Who Are Your Twitter Fab Five?
July 23rd, 2009 |
In response to the madness of Twitter Follow Friday, I’m going to try something new that I call my “Fab Five to Follow Post.” Instead of tweeting dozens of random Twitter IDs with no context or explanation, I’ve decided to pick five of my favorite Twitter people and explain why I follow them, and why you might want to as well.
Vruz is my good friend Horacio from Uruguay. As with most of my favorite people on Twitter, our friendship is based on mutual respect. Vruz is one of those people who is super smart on any internet or technology related subject. When I was writing my book, he not only reviewed design concepts for the cover, but made a couple of his own to show me what he had in mind! He’s always supportive, to an extreme. Vruz is an example of what makes Twitter amazing: You’ll meet people from different walks of life, half way around the world, that you would never have met IRL. Check out his exemplary Tumble Log aka Tumblr blog, United Colors of Vruz. Vruz had a green avatar before anyone else on Twitter.
I’m not sure how I met Michelle Naranjo, MissMotorMouth. She’s one of the auto industry’s best observers and bloggers. She’s an online marketing pro, not one of the “make $3 million a day” kind but the hard working kind who knows SEO, e-commerce, content management, etc. She’s also a good friend with a huge heart and an awesome sense of humor. She blogs for Carsala and check her out at MissMotorMouth.com.
Cristinellaa is, well, a post modern punk princess. She’s an actress, singer, rabble rouser and fan of dueling piano bars. She is a master of biting satire in 140 characters.
Mediaphyter is Jennifer Leggio, internet security queen (we have lots of queens, princesses and other royalty here), ZDNet blogger, hockey fan and 100% social business professional. Jennifer was kind enough to invite me to write a guest post for ZDNet which ended up being on my mostly widely read online pieces. And I’ve heard Jennifer sing karaoke.
Last but not least is jackassletters, aka Christopher L. Jorgensen. Christopher’s web site “showcases the letters he writes to luminaries and companies with their responses.” The letters and responses are a riot. There is little that is funnier on the web. Christopher is also a really smart marketer and all around decent guy. And he once said I was one of the few marketers on Twitter that had any integrity. (See how smart he is?)
So there you have my Fab Five. I figure I ought to let people know a little bit about folks before I recommend a follow.
| Sphere This |
It’s funny that you call me a “smart marketer.” I’m almost a anti-marketer. I wouldn’t say I know a lot about it other than when it’s going wrong! To me interacting with a brand should be engaging and exciting, but too often companies alienate people or make their message annoying!
I have since found a couple other savvy marketers on Twitter, but the vast majority of them do not understand the medium. Like I said, I don’t claim to either, but I can tell when they are going about it poorly.
It seems that there are as many strategies for marketing in the social medium as their are companies, and coming up with a recipe that works is probably impossible. When a company can humanize their services in a genuine way, without resorting to gimmicks or unethical behavior, they will make the connections they are looking for. Manipulating people isn’t a good long term solution.
Thanks for the recommendation! One thing I would suggest is letting people know you did this. If you did, I missed it. I would have sent people to this post, just because I have a fragile ego and the external validation is welcome. I think a post like this is a great idea, and would like to try doing this as well, but I am always a bit leery. I’m not sure everyone would appreciate the kind of followers I’d be throwing their way.
christopher….
Comment by Christopher L. Jorgensen — August 17, 2009 @ 11:03 am