The 2009 Who’s Who of Who to Follow on Twitter (and Why)

First of all, why use Twitter at all? How can a social media outlet help me with starting a business, growing a popular blog, etc? See my earlier blog post for a brief introduction. Even though the title is "Can Twitter Increase My Ebay Sales", it provides a good introduction.

If you are new to blogging, monetizing your blog, looking for a new small business, learning how to earn extra income, freelance writing, sports writing, and a host of other things that share at least some kinship, then you have no doubt encountered information overload.

Information overload is a dreaded beast. It can take the most highly motivated entrepreneurs and send them running back to their pain-free bookstore cashier job (Nothing wrong with bookstore cashier jobs, I could have inserted U.S. Senator or professional basketball player just as easily). One day, you have a couple of people you feel are worthy of reading and following as you learn the ropes, the next day you’re learning how to ambush Google Adsense, forgetting about the blog you’re starting, counting the money you haven’t yet made, and losing your focus in general. The following day, you feel overwhelmed with trying to get through the dross of marketing-ploy programs and finding who is really offering solid advice for the upstart.

Although I’ve used Twitter for only a month or so, I do have some background in spotting money-making marketers and locating the gems. Twitter is a wonderful tool; a learning tool, a marketing tool (yes, it’s ok to market yourself or your products, despite what some Internet/Twitter snobs may say, just do it in context and don’t overburden your followers), and it has lots of other advantages.

Here are my top-10 Twitterers for 2009. These people are all popular and influential in their areas, have a sizeable following, though they don’t always follow many people, and provide great information through Twitter. They are, as far as I am concerned, also worthy of following apart from Twitter, in more of a "mentor" capacity or in the service they can provide. This is not an exhaustive list and I will certainly come upon others, but for now, it is a good start.

• Darren Rowse (Twitter user @problogger) Founder of Problogger.net and co-author of Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. Darren has a huge following apart from Twitter. Each day, he posts amazingly relevant tweets, courtesy of his blog and a long list of capable guest bloggers. He also answers many of the @replies he gets on Twitter, and their have to be tons of them. He has a Twitter following of nearly 25K.
• Cali Lewis (@CaliLewis) and Neal Campbell (@NealCampbell) - Creators of GeekBrief.tv, a video blog that reviews lots and lots of tech gadgets. As long as I have watched, and bought based on their recommendations, they haven’t steered me wrong. Tweets are entertaining and certainly not heavily marketing-based.
• Yaro Starak (@yarostarak) - Creator of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, this popular and successful blogger has lots of great tweets. Sure, he has products for sale, but you wouldn’t know it.
• Adam Ostrow - (@adamostrow) Editor-in-Chief at Mashable.com, another super-successful blog. He has a large following and posts some interesting and useful tweets. Following Ostrow on Twitter is also useful for keeping Mashable.com on your radar, which will help you remain on the cutting edge of what’s new on the Net.
• Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) President of New Marketing Labs and widely recognized as a, if not "the" social media marketing expert. He also publishes ChrisBrogan.com. Brogan has an immense following on Twitter, but he responds to tons of messages each day. In fact, I don’t know how he gets anything else done, unless someone is doing it for him. Regularly shares fantastic advice.
• Wayne Sutton (@waynesutton) He has some marketing in his CV, but his Twitter posts, as well as his web site, SocialWayne.com, are always entertaining and useful. In areas like social media, IT, mobile technology, podcasting, and others, he is extremely knowledgeable.
• Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki) The early Apple pioneer turned entrepreneur is now the head of Alltop.com, which is described as "an online magazine of popular topics." He’s approaching 50K followers and regularly provides useful information and links.
• Evan Williams (@ev) CEO of Twitter. Gives followers great info. Not much else needs to be said.
• Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong). One of the most recognizable sports figures of the last decade and one of the most effective at raising money for cancer research. You’ll get glimpses into his training routine, daily life and charitable pursuits.

I hope you find value in what these people have to offer, and provide them with useful information, as well. Here’s to further gold mining on Twitter, a great 2009 for Twitter, and a prosperous 2009 for everyone.