Frequent AriWriter commenter Craig Kessler of BudgetPulse sent a Twitter message earlier today that he reached his 100th follower.
Congratulations! This is great news and Craig should be commended!
If you follow him (like I do) @craigkessler, you will recognize the value of his tweets and better understand why people and brands follow each other.
BudgetPulse is a financial management start-up. Useful advice; do check it out!
More often than not, following is performed manually and there is a rationale. If asked why I follow so-and-so, I always provide a reason.
In this vein, I’d like to acknowledge the first 25 people who I continue to follow on Twitter:
- Lesley Katzen is a friend from college in the travel industry. She represents the typical Twitter user with short, broadcast messages every few days, sometimes once a week.
- Joshua Porter lives in my small city of Newburyport, designing interfaces for website applications. I started following him over the summer but until last month, we’d never met. He is one of the triumvirate behind the North Shore Web Geeks and writes at bokardo.com.
- Penelope Trunk is a career/business writer for the Boston Globe and other publications. I enjoy her blog at blog.penelopetrunk.com.
- Dan Schawbel is to personal branding what Schwarzenegger is to muscles. He works at EMC and writes at personalbrandingblog.com.
- Skye Wentworth is a Newburyport publicist, focusing on authors and musicians. She’s more typical of a Twitter user than Lesley. I know her from a local writers group.
- David Bradley is a science/tech blogger in England. He’s a nice guy, and we’ve become friendly over the months.
- Adam Gaffin is the editor of Network World. But I know him more for founding Universal Hub.
- Chris DeKalb is a movie reviewer/blogger living in Somerville. I met him four years ago through a community theatre company when I acted and he managed the house.
- Guy Kawasaki both follows and is followed by about 29,000 people each way. But he still makes time to personally reply to tweeps. I followed his blog first. You can Google Guy to read about his accomplishments.
- Universal Hub is the 10th Twitter user I chose to follow — and the first non-person. This the pet project of Adam Gaffin, up at #7, and is the source of the relevant Boston news to know.
- Chris Garrett is another British blogger and was inspirational to the transformation of my blog from personal reflections on life to offering social media advice. I followed his blog before Twitter, at chrisg.com.
- Amanda Fazani is a web designer — best known for being the face behind BloggerBuster.com — where I found many tips when using the Google-owned Blogger platform. Although I’m now using Wordpress, she frequently includes tips that are easily transferrable and provide fodder.
- Morgan Wheeler represents the first in a l-o-n-g line of marketing/PR folks I follow.
- Dan Kennedy is the author of “Rock On,” a neat book about the music industry. While reading the book, I realized Dan was on Twitter.
- Kami Huyse is the second marketing/PR maven I started following, and we’ve chatted numerous times.
- Heather McConnell is a social media star with Hill & Knowlton. I love her knowledge and wit.
- Amy Lenzo is about beauty in everything she does. That’s how I found her. What other reason is needed?
- Brian Clark is the mastermind behind CopyBlogger.com, a site about, well, click and find out!
- Rachel Clarke is *the* person to ask about digital media life in London. Fascinating tweets!
- Trent Hamm joins the list of bloggers I follow and respect. For me, I typically find their websites first through links here or there, and if I like their style, I’ll follow them on Twitter. Trent is the voice behind TheSimpleDollar.com.
- Thom Singer is a (motivational, to me) business development guy in Texas. Inspirational dude to follow, and do click through his profile over to his blog.
- NatTheDem is one of those people who prefer to be anonymous online. That’s OK with me, for Nat provides intellectual bits about politics and society. Nat represents one of the first government tweeters I followed.
- Jessica Wakeman is a quirky freelance journalist who never ceases to amaze me.
- Laurel Touby founded MediaBistro.com, an online space for journalists of all shapes and sizes, and where I met many fascinating people in the earlier part of this decade. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen her, but I vividly remember her fashionable boas.
- Adam Coones represents the first in another long line of social media monitoring wizards. He’s the head of Infegy.
If you feel inspired, do consider visiting their Twitter profiles and interact with my first 25. And if you don’t follow me, you are more than welcome at @ariherzog.
Who are some of your early inspirations on Twitter and why do you still follow them?
Thank you for returning to my blog! If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, email delivery, or Kindle subscription. You may also reach me on Twitter @ariherzog.
Related posts:
- Top 3 Twitter Users to Follow Today
- Social Media Advice Not to Follow: Market Motrin and Annoy Mom
- Scientific Study of Twitter Proves What You Told Me: Value, Value, Value!
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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Thank you Ari for the mention. You have provided more than just great content on a daily basis, but have taken the time out of your day to really connect with me and supply tips and advice for no other reason than the fact that you are a genuine person. I take everything you write and say to heart and try to spread the knowledge and your message to others. Interactions with you are one of the things that make coming to work worth it. I really appreciate everything, and although I know words aren’t enough, again, thank you.
Ari; It has been fun getting to know you, I am honored to be among the first that you followed. I have enjoyed following you too.
Kami Huyse´s last blog post..CoolTools: Google SearchWiki and Its Implications for Public Relations
Ari, What an interesting and thoughtful post. It’s the kind of post that makes every Twitterer that has been around awhile, reflect and think about their inspirations/ motivations back when they first joined.
But first how to find your first 25? I’m not sure that this is the best way, but after clicking on your followers, click next at the bottom of the page. This will show you the syntax to follow which is http://twitter.com/friends?page=2. Divide the total number of followers that you have by 20 and round up. Change the page number from 2 to that number and voila! At that page, your first follower is at the bottom.
So after all that, the first people that I followed were publications like the NY Times. Your choices were a lot more inspired!
Warren Sukernek´s last blog post..When’s the G7 Tweetup?
Thanks for the mention, Ari! I hope I never cease to amaze you in a *good* way!
Hey, I liked reading your list of people you follow. You remind me that I want to follow Jessica. And you remind me why it’s so fun to use Twitter, even if I am not prolific…
Penelope
Penelope Trunk´s last blog post..Good blogging is simple: Write good posts (and be thankful)
Hey Ari,
Thanks for the great compliment! I’ve been on vacation and am late to seeing this, but thank you! The pressure is on to continue updating.
Heather
Heather´s last blog post..Thanks Nathan!
Ari, great post, it’s that kind of insight that should be behind every persons bio..instead of just so and so wants to follow you or vice versa..im going to follow some of these people just based on your quick snippets of their background. Thankyou.
Marc Meyer´s last blog post..Social Media – The Melting Pot
Thanks, all.
As 2008 winds to a close, I tweeted everyone as a reminder in case I didn’t tweet my thanks earlier. I recognize everyone doesn’t run a Twitter search on their names if not appearing as a reply.
Marc, if you click to my Twitter.com profile, there is a web link; and this post is among those listed…
@ariherzog great post! “Why I Decided to Follow My 1st 25″
[link to post]
– http://twitter.com/BriefEpisode/statuses/1081213109
– Posted using Chat Catcher
Great idea – I already follow a few and I picked up some people I want to follow!
Thanks again for the mention Ari!
I am also a frequent visitor of your sphere… Glad to make the connection.
I am so touched and honored to be on this list.
The variety & specificity & reasons for your choices shows something really amazing about you and really makes me want to get to know you better!
Amy Lenzo´s last blog post..Thank you!
Cool, I’m going to use this on my blog, thanks indeed
I am new on Twitter and I like that you picked people for specific reasons. I have chosen to follow those who are REAL, who respond and do not DM when I have asked a question. I use a process called JetNetting and have carried its usage over to Twitter. I watched your dialogue with @prosperitygal with interest. I see both sides. There are times when a group tweet really works – I would rather that I get recognized on my birthday than not. (Mine is Oct. 8 when is yours?) I am now following you. Let’s connect.
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