Blue Feather Tweeters
Forget all the incestuous top Tweeter lists, the rankings of the most re-tweeted, the scores for the most influential, the “find a MLM spammer to add to your follower cool twitter application” lists and the “Twitterati” glamour gurus vying for rights to the title of most vapid… So, I thought “How about a list of the top 20-30 nicest people to meet and tweet on Twitter? ” Here are my first picks for Blue Feather Friends–who actually talk to you….
I follow a lot of folks because I am a student of anything and everything on the net. I have used hundreds of Facebook and Twitter Applications, joined (and un-joined) groups with great names like “Ban the Racist Bicycle Bells,” My life is a musical” and I’ve been bought and sold hundreds of my friends in and out of slavery and then raced them in cars that don’t move. I have crashed my site dozens of times with new WordPress plug-ins and I have tried virtually (and to the lament of my twitter stream) every mobile and fixed Twitter client around. And aside from the auto-generated DM’s that say “Thanks for the follow >” via folks in a race to catch Obama in the followers count, and that big breasted bot with 450 different profiles, I have become grateful for the many people who have enriched my life and replaced my blogging, RSS reading and shower time (phew) with interesting stories that I will no doubt re-tweet one day to my grandchildren.
Following are a few of the nicest people you’ll ever tweet. I don’t know how many followers they have, whether they won shorties or longies or what their Hub score is… And this is not a list of my favorite charities, business folks, incredible journalists or people you need to suck up to to get them to add you (Brian Solis, Mashable, Winer…)…I will do those lists one day as well…
These are just people who aren’t so impotent (sp?) they only follow and/or talk to themselves…
Maybe in a day or two I will post my top financially useless, but great smile-making Twitter applications and add a few more suggestions for people to chirp with…. Feel free to add your own BCTs in the comments section…..
- from London. Warm, generous conversations with a truly nice and well informed guy.
- is from California. He is writing a book on Twitterville and is a bit of a celebrity, but his bio’ is right: he is a nice guy who actually talks TO, not at, you. And he is his own virtual assistant 😉
- He is a lawyer but don’t let that put you off. This is the most tireless guy on the net. He actually reads and comments on dozens of blogs, runs the best law blawg on the planet ( http://chinalawblog.com ) and still has time to go to his family’s sporting events in Washington, root for the Cubs and then Tweet about it! Caution: Do not try to sneak a knuckle ball by him–he will hit it out of the park.
- A world-class Chinese medicine expert from Illinois and one of the nicest people on the net. We met on Facebook when she suggested pointed me toward W.H.O research on a medicine that cured a recurrence of malaria that had hit a visiting guest–and it cost us less than a buck.
- A growing celeb’ on the small screen here in China. He posts great culturally entertaining pics, fun and informative links and actually takes the time to answer his tweets.
- An Aussie coach and consultant who has forgotten more about social media, blogging than I will ever know. He and his “girlfriend” (sorry, inside joke) artist http://twitter.com/suziecheel are an endangered species: kindness, wisdom and humility abound…
- Did you ever get a growing gift on Facebook? This is one of the team that built that application. He is a cross-cultural commentator and shouts out some very sensible answers about life and tech from farther inside the matrix than I have ever traveled….
- from London he runs one of the coolest and most purposeful blogs around and remains as authentic and likable a personality as you can find in the Twittersphere….
- when you think David Feng you think War and Peace, Ulysses, Everything You Wanted to Know About Beijing Subways Even if You Didn’t Think to Ask…The only guy on Twitter who HAS to have a David Feng Lite stream…I met this Swiss master at the first Beijing Tweet-up–there were three people and 10 electronic devices present….
- from Charlotte. Personable, but not afraid to call out the thought leaders. His profile says it best: “Innovator, Leader, Strategist, Executor, Mentor, Smartass, Kiteboarder, Dad, Husband”
- It doesn’t get more positive and conversationally enjoyable than this….
- An American gone Hongkese whose blog features impromptu camera phone interviews with the likes of Oliver Stone….He is an old-school journalist (small stuff like the NYT and IHT) who, despite his celebrity, is engaging social media with the heart and curiosity of a child combined with the shrewd thoroughness of a trained reporter–No small feat, that…
- A die-hard social media fan with his own travel company. The ONLY one of the 8,000 Tweeple I reached out to for help that answered the call to rescue a newlywed–stranded in China– who had all his money and documents stolen just after his wedding.
- http://twitter.com/johningz I think Foreigner did a song about him once….He lives in GZ where I do…The whole city keeps getting younger around us….He can Tweet and eat Pizza at the same time…and does….most days….every day….
- A Dutchman studying in Britain now. He made history by beating the news wires with tweets from the earthquake zone in Sichuan China…A former Olympic caliber archer, he made watching the shooting events from Beijing a blast by live-tweeting the events…
- Delightful, spiritual ex-lawyer and biz strategist from Chicago now in San Francisco….She sometimes beats me at online Scrabble….
This is by no means an exhaustive personal list and it augments posts where I have mentioned others…And I do mean to add more later…
I am I am a Twitterholic….
12 responses so far
Great list, I was already following a few! BTW I don’t think casperodj is Danish, he is Dutch actually!
Skywalker … come back from the dark side ….
This is a great post. Really had me laughing. I’ll looking forward to the follow up list of the “not-so-nice twits”.
Hi Lonnie,
Just rec’d my first “I love the interaction. This is an auto responder.” Ironic?
I agree that Twitter is about the interaction, not the numbers. I have wonderful conversations with people, both on Twitter & via email. That includes you!
Twitter has made the world a little smaller & friendlier.
What a lovely tribute to your twitter friends!
Lonnie, you made my day. To make your top Tweeter Nice List is a fine aspiration, something I did not know I wanted until tonight. I think the first few words at the beginning of your blog…Hooked me into reading the rest of your blog…
“Forget all the incestuous top Tweeter lists, the rankings of the most re-tweeted, the scores for the most influential, the “find a MLM spammer to add to your follower cool twitter application” lists and the “Twitterati” glamour gurus vying for rights to the title of most vapid…”
I love Meryl333 also…
One of the nicest people I chatted with when I first signed up for Twitter.
She is so cool.
Again Thanks Lonnie…
Sometime would like to chjallenge you to a game of Scrabble and/or Literati…
I seldom lose. =)
Be Blessed!
Sasha
You have to add Stephen Fry! He’s an absolute legend. He doesn’t reply to everyone (having almost 200k followers) but his posts are always very personal, like listening to your dad talk about ‘when he was your age’
Ah Lonnie, me old china…
I thank you, the “girlfriend” thanks you…
An honour to be included in such a list.
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Thanks so much for including me, Lonnie. Just now coming across this. I’m eating up your posts. Your writing style is both escapism and though-provoking for me — not many writers can do both at the same time! Cool.
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