Written on July 24th, 2008 at 05:07 am by Darren Rowse

Follow These Twitter Users - They’re Just Like You

Social Media 61 comments

ProBlogger reader - I’d like to introduce you to some new friends - around 700 of them (and counting).

Over the weekend, on a whim, I started the ProBlogger Social Media Love-In as a way of linking you as readers of this blog together via social media. In that post I invited you to submit your social media profiles in comments and then to start be-friending one another.

The response was swift and overwhelming with around 700 people participating.

Reports started tricking in of people getting a lot of new friends and making all kinds of useful connections. The ProBlogger community spun out to all kinds of places as people began to connect and start working together on sites like Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, Myspace, Pownce, StumbleUpon, Digg and more.

As I began to watch what was happening I began to ask myself how I could make the long and scattered list of profiles more helpful. Some readers were content to surf down the comments list and start adding friends - but could the information be presented better?

I got in touch with Lara and asked her if she wanted a couple of days work to organize the lists. She agreed and today we’re rolling out a group of Twitter users (the most popular profile link left).

Lara has created a page of 538 Twitter profiles here.

Yes - that’s 538 ProBlogger readers who want to connect, work together and learn from one another.

As I was scanning down the list today it struck me that almost everyone on this list has a blog and as a result the collective influence that we have as a group is quite amazing. If on average we connect with 100 people a week each we’re influencing 53,800 people each week. I suspect the number is far greater than that because there’s some pretty significant bloggers on the list.

As I’ve mentioned on the twitter list page - over 500 people is a lot to follow on Twitter so you might not end up following them all - but do try to add as many as you can and see which ones connect with you most to stick with.

In the coming days Lara will compile more of these lists (one for each type of social media and one more miscellaneous list) so if you’re not a twitter user hopefully there will be a great list for you in the days ahead.

Missed Out On Submitting Your Profiles?

If you missed out on the 24 hour window where we allowed people to submit profiles don’t worry. The beauty of this project is that by befriending others who did you’re still going to make some great connections. We might open this up again at some point in the future but in the mean time I’d start with the lists that we’re publishing this week.

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61 Responses to “Follow These Twitter Users - They’re Just Like You”

  • Alexandra Popovic

    July 24th, 2008 6:05 am

    I hadn’t joined Twitter yet, as I’m already swamped keeping up with all my other SM sites, but this has now given me a reason to!

    3 cheers for you too Lara, for all your hard work!!

    Alex
    ;)

  • Rudy

    July 24th, 2008 6:33 am

    These lists are dubious. Who has time to leaf through 700 links? A more useful lists are the Top 5’s.

    Otherwise, honestly, we all want to ride Darren’s PR6 train.

  • David Appleyard

    July 24th, 2008 6:36 am

    Quick maths correction - 538 x 100 is 53,800, not 538,000!

  • Jon - Ninja Blog Setup

    July 24th, 2008 6:40 am

    A tip for people: fill out some details about yourself on your Twitter Bio. That way people can see if you are a good “fit” for their interests.

    I see lots of profiles that don’t tell you anything about the person, and I’m too lazy to click through to their blog. But if you put SEO, or affiliate marketing or something related to what I like to read about, chances are much greater that I’ll “follow”.

  • Chip

    July 24th, 2008 6:45 am

    That’s great! You’ll now have to socialize… a lot! I’m trying the same experiment as you, and I want to compare your results to mine.

    I’ll definitely not get these numbers, but I’ll have a piece of pie for sure. ;)

  • Alli ~Mrs. Fussypants

    July 24th, 2008 6:53 am

    Me, Me, Me

    I’m on Twitter as Fussypants.
    http://twitter.com/Fussypants

    Add me to the Problogger groupies, um, fans, um friends!

    heh.

  • Heather

    July 24th, 2008 6:55 am

    Will definitely start going through ALL of them tonight, might take me a month to finish though, LOL! Thank you for the list!

  • Robert MacEwan

    July 24th, 2008 6:56 am

    I can be found at http://www.samarabeach.tv or user “macewan” everywhere from Facebook to Ping.fm. In the event Google mafia is looking please ignore this comment. I don’t want to be Chow’d.

  • Sophie

    July 24th, 2008 6:56 am

    The “love-in” was a great idea! Not only have I found lots of new people to follow and be followed by, I’ve definitely found some really interesting blogs I probably wouldn’t have otherwise found out about

    Cheers!

  • Skitzzo

    July 24th, 2008 6:56 am

    Any rhyme or reason as to which twitter accounts had a nofollow tag on them?

    I realize that’s not the point and with a list of this size it’s not going to matter much, was just curious.

    Lara Says: You mean in the comments? Or in the 538 list? Some of the comments had to be edited because the links were typed improperly or some people coded them wrong when they used HTML, and I’m not sure if that had an effect on the nofollow or not, but Darren’s comments nofollows links by default anyway (which is why I find his high spam count and all the signature links kind of humorous, to be honest).

    But I’m not sure what you mean here, Skitzzo… where exactly are you speaking of the nofollow tag?

    Oh, I think I know what you mean… the links that were given as just the URL are copied and pasted in the visual editor, and those that were given as a text link (ie. “Twitter” linked to their Twitter page) had to be done as “Copy link location” and then pasted, highlighted, and linked to. So it’s likely that the ones that were just copied had the “nofollow” in them, whereas the others didn’t. Sorry about that… I’m seriously just trying to get these done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

  • Liz

    July 24th, 2008 6:57 am

    I already follow over 500 Tweeple so I’m looking to downsize not add more names. But it is interesting to look over your list and realize how many more people are on Twitter that I’ve never heard of. I guess it depends on who is in your social circle, where you live/geography, and what language you speak.

  • andymurd

    July 24th, 2008 6:58 am

    I had a huge response from your original post, increasing my follower count by about 30%. New followers are still coming in as I write this. I just want to say thanks.

  • MsTrisBeats

    July 24th, 2008 7:00 am

    I’m wondering how I missed the first op..lol Thanks this is wonderful, and I know this took a lot of time to put together..1st one Im following is Lara..that was a nice thing to do..kudos to you both

  • photochicki

    July 24th, 2008 7:01 am

    THis was a great way to find others with common interests (your blog for starters!) and to open up a new network.. LOVE THE LOVE-IN!.

  • Erno Hannink

    July 24th, 2008 7:04 am

    Still not done with adding all these 700 to my networks - still 300 to go. Thanks Darren ;)

  • Live Crunch

    July 24th, 2008 7:10 am

    Thanks Darren, I noticed today people add me more then usual (10-20) so I knew it was something that is coming from your blog.

    Ill add few techy people.

  • Brad Spencer

    July 24th, 2008 7:10 am

    Hey I’m new on Twitter. This is a great list to network with. I can see why people are really addicted to Twitter.

    I can’t wait to have people start adding me on here. I see this as a sort of facebook on steroids since people are more active and it’s real time updating. Just some thoughts :)

    Cheers Everyone and Please follow me!

    http://www.twitter.com/BradSpencer

    Best Wishes,

    Brad Spencer

  • Dante Explorer

    July 24th, 2008 7:14 am

    Shout to Lara, thank u ! you’re terrific! dave

  • Jim Legington

    July 24th, 2008 7:22 am

    Hello Darren,

    When I first saw your blessing of connections with
    others on Twitter we where trying to make a BlogTalkRadio
    show that we had scheduled. We quickly left three links and
    went on to do our Radio Segment. Was about 8 minutes
    late Monday.

    We came back and listed “Seven” Social Media sites
    that we are very High on. In the HTML code that we
    used in the seven links were to -Open a New Window- for
    those links. When we checked again, the links where shown
    but where not Clickable and one was our Twitter Link.

    Well Thank You for attempting to be a blessing to many
    Darren, You can Imagine how important it was for my
    Twitter connection to be among those shown on Your
    list. Certainly hope You can understand how important
    that list of Seven sites was for us. Wasn’t trying to
    Double Dip at all, Just had to get to my Radio Show.

    Be Blessed always…Peace
    Jim

    Lara Says: Jim, I’m sorry if your links got messed up somehow, but as you can imagine, when there were duplicates or links that weren’t working properly, I removed them so as not to have any doubles in the list as I went along. I’ll email you so you can send me the links and I’ll make sure they get added, as I saw you did have one that had 3 links on it.

  • Andrea

    July 24th, 2008 7:35 am

    thanks for doing this. :)

  • Carol Ferndale

    July 24th, 2008 7:46 am

    It’s through Problogger that I first learnt about Twitter, and I’ve never looked back! So thanks, Darren!

    Through Twitter I have connected with loads of other bloggers in the north of England, plus other interesting peeps all over the place.

    I’m a travel blogger (a bit of a lazy one, I’m afraid), and writer on the topics of travel, science, Web 2.0, and other related stuff.

    I’m also doing an MPhys! :-)

    I’ve noticed that even the BBC Twitters, as well as a number of major newspapers and forums.

    If anyone wants to Twitter with me, I’m up there as Carol_Ferndale.

    See ya!

  • Soccer Dad

    July 24th, 2008 7:48 am

    And if having so many followed on Twitter is tough, definitely start to use TweetDeck as a client since you can group users into separate panes so if the main stream is too crowded, you still see some users separated out

  • Lara Kulpa

    July 24th, 2008 7:53 am

    Thanks for your comments everyone! :)

  • Debra Durham

    July 24th, 2008 7:59 am

    I think it is amazing 1) that you provided a space for this, and 2) that so many people are excited about connecting with other ProBlogger fans. Just as amazing: that list Lara put together.

    Thanks to Darren and Lara - and new friends and followers on Twitter (and friendfeed)

    I am going to need to look at twitter clients so I can increase my reading/response. Thanks @Soccer Dad for the suggestion.

  • Ryan

    July 24th, 2008 8:04 am

    This was such a great idea. I’m finally seeing the fun in all of these social networking sites.

    Anyways, I look forward to following all of you guys!

  • Koen

    July 24th, 2008 8:13 am

    :| You must have made a few typos. 538 “Twitter comments”? 700 responses? Great job Darren.

    Lara, great job on compiling the list. I’m sure this is going to help a lot of bloggers.

    - Koen

  • BloggerNewbie

    July 24th, 2008 8:14 am

    pure genius! amazing.

  • Live Crunch

    July 24th, 2008 8:19 am

    Darren,
    I just plurked about it hope to see even better turn out.

    http://www.plurk.com/p/1p2so

  • Marc Beharry

    July 24th, 2008 8:20 am

    I was close to the top of the list, like #30, and i prob got 100 twitter follows and 50 friendfeed follows so far.

    and they are still rolling in. what a great post! maybe next time you can narrow it down to on site like twitter or something

  • RaaVi@Social Media

    July 24th, 2008 8:29 am

    http://twitter.com/raavi
    This is my account… well hope that will be clean… Because somehow in database of Twitter, somebody mess up my account… so hope that everything will be OK finally… Great job Darren, you done great things for us … :)

  • Darren Rowse

    July 24th, 2008 8:35 am

    Koen - not all of the 700 people use twitter - some just left other profiles (which we’ll release in teh coming days)

  • Rich Page

    July 24th, 2008 8:56 am

    Hey! Some cool twitters on this list. I have more too!

    I also did a post about 35 web analytics/web marketing gurus everyone one should follow on Twitter…

    Check it out…
    http://rich-page.com/web-analytics/35-web-analytics-internet-marketing-experts-you-should-be-following-on-twitter/

  • Ryan

    July 24th, 2008 9:07 am

    Down goes Twitter!

  • Wild Bill

    July 24th, 2008 9:11 am

    I was using other social media site and had not opened a twitter account. When I saw the Love-in I had to open a twitter account and I followed everyone on the list (530+). Last time I checked I had 171 people following me and I only started using twitter 48 hours ago. I have already made many connections and meet some really interesting people. Traffic to my website has increased by 200+ a day. I’d say if you haven’t started making connections to people on the Love-in list what are you waiting for.

  • Darren Rowse

    July 24th, 2008 9:29 am

    yeah - bad timing :-(

  • Neil Duckett

    July 24th, 2008 9:46 am

    Like Liz i find it hard to follow too many people. Will add some though, gonna have to be good though.

  • Talk Binary

    July 24th, 2008 9:47 am

    Great! I’ve managed to get a couple of followers. Hopefully this can give my site a little boost since I mainly get organic hits!

    Thanks for this love! Great way to get a community to get to network with each other! This should be also done with plurk! =)

  • Mike Dammann

    July 24th, 2008 12:41 pm

    Come on Darren, those should have been in alphabetical order, I have no idea now If I am in it.

  • Ana

    July 24th, 2008 1:24 pm

    What Wild Bill said… thank you very much Darren, this has been *so* helpful (I started at the end and worked my way up).

  • Michael

    July 24th, 2008 1:50 pm

    Doh! I missed the list. But you can follow me at http://twitter.com/88michael

  • Ed

    July 24th, 2008 3:16 pm

    With all the excitement around twitter I thought I better finally get on it. This me:
    http://twitter.com/edshealthtips

  • Christopher Clayton

    July 24th, 2008 3:18 pm

    Thanks darren!
    i was trying to add them all yesterday but the page kept timing out!

    on the twitter list, it says “if you hold down CNTRL and click” - if you have a mouth with a scroller in the middle, try clicking that on the links without your hands on the keyboard.

    ive told that too heaps of peaple and not many peaple know about it, they only know about the cntrl click thingo.

    Cheers,
    Christopher Clayton
    BlogVibrations

  • Atniz

    July 24th, 2008 4:41 pm

    Huge list.. I found it hard to follow with 120+ followings.. For 500, my updates will thwirl will keep blinking..

  • Syed Balkhi

    July 24th, 2008 5:04 pm

    Thanks Lara. OO about time I see myself in the list :) Yay thanks alot for that Darren.

    Looking forward for the Plurk list

  • Azarel

    July 24th, 2008 5:20 pm

    twitter is blocked in the UAE (etisalat) :( *sigh*

  • Matt

    July 24th, 2008 7:51 pm

    Great idea, Darren. So glad I could be a part of it - and talk about synchronicity - just when I was looking for a way to build my network of likeminded ppl. Bam! Pow! I’m so very glad. Look fwd to perusing the FB list when it comes.

  • System Crasher

    July 24th, 2008 8:33 pm

    I see that my Twitter account is included in that list of 538 items: it’s amazing! Thanks! :-)

  • Tushar

    July 24th, 2008 10:14 pm

    Hi,

    I tweet at http://twitter.com/tusharm
    Please add me too.

  • John Young | We Have Contact

    July 25th, 2008 2:41 am

    Great idea! I just got into Twitter so I’m extremely green with it. This should be a good way to get my feet wet!

  • ElegantCelebBlogger

    July 25th, 2008 2:53 am

    Thank you, Darren and Lara for the lists! i just signed into Twitter last month and this will help a lot!

  • Sara Mariani

    July 25th, 2008 3:10 am

    Thanks for doing this, Darren (and Lara).

    I just started using Twitter recently, and I found a number of great people to follow from your list, and some interesting new blogs to read.

    (BTW, I’m tweeting at: http://twitter.com/copywritermom)

  • Ashley

    July 25th, 2008 3:25 am

    I put my name on the list, but did not have a twitter…:( Here it is now:
    http://twitter.com/bellevere

    Great list, thanks!

  • JMom

    July 25th, 2008 4:12 am

    I was wondering where all the Twitter follows were coming from. I even twittered about it. Then I found out :) Thanks Darren and Lara!

  • JSM

    July 25th, 2008 5:47 am

    This is great, now I can be in the middle of online media and songwriting discussions all day long. There goes my productivity. :)

    Click on my name to follow me on Twitter if you’d like! ^^

    Thanks Darren!

  • narendra.s.v

    July 25th, 2008 7:15 pm

    huhu 538 bloggers pretty sweet list ;)

  • Ryan @ Smarter Wealth

    July 25th, 2008 7:45 pm

    I have had many many people adding me to their list because of your site. Thankyou Darren

  • melanie

    July 26th, 2008 12:43 am

    Always enjoy seeing a ProBlogger update in my inbox, but today was especially useful. I indeed found some people “just like me.” Somehow I missed getting to put the Playnormous Twitter name on this list…maybe next time… Thanks, Darren!

  • Lara Kulpa

    July 26th, 2008 2:41 am

    Alphabetical order? Are you serious? That list took me hours to put together as it is, and it was done pretty much in the order that people commented in.

    If you made it into the comments on the original post, you’re in the list. And if you’re really desperate to find out (ie. “make sure” because you don’t trust me) that you’re on it, go to the page in FireFox, press CTRL-F and type in your username. It’ll highlight for you.

    Geez… can’t please all the people all the time, huh? :(

  • System Crasher

    July 26th, 2008 4:15 am

    I have 44 followers and I’m following 44 users now: this experiment is really a good idea to connect bloggers together!

    I hope to find some italian ones, like me… ^_^

  • L-Jay

    July 26th, 2008 11:40 am

    Well - I finally made it to the top of the Love-in mountain. I thought I could just let everyone ‘follow’ me first and then I would ‘follow’ them in return - but I guess everyone else had the same plan…lol - only a couple of people signed up to follow me. So it was up to me to put the work in (and become a Leader…lol.) Once I ‘followed’ then I was ‘followed’.

    I think it is interesting that only a few jumped at the new opportunity to increase their network on twitter. It was easy for everyone (538) to put their twitter link on the problogger list but hard for everyone to ‘activate’ the Love.

    Thanks for the opportunity - I want you to know it wasn’t wasted by me!

  • Proliberalist

    September 13th, 2008 5:19 am

    I’m looking for new twitter friends too! Add me :D

    http://twitter.com/proliberalist

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