowledged those followers to inspired some of the questions below. To be included in this type of thing in future follow @problogger and keep your eyes open for future calls for questions.

Steve thanks for joining us on TwiTip – Can you tell us your Twitter story. When did you start? Why? What attracted you to it?

In December 2006 I was invited to meet Bill Gates as part of a special blogger meeting on the Microsoft campus (Microsoft is a client of my employer but I was invited as a blogger). Evan Williams was at the meeting and we shared a cab to Sea-Tac Airport where he told me about Twitter. I was truly skeptical at first but I signed up when I got back to NY. I wasn’t convinced the site was going places. It wasn’t until about February or March of 2007 that I began to use Twitter in earnest and began to really enjoy it.

What are your goals in using Twitter? – question from @tylerpoling

To share my passion with the community and solicit ideas all with the intent of moving me toward my long-term goal of revolutionizing marketing communications through technology.

Can you tell us about your Twitter workflow? What tools and aps do you use? Do you Tweet all day or just in bursts? – question from @willhiggins and @zaibatsu

As a minimalist, I prefer not to run any more apps than I really need to. So I Tweet using Firefox – the web interface, Twitterbar for Firefox and increasingly Gmail/Google Talk via the Friendfeed connector. Also, I now have Friendfeed set up to syndicate my blog post links into Twitter.

I Tweet when I have time and in bursts but do not read anyone else’s missives other than replies back to me, which I also receive via Google Talk. I would love to read everyone’s Tweets but unfortunately I need to manage where my time and attention go. So this is the system that works for me. I occassionally see more Tweets when I log into Friendfeed.

How did you grow your follower numbers to over 10,000? Any tips that you could share with others wanting to grow their Twitter network? – question from @arrowheadaddict, @benjamteal and @leximo

Really, just organically. I am flattered that people want to follow what I am writing and sharing.

How do you manage the large number of your followers? Does it ever get too much to manage?

The only time it gets difficult to manage is when a lot of people respond to my Tweets at once. But that isn’t very often.

What advice would you give a company using Twitter for the first time? – question from @greenmom

I advise companies to add value to Twitter. They have to identify an unmet need that the Twitter community will respond to and then to be there with one or more human beings to meet it every day.

If you were on the management of Twitter how would you monetize Twitter? (or would you) – question from @sachendra

It seems to me that Twitter is sitting on cash. It just needs to unlock the value. One way is through insights. I bet marketers would pay for advanced insights on what people are saying/doing. The other is through contextual search. Twitter should do a deal with Google or Yahoo to put pay-per-click ads on all the permalink tweet pages and then share the revs with users. The other idea is to monetize search.twitter.com, also with contextual ads. I think the only reason they’re delaying this is to make sure they don’t alienate their community. That’s the biggest risk they face.

Is Twitter just a passing fad or will it still exist in 5 years? How do you see Twitter evolving? – question from @AnitaBruzzese and @justcreative

I have been a participant and observer of online communities since 1988 – that’s 20 years. There’s no community where I am spending time today that was not born in the last five years. If I think back to what I used over the years it spans from Compuserve to AOL to GeoCities to Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed today. No community has ever had staying power. TIme will tell if Twitter can break the trend. I don’t see a moat there yet.

Further, they’re at risk at becoming just infrastructure as people interface with the site through all of the other ports, most notably, apps, Facebook and Friendfeed. I hope I am wrong. Five years may not be a timeframe long enoughf for change.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter Interview with Steve Rubel