Saying you were going to tweet somebody at little as two years ago would have generated strange looks at best and probably got you arrested at worst. Now however, tweeting is de riguer and it seems anybody that is anybody (and their virtual assistant), are up to it.
Twitter has gone from literally nowhere less than three years ago to the 12th most popular website on the planet as I write this. No mean achievement, even in this day and age where meteoric rises to prominence have become almost common place.
It’s still a long way behind Facebook, but in my opinion it is a far superior beast for anybody that likes real time conversation. It’s also a great resource for finding information because there’s always somebody out there ready to help you out and answer any question you may have.
There has been more than enough publicity for some of the early ‘A’ list adopters of Twitter with the ensuing headlong rush by some of them to capture as many followers as possible and prove to the world how cool and popular they really are.
But seriously, who cares about celebs that only follow each other, don’t get involved in meaningful conversation with their followers and seem to see Twitter as just another vehicle to massage their fragile egos and promote their latest movie, website or bowel movement?
The depressing answer (to me at least) is lots of people, but I can’t remedy that anymore than I can stop people watching TMZ, reading the tabloids or thinking Ashton Kutcher is going to answer one of their sad tweets.
All I can do is point people towards Twitterers that do care, do talk and do bring more than a sense of superiority to the party.
The following people aren’t necessarily my BFF’s, although of course I like them all. They are however people that run blogs and help make Twitter a better place to be (at least for me) and all are well worth a follow. So in absolutely no order whatsoever except the order in which I wrote them down, here we go:
@bodhipaksa - How many Scottish Buddhist teachers that live in America, have a wicked sense of humor and are prepared to say bollocks do you know? That’s right, none. Well you do now and this is he. Very eclectic Twitterer and his links will swing from the profound and thought provoking to the down right silly. Expect the unexpected.
@PaceSmith - Ok, ok so you may just about have known another Scottish Buddhist teacher that lives in America, has a wicked sense of humor and is prepared to say bollocks. But no frickin way did you know a lesbian, polyamorous, bisexual, transgender, queer, pagan, unschooler, geek! (her words btw) Unless of course her name is Pace Smith and if you don’t, you do now.
@ThomScott - Thom is like the uncle I never had. Well actually that isn’t entirely true because I had two uncles, but they were both fairly crap and Thom would have made a better one. A super nice guy that loves helping people and adding genuine value with useful links and conversation under the name of the legacy architect.
@TracyO’Connor - One of the funniest Twitterers I follow even if half the time I have no idea why I’m laughing or what she’s talking about. Always sees the bright side of life even when there doesn’t appear to be one for 99.9% of the population She’s temporarily on a reduced service for personal reasons, but look for her to bounce back stronger than ever very soon.
@pdplanet – This is the pseudonym that young loud-mouthed cocky Brit, Carl Harvey goes by. Quite honestly I think the world needs a few more loud mouthed cocky Brits as we’re fairly thin on the ground. Carl is also the man that told Steve Pavlina his workshop was less than stellar and has no problem letting the world know his opinion. Hurrah!
@BobPoole – Bob is officially the oldest man on Twitter at 117 years of age. He’s seen it all in his life living through both world wars the great depression and prohibition. He could be forgiven for being a miserable old cynic that hates youngsters like us. He isn’t though, he’s the complete opposite and always has a cheery upbeat attitude and a laugh to warm the cockles of your heart – whatever they are.
@soniasimone -. What can I say about Sonia other than she’s friendly, fun to follow and an all round lovely person. And if that’s not cutesy enough for you she apparently makes a kick ass chocolate cream pie and is the right hand women of uber famous blogger Brian Clark, he of Copyblogger fame.
@JonathanFields – The man that brought us Career Renegade is a Twitterer par excellence. Always happy to talk and more importantly, engage. He offers up a great mixture of conversation and aggregated links, often about techie and marketing stuff. Recently disappointed all of Twitterville by refusing to upload photos of himself in Speedos.
@fabeku – This man lives on Twitter I’m absolutely convinced of it. It doesn’t matter what time of day or night I’m on his smiling face seems to crop up every time. Unlike yours truly he never seems to get frustrated with anybody and is never too busy to help out and he’s not even a Life Coach!
@ChrisBrogan - Co-author of Trust Agents I only started following Chris fairly recently and guess what? He’s genuine ‘A’ list blogger that shock, horror…wait for it…TALKS BACK. I have no idea how he manages to do it with a 6 figure following list and I’m not sure I even care because he posts interesting material and seems to enjoy interacting with people. He’s probably just a dead lucky person.
@SiDawson – Si is Australian, but let’s not hold that against him. He also believes in the Law of Attraction, only eats wild nuts and organic snow for breakfast and looks somewhat like he’s auditioning for a part in The Name of The Rose with his avatar photo. But even bearing all that in mind, he’s still a mine of useless and occasionally useful information and great fun to interact with.
@CTK1 – Ms Kingston wears her heart on her sleeve, although she’s just as likely to have ripped out somebody else’s that has pissed her off and be wearing that for the day. Talks about everything and anything and injects a wicked sense of humor into everything. May broach the thorny topic of sex from time to time (most days) so beware as she carries an 18 certificate.
@DannyBrown – DB has been in branding since before it was invented and runs one of the leading branding and social media blogs in the frozen north that is Canada. I’m not sure how he finds the time to do all that seeing as he appears to spend most of his time helping raise money for the excellent 12kfor12k charity and disseminating great information on Twitter. Top fella.
@JohnnyBTruant – I’m not saying JBT is insane, but I’m not saying he isn’t. Probably the only person on Twitter that makes less sense than I do. That’s why I love him, because I look rational, thoughtful and sensible tweeting next to him. He is very funny though, so there is that.
@michaelheppell – The man that brought us ‘How To Brilliant’ and is one of my favorite speakers and self development guys with an infectious upbeat attitude. He’s a funny guy with plenty to say, but be careful about clicking on his links unless you want to see pictures of him in lycra leggings. BTW, his latest book ‘Flip It’ is excellent.
@Ittybiz - Even though she has officially retired from coaching clients topless (Booo!) she still adds value on Twitter with her irreverent take no prisoners I am Queen of the World attitude. Or something like that anyway. She also swears a lot, maybe even more than me. Well ok, maybe not that much.
@nickmb – I resisted following Nick for months simply because his Clockwork Orangesque avatar scared the shit out of me. I succumbed though because every time I caught one of his tweets that somebody else had retweeted I laughed my ass off, and I like laughing my ass off.
@vladdolezal – Vlad is originally from a land far far away where the eat a lot of potato soup (probably), but now lives in the north of England where they eat a lot of black pudding (definitely). He’s a math genius (or at least it looks that way to me) and is passionate about self-development, rather than just passionate about telling people he’s passionate about self-development.
@CharlieGilkey - Wise beyond his years, but then again if you’d done a spell in the army posted in Iraq you’d want to acquire some wisdom pretty damn quick. Charlie is the man that gets things done whilst most of us stand around watching and then wonder how he managed to get things done. And not only that, but he’s a helluva nice guy.
@dragosroua – Quite honestly in my own mind I call this guy ‘The Dragon’ but that’s only because my somewhat limited Romanian means I have no idea how to pronounce his Twitter name. And anyway, you don’t get much cooler than being a Dragon in my book. Rabid Twitterer that is really into his self-development.
@mikecj - Ok, ok, so this addition makes it 21, but whatcya gonna do, sue me? Mike is a great guy and posts some brilliant links to all things blogging. He’s also a ex-pat Brit like myself.
I know I have missed some great Twitterers and I’m already feeling guilty because about a dozen have popped into my head that could have easily made this list even better.
However, life coaches aren’t allowed to feel guilty so please help me out by giving props to your own favorites and giving them the kudos they rightly deserve in the comments. Oh and if you don’t already, follow me.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by TimBrownson: Have you made my list of Top Twenty Twitterers? http://snipurl.com/uanww…
Twitter is a fantastic way to micro post. I like it a lot. I don’t really have some other life coach twitter account in mind, however I found your list useful. Cheers
Thanks for the shout!. I would add:
@timbrownson He wrote a great book which you’ve already read. You haven’t? Buy and read it immediately
@juliecj Who is my wife and who’s avatar is distinctly more attractive than mine
@chrisgarrett Co-author of Darren Rowse’s Problogger book, nice guy, very communicative and an F1 fan
@cmoz Crazy Canadian iPhone geek living in UK
Nice one, Tim.
Know and follow a lot of them already.
Incidentally, this IS my nickname. People do call me “Dragoane”! Phonetically, my name looks something like: “Dra-gash”the “a” being said like an “o”.
Bravo Tim, nice stack of humans you got there.
Thank you kindly for including me. It’s been a pleasure to bump into your tweets over the months.
Outrageous but true, the word Friending hasn’t yet been added by Websters yet. That’s appalling. And true dat, Twitter has risen from the ashes to be one of the coolest social networking sites and I think that has to do with it’s inherent brevity, the 140 character allotment.
Given that restriction numerous people can imbibe and play along. I love that.
You only need one photo, a short bio and bam, you’re off to the races. That’s rather new in social networking. Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, well, you need to put flesh on the bones, but with Twitter it’s all about the words. As a writer I drool over the concept so of course I’m there! Along with all the others who have something to say or nothing to say! I’m in both groups, depends on the day.
Thanks for adding me.
Oscar – You’re wlecome bud.
@ Mike – Thanks a lot for the links mate!
@ Dragos – So much the better then, Dragon it is. Excellent!
@ CT – Yeh I agree with all that. Let’s start a campaign to get friending added as well as Tweeting and maybe Vfuul. The latter because I always seem to have those letters in Scrabble and it would be nice if I could actually do something with them.
Hi Tim,
Great list you have here. I am already fans of and following a few of these people, but I wasn’t aware of some on this list. I’m always looking to find new interesting and interactive people on Twitter, and this list is a great resource. Just finished following the ones that I wasn’t before reading this article. Thanks for the suggestions!
Karen
Woot! I came here to look for cool twitterers to follow, and found out I’m on the list!
Now I feel all validated and popular… I think it’s the first time I made any blogger’s top anything list!
Anyway, I’m off to follow the people on this list (or rather, the half of them I’m not following yet). Tweets to be atweet soon!
Aww shucks.. thanks Tim. Mighty decent of you.
Oh, & for the record? I do occasionally stoop to non-organic snow.
[It's the middle of bloody summer here, you maniac. I'm sweltering in 40 deg C heat. I doubt there's any snow on the entire continent!! hehe]
Thankyou for the list. I will check them out.
Alright Mr Brownson……… I love the list…… but lets not have a Brit (or should I say POM) start picking on us Aussies…..
But seriously thanks for highlighting a few extra people to get to know on twitter.
Mick
Ow, ow, ow, when you said “A Clockwork Orange” I didn’t think you meant the part about eyeballs, you know how I feel about eyeballs.
Thank you so much for the mention, it was the best thing that happened to me all month.
Thanks for including me in the list. I was wondering where all the followers suddenly came from. Apologies to Tracy above, and anyone else traumatised by the eyeball. It’s really not going anywhere though…
that Bodhipaksa guy sounds hilarious, Im gonna go ahead and add him.
This is the first time I visit you site and I’m impressed by its uniqueness. Keep rocking dude. :-)
@ Karen – No problem, although I want recommendations back!!
@ Vlad – Don’t say woot mate. Don’t ever, ever say woot, or I shall have to ban you.
@ Si – You have freezers don’t you? Come on man let’s have a bit of ingenuity.
@ Roseanna – You’re welcome
@ Mick – You have a better country, you’re better at sport and half the worlkd doesn’t hate you. Why the hell shouldn’t I pick on you? It’s called defelection ;-)
@ Tracy – Amazingly enough I have no idea how you feel about eyeballs, but I’m getting some negative vibes now.
@ Nick – To be quite honest I’d be disappointed if it did go now. I’m quite attached to it in all its lunacy. Actually you know the single person I feel most guilty about leaving of the list? The person that introduced me to you, Ali Hale! I’m mortified I didn’t include her. I should maybe kick you back off.
@ Richard – You’ll not be disappointed
@ Walter – Thanks!
Loud Mouthed Cocky Brit? What a gross misrepresentation ;)
Cheers Mr Brownson, I humbly accept and appreciate your plaudits.
I was wondering why every man and his dog was suddenly clamouring to follow my thoughts on Twitter – and now I see… it’s all your doing.
Wow, I’m trendy and popular now, and I feel warm inside too.
Jokes aside, that’s a pretty good damn list too.
Fields, IttyBiz and Truant all provide good value.
@timbrownson is naturally my favourite (now I’m on a top 20 list, anyway)
I follow over 300 people. Writing a “Top 20″ is insane!
But well done for trying!
There are quite a few more people I would think of adding to your list.
The people that spring most prominently to mind are:
@SeanPlatt: ‘Cos he’s the Shakespeare of our time (except his writing makes sense :P).
@ChrisGuillebeau: ‘Cos he engages, and has some really cool ideas about business and the creative life.
Of course, when it comes to wittiness, @TimBrownson can’t be topped! ;)
I haven’t been using Twitter much these past few days. I think I’m experiencing withdrawal symptoms now!
@ Carl – Damn straight I’m #1 Harvey and don’t you forget it! ;-)
@ Haider – Insane would be a great way of describing it. I have thought of a number of people I ‘should’ have included and forgot and now I’m driving nails into my knee caps by way of repentance.
I’m not sure about CG, I do follow him already but find most of his stuff to be somewhat bland. Nothing wrong with it but he rarely if ever makes me laugh or think deeply. Seems like a nice guy though.
And yeh, Sean is without doubt one of the people I wish I’d included.
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thanks for the fun post and I am attempting to connect to some of the folks I am not already.
I think I would be on the z list of twitters…maybe we are to zz lists….
I do use twitter a great deal to laugh out loud, which is still the best medicine for me.
DavinaH is getting very funny on twitter to read these days…have you discovered her?
You made me smile today! One of the best posts so far! But hey, I don’t twit and just by reading your article made me really curious. I’ll probably sign up one of these days. By the way, it might interest you to have a free forum of your own. It’s free and easy to manage. Good luck on all your endeavors.
i never managed to understand why is twitter popular even though it has one a fraction of facbook functions
@ Patricia – come, come. I’m sure you’re up around J or even H :-) Ok I’m gonna track down DavinaH and demand to be entertained.
@ Mitch – A bit naughty linking like that. I’ve let it go this time, you do get a link from your name you know. Happy to have you here to talk, but not as an excuse to push other services. I’m such a tyrant.
@ Farouk – I hate Facebook BECAUSE of all the crap that surrounds it. It’s a pain in the arse to me even though I do still use it. Twitter is much more immediate and real conversations develop unlike on Facebook.
It’s a month later, and I just wanted to say “Thanks!”, Tim!
This post is pretty much what transformed me thinking “meh” about twitter to loving it!