In honor of “Black Friday,” we are doing our FollowFriday post at midnight on Friday!
Ok, now that that bad joke is over with, we move on to continue our ongoing blog series about the TRUE MASTERS of Twitter. That is, people who truly “get” what Twitter is all about: a place where you MUST always be authentic and real. A place where you initiate conversation, but also connect with people who reach out to you. Last week, we focused on Five of the Best, and this week, we add to the list.
The reason we do this is a simple one: we want to take the time and tell people, especially those who are new on Twitter, why we think the people we follow here would enrich your Twitter experience. The people we list today and have listed on previous posts ALWAYS provide incredible value to our Twitter streams. And for that, we thank them.
These five Twitter rockstars are very active on Twitter, but they are also very genuine. How do we know? Well, we have met three of them in person, and that always helps. But even if we hadn’t met them, just a quick glance of their profiles shows why they are so good on Twitter. For us, when we decide to follow people on Twitter, we always looks for three things:
• a great profile
• a steady stream of tweets (yes, we do not believe that you should be worried about “limiting yourself” on Twitter; any time you limit yourself, you stop being yourself)
• how many @ replies are in their stream
To us, that is all that matters and not the high number of followers someone might have. (Psst, next week we are going to list some great group of people who don’t have those high follower numbers, but are just as strong as anyone else on Twitter.)
On Twitter (and listen up, all you brands and businesses who think they know the secret, but don’t), we focus on this basic question: Does the person or brand truly connect with people? If yes, we follow. If no, thanks, but no thanks.
Here is our five for this week:
@theAlReza: they come no truer that Al here on Twitter, and for that, we thank him. Why do we love Al? When we catch each other in the stream, we stop, we converse, we joke, and we connect. Then, we do it all over again the next time we see each other. Perfect.
@sarahrobinson: Yes, we have met Sarah IRL this year, and yes, we have met the apple of her eye, AKA “The Young Turk.” And Sarah has such a sense of coolness that is 100% Alabama Genuine. She offers amazing content and is quick to converse, and she also cracks us up with her wit and charm. Oh yeah, Sarah is also savvy and sharp.
@adriandayton: One of the hardest working Twitter people we know, Adrian exemplifies what every person should be doing with social media: helping, helping, and helping. Once we connected with Adrian, we formed an instant kinship that extends into our offline worlds. We are proud to call him a dear friend, and if you are new to Twitter, Adrian is a walking Twitter encyclopedia who will always @ you back if you reach out to him.
@ginidietrich: This is probably like the 6th time we have put Gini in one of our blogs, and the reason why is rather an easy one: She is Simply The Best. (Ok, cue bad Tina Turner music). But seriously, in the days of companies and brands who think they still can control their message, Gini goes against that older way of thinking and basically says that you must be more transparent than ever before, because, and this is the most important thing, you are no longer the sole keeper of your message. So, you better just dive in and connect.
@chrisbrogan Chis Brogan IS the gold standard here. I am constantly impressed by how he can manage to offer amazing value, yet still do the simple things, like sending off @ replies. For some reason, we still think Chris remembers how it felt to be new to Twitter and even though he has reached the stratosphere of the Twitter Elite, there is something cool when he just sends out real tweets from him that reinforce what social media is all about. Anyone new to Twitter would benefit from what Chris does. Hopefully, we will run into him somewhere in Boston. Not an actual run-in during rush hour, but just a chance to say hi.
Franky Benítez 
What a great list Julio! You are right..they all exemplify what social media is all about.
BTW, I liked your Black Friday, release at midnight, theme!
Thanks, Nancy! Trying to have fun with the blogs and keep it fresh.
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Julio,
You are one of the best there is on Twitter at sharing the love. What an honor to know you, and to be included in your list.
Keep it up.
Adrian
You are too kind, my friend.
At least the sixth time! And you come up with something new every time. Thank you!!
We are trying to bring a different take on Twitter these days, since we feel it is maturing and people need to grow with it as well. You are a leader in communicating this message.
As has already been said,
this is great Julio. I’ll have to add a couple of names to my timeline.
Thanks, Clay! We try.
Great list bro!
Thanks so much!
Are you sure that you are not equating Twitter to high-school mentality, when the more “popular” you were the more “important” you were?
Yes, it’s nice to have followers and exchanges/RT’s/replies, but have you considered the amount of quality personal time you may be taking away by dedicating too much time to Twitter (or any social site) instead of, say, your kids, your wife/husband, even your neighbors next door who may be great people but whom you may never get to know simply because you’re tweeting all day long?
In the interest on allowing this comment on my blog, I will respond with this: I never said Twitter was a popularity contest, but I have been blessed to have met some great people. And guess what? I still know my family extremely well and neighbors, too. Can you believe that? Social media is not the big time waster you claim.
Dear Anonymous –
I think that you could take this point of view with some of the people around social media but to come here and say that to or about Julio shows how little you know about him.
Of all the people I talk to on twitter Julio knows the most about his family, he is involved with his whole family and he also is involved with is neighborhood to make a positive change for the future! Again you dont know who you are talking about or who for that matter.
I would like to ask you a question: How much time do you spend texting, emailing, or making phone calls? How is Social Media any different than any of these? If you ask me its BETTER! You get get to see what their life is like (like Julio), you get to see that they are not perfect or that you don’t agree with their political views or religious views, but at the end of the day you know them better than some of your so called friends.
Social Media is changing the world as we know it… did you know that more people are involved in social causes now more than ever? you know why? SOCIAL MEDIA.
If you are following people who need to be “RT’ed” or “Followed” then they dont get Social Media. IF this is your view of it then I invite you to come along with us, get to know us, and see if at the end of the day you still feel the same way. I would put a large amount of money that at the end of the day you will be: inspired to live a better life, excited about your future, and ready to be more involved with your own community!
Excellent insight. Thanks for giving me morw names to follow.
As for the anon comment, he or she has no idea about the power of social media.
We agree 100%
Wow. I am sorry Anonymous didn’t leave name or twitter account. We could have followed him/her.
The entire World Wide Web is a “time suck” if you let it. So don’t let it!
However, without this wonderful tool and the various other websites out there, I would not have met people from across the world. People with whom I have forged relationships and will, when I arrive in their city or country if and when I go, be welcomed with open arms.
You MAKE the quality time with your family, dont blame technology. You could always blame other inventions in history for taking away time from Family and friends starting with Radio in the early 1900’s and TV in the ’50’s
A pretty insightful comment. Thanks for adding it.
Julio, the phrase in your above blog post that made me reply was: “Does the person or brand truly connect with people? If yes, we follow. If no, thanks, but no thanks.”
This to me sounds a bit shallow and, again, a bit like high-school mentality, when teenagers follow other “popular” characters that apparently “connect” with people, but who may actually be followed just because it’s the “in” thing or because there’s a a bit of “bandwagon” mentality in following this person.
But never mind my comment, as the comment wasn’t targeted at you in particular, but at the general idea behind social networks’ followers and following. Your post just made me think about this.
For the record, I am in some social networks and you would be surprised at the amount of followers I got, so I myself am often amazed at how this networking mentality works in my own case, so I am not really trying to bash social networks because of you in particular, just simply reflecting about the time we may dedicate to them.
Anyway, I hope you take my comment as a mere different opinion from one of the visitors of your blog, not as an insult or something like that.
Again, I don’t see the high school mentality you are referring to and I welcome your opinion, but we feel strongly that it really isn’t about numbers and how many followers you get, but more about how people connect. If you are interested in engaging and connecting, we follow. If you are not and are just worried about numbers and quantities and posting links that offer no value, we don’t follow. How is that a popularity contest?
I was also not being disrespectful from my previous posts, but still don’t see the connection you make about social media and wasting of time. Still don’t see that, but we can agree to disagree.
On another note, why don’t you reveal your name here? It would be cool to know who you are. Hard to reply to someone named “anonymous.” Not saying you are not genuine, but I think it would be great to know who you are.
Best,
Julio
Julio, I understand your point. Again, this was nothing personal, so no problem.
And let’s leave it “anonymous” just to add more mystery to the post/poster… 😉
I appreciate the comment, but in the age of transparency, you have to let us know who you are. Please?
Julio, I prefer to keep it anon., but thanks for your invitation. Keep up the good writing because, as you see, even though we had different opinions, your post made me reflect, and I would say thinking is not a bad effect, LOL! Take care!
Fair enough.
Just one more visit to share this quote I found which is closely related to my initial comments in this thread:
“Some argue that the use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter threaten the depths of our human relationships and separate society’s connection with the real world. Others argue that what began as a social interactive platform is slowly becoming a superficial sea of subversive status updates and covert spamming. I would offer the possibility that while those arguments have valid points, genuine connection is happening between both worlds. Passion is the key to any authentic connection.”
The full story at http://conversationagent.typepad.com/twittertales.pdf
Works for me. Thanks for sharing, Anonymous.