Hi.. Maybe you could update on what you are doing or you could paste links to what you have posted... I use Twitterfox because I don't have login to the website, it is easier posting with Firefox... I too am a fence-sitter on Twitter, but you could visit the twitter streams of BBC, CNN, other sites like CNET for tips...

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-to-write-in-140-characters-or-less.html

I follow people mostly based on humor — there are many people who seem to be master comedians in the 140 character genre.

Some faves:

@hotdogsladies (aka Merlin Mann — he's "taking a break" from Twitter, but was one of the best ever)
@gruber (aka John Gruber of DaringFireball.net; his Apple-related blog is a must-read, but on his 'tweets' he's more informal and free-ranging)
@SeoulBrother
@badbanana
@wilw (aka Wil Wheaton)

That's just a tiny sampling — but look at who *they're* following and you'll discover more of the best of the best. Likewise, I'm @doublejack — to see who else I deem worthy of my attention, look at who I follow.

There's no point in using Twitter if you aren't following Warren Ellis -- warrenellis .

I'm far from being a twittering expert but in your case, and since I'm one of your twitter followers (and an assiduous reader of your blog), I would like to see things like:
-interesting stuff you find on the web
-books you currently read
-your thoughts on news that caught your attention

In summary: twitter about the stuff you find interesting that does not make a way to your blog posts.

Thanks for asking.

It's mindless, droll, and basically does nothing till you have a bunch of followers.
Then,, you realize,, you've been sucked into the world of twitter and your mind is missing.

It does help to publicize your posts (and you do such great posts!) (seriously people should be reading this space).

That alone would suffice as a twitter account being used. Add to it witticisms you come across, jokes told, events that happen, possibilities to meet you in person, general (or specific news).

It's rather bizarre and needs to be played in to be understood. I don't think, "It takes one to know one" should be the slogan (but it couldn't hurt).

Looking forward to your tweets!
-@freds4hb

I second wilw, and add in xenijardin and joeljohson, who are associated w/BoingBoing. I also like following georgeruiz because he's a new media agent for the likes of xeni and another twitterer brigittedale

Here are two "non friends" that I follow that do a good job of complementing their blog/business:

http://twitter.com/careerdiva
http://twitter.com/Delight_com

CareerDiva's post about getting started with Twitter is pretty good:
http://www.evetahmincioglu.com/web/blog/2009/01/09/dont-be-afraid-twitter-wont-bite-you/

Kevin...I am a complete failure at social networking.
I though your post was hilarious.

I wish I had 888 followers...that is a super lucky number. Actually I think followers are a bit creepy...like stalkers. I prefer subscribers.

Best regards, Rosemary
http://contentinacottage.blogspot.com

I also wholeheartedly recommend Wil Wheaton - http://twitter.com/wilw

He's a geek like the rest of us, a celebrity, and still in touch with his fans. This is what twitter is all about to me - either close friends who want to know everything that is going on in your life (I keep a personal twitter for that), or a way for celebrities to keep in touch with their fans in a way that feels more personal (aka how wil wheaton does it). Whatever you do... don't abuse it as an advertising space (It annoys me when I repeatedly get "text give to 01234 to donate money to the purple heart" - nice sentiment, but if I wanted that type of tweet, I'd look for a purple heart twitter account!).

Just my 2¢

the classic one I would look to would be
@MarsPhoenix
though, obviously, it has stopped tweeting

good blogs/companies that tweet well are sometimes hard to find
I follow a few but these put a bit more effort into it:
@Glinner
@BravoTopChef
@targetvacations (it's Canadian but if you are looking for examples still good)
also people using the plodt can be fun to follow

It all depends on your sense of humour ... but all the cool kids follow
@THE_REAL_SHAQ

Unfortunately, I don't have any Twitter recommendations - just commiseration with your experience. I also started on twitter ~ a year ago, and while the hype surrounding it has continued to grow, I haven't yet found it useful in the least.

I could see using it as an information exchange tool, but as an information creation tool, it seems much too limited. Is there really anything worth saying that can be said in 140 characters?

There must be something Twittery in the air today. Also posted today is an excellent blog post on "Twitter: The new Information Ecosystem & Its Amazing Reach Potential."

http://www.subhub.com/articles/twitter-the-new-information-ecosystem-and-its-amazing-reach-potential

Hi.
I am also a TWIT, not knowing how to even use Twitter, though I have it as an icon on my blog, Stacey Snacks.

I don't know half the followers, and why would they want to follow me anyway???

http://staceysnacksonline.com

Fred nailed it on the head about achieving a critical mass of followers. Once you reach a certain number of followers (at least 20 or 30), 'tweets' you post will make it in front of enough eyeballs to elicit a response from someone. Usually someone else may chime in and the topics continue. The best explanation of Twitter I've heard is that it's like a big cocktail party. There will be conversations that are public, and for the most part, you can jump in and add your two cents. Others will notice you share a similar interest and follow you, and many times you reciprocate and follow them.
I would like to follow you, for example. I think once you get on Twitter and start enjoying it, you can use it for small thoughts that you don't feel like or cannot write a full blog post or review over. Suppose you are in the chains aisle at Home Depot and you notice that one brand of plastic chains is brittle whereas another is somewhat flexible and can handle a larger load. You could use your phone to send an SMS to Twitter that instantly posts your thoughts on your Twitter page. Granted, something small like plastic chains wouldn't warrant a full review or blog post, but a short 140-character comment would be useful and entertaining for your followers. You can also post small tweets to inform your followers of a new blog post for those who don't subscribe to your RSS.
These are just random suggestions. I believe Twitter is a powerful social tool for those who choose to use it. It's just a matter of discovering how it fits into your social life.

Kevin,

I think good Twitter practice is much easier than blogging. I am sure there are many things you find truely interesting that you don't have time to blog about but you could quickly write 140 characters on.

I drop lots of people to tweet too often. Keeping the volume low, 2 or fewer tweets a day prevents your readers twitter feeds from being dominated only by your posts, but it sounds like you are not having that problem ;-)

@gregdowning

Since I didn't leave any recommended names to follow in my last comment, I'll do it now:

Nivi -- insights on life from a VC
venturehacks -- same writer as "nivi" but about silicon valley VC insights.
ogleearth -- GIS expert roams the real world.
bruces -- Bruce Sterling
TechCrunch -- personal and professional from Michael Arrington. He told Twitter first when the idiot spit on him.
randallnewton -- me. I use Twitter for business promotion (nichy tech journalism) and a bit of "chronicle of life" stuff.

musts:
@sacca - a vc, former Googler, master of the medium
@fredwilson - also VC here in New York, investor in twitter, early active user
@factoryjoe openID guy, interesting related discussion
@craignewmark - self explanatory, good twitterer
@davewiner
@davemc500hats
@jimmyfallon - new to the genre but is picking it up quickly.

some random other interesting people @bre @alexlines @whitneymcn

I would highly suggest using Tweetdeck and creating a custom group for high priority friends and allow yourself to follow a larger number of people than you'd think you'd be comfortable with. And remember Twitter isn't email/im, there is no expectation to read everything.

I got back into Twitter after reading one of valleywag's articles on the Twitterati:
http://gawker.com/search/twitterati/

It highlights some of the media elite and tech elite that use twitter. I find most to be interesting ppl to follow.

My strategy (still in its early stages) is to start following somebody I find interesting and/or important, then check out the people whose messages they forward along (often prefixed with RT: ReTweet) and to whom they send direct replies.

I started out with @timoreilly and the tree is rapidly branching out.

Sturgeon's Law definitely applies, but there is some real gold in the stream.

Good hunting!

There is something Twittering in the wavelengths today as Stephen Fry just addressed his hordes of followers: http://www.stephenfry.com/blog/2009/01/29/twitter/

Forbes just released a list of Most Influential Twitteres
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/top-twitters-celebrities-technology-webceleb09_0129_top_twitters.html

The dirty hard work of building next gen Cloud Computing is interesting stuff: http://twitter.com/jlambert

I follow people in my local area (Portland). I find it gives me great insights to different things going on around town, and good spots to eat. I follow a few people based on their so-called twittering ability, but mostly just if they are involved in a field i am interested in. I am also following Pres. Obama who states that he will have an aid twittering for him.

these are the most consistently interesting tweeters i've found:

@pickover
@bldgblog
@pruned
@johnfschneider
@textism
@johnmaeda
@joguldi
@timoreilly
@jess7bennett
@davewiner
@syntaxjunkie
@cshirky

and if you like them, you might like my feed too: @axelalbin
:)
aa

I was one of the previous 800+.
Just in case you're interested in marketing and advertising i recently built a Twitter Power 150, with the highest ranked Twitters who write about these themes.

Have a look:
http://www.asourceofinspiration.com/2009/01/16/twitter-power-150/

And your strategy of start following interesting people first, seems a great advice to give to newcomers.

Andy Baio (waxy.org) says this service is "shockingly well done": Mr. Tweet, user recommender for Twitter, at mrtweet.net.

@stephenfry
@hodgman (John Hodgman)
@hotdogsladies (Merlin Mann - the disputable king of the Twitterati)
@leolaporte

I recommend @HouseWench (that's me!), @Akelaa, @badbanana and @DarthVader.

@Kvetch is good for a cheap laugh every now and then, and
@NikolHasler, creator of the MidWest Teen Sex Show (roll eyes now) has many funny quips.
@JephJaques, creator of Questionable Content.

Hi, Kevin.

Looks like you have a lot of good recommendations, so I'll skip that part. But one other suggestion:

I have two twitter accounts. One is for my professional persona. It's @williampietri, and I mainly talk there about things relating to agile software development. The other is a private one, which is just for my friends. You might consider starting with the latter so that the stakes are smaller and there's more room to experiment.

May I also recommend the amazing Stephen Fry -- @stephenfry -- Penn Jillette -- @pennjillette -- and Phil Plait -- @BadAstronomer.

-- The distinctly non-interesting @glennonymous

@dubber is a brilliant twitterer. Here's a representative tweet from him:

"Someone down my street is whistling 'The Farmer in the Dell', but in a slow, deliberate, horror-film, minor key sort of way. Spooky."

Some others whose tweets are consistently high quality are:

@pkedrosky
@timoreilly
@fredwilson
@hrheingold
@christinelu
@guykawasaki
@mkapor
@KathySierra
@kevinmd
@mike_elgan
@psaffo

I hope you enjoy following some or all of the above. Cheers!

Start out by spending more time at http://search.twitter.com and enter some of your favorite terms and look at some of the trending topics or nifty queries. Don't worry about tweeting yourself at first or following anyone in particular. Twitter search will get you in the rhythm and you'll know both when to start tweeting and who might be interesting to follow.

looks like you have all the twitterati you can handle listed already so let me recommend that you get some folks who are local to you added to your list. My local brewery twitters @saintarnold and I love knowing when they are bottling the amber. I try to find my local pundits and critics and folks about town to follow, I feel like I know my city better and when something big is on fire and I see smoke now I check twitter before the local news.

as far as your tweets, let's here those quick ideas you don't have time to write about right now

@hrheingold
@guykawasaki
@wholeearth (is at least trying hard)
@TalkingMoose (+++)
@REI_CoOp
@cleanestline

And of course you could always follow me @phoutz

http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-twitter_why_you_should_care.html

By Randy Cassingham, journalist, publisher of This Is True and Heroic Stories, and all-around smart fellow.

There's always...

@kevinrose (diggnation and one of top twitter users behind barack obama)
@alexalbrecht (diggnation)
@aplusk (ashton)
@mrskutcher (demi)
@moonfrye (new to twitter and all grown up punky brewster)
@perezhilton
@mashable
@barackobama
@jimmyfallon

A good twitterer - no such thing. There are good tweets, funny tweets, interesting,etc... but I don't think anyone can be any of the above consistently. My advice... just keep it simple - "what are you doing..."
Other ideas: What caught your interest today (this hour, this week). Perhaps, something like a link or quote in a field that interests you.
My pet peeve: A person has a lot of followers (like you), who uses twitter like email, and spends all their time just doing @replies. I will unfollow someone if they have too many @replies.
Other idea: I tend to follow people who interest me in the "geek community" @bre always is up to something creative. @hodgman is good for a chuckle, @apelad is also good for clever witty tweets, @darthvader, @laughingsquid, @eff to name a few.
While celebrity twits are interesting at first, I find they don't hold my interest very long.
Be yourself :)

WOW!

OK folks, I am on it.

I'm making a list and checking it twice for those most often suggested. I'll start with those, but I can see already that I need to be very careful in how many I add. Some gave me a great suggestion to REMOVE or unfollow one for each one I add or follow.

I am still just consuming Twitter and not twittering back, which I know, is not how you are suppose to use it, but I want to start slowly.

Three questions for those of you still reading the comments:
1) I get the idea that I can inspect who person A is following as one way to find folks to follow, but is this list in any way ordered by favorites (or can it be?). The list is not helpful for this once it goes beyond a dozen people. If it were ranked with favorites at the top, then it would be gold -- I would not have to ask here!
2) I looked at a list of the top 1000 most popular twitters by followers and it looks like 98% of them also have blogs. Do most people follow BOTH the blog and tweets of the same person? Or do you tweet follow some and blog follow others? Do you follow blog and tweets of anyone?
3) I get the idea of micro-publishing, but I find the @replies disruptive. (You ain't talking to me, yes?) It feels more like a chat room, or broadcasting cross talk. Do (or can?) you suppress the @replies?

Either way, many thanks for the informed suggestions. I'll report on my adventures when I have some conclusions.

If you really can't be arsed participating, don't bother. If you have to ask, you clearly don't 'get it.'

For some of us, Twitter is another way to interact digitally with those that are friends, colleagues and like minded. For others maybe it is about promoting ideas, passions or services and products. When you ask about great people to follow, try searching for pundits, companies, etc. that you are interested in; you will find some. I follow Karl Rove and Starbucks for example. Anyway, just don't think of Twitter too narrowly; its a great channel to connect with the digital stream from lots of places and people.

Hi, Kevin,

I'm not an expert but think the answers to your questions are:

1. Follower lists aren't ordered by favorites and can't be ordered that way. They appear to be in reverse chronological order with the most recently followed people at the top. (But this is a great feature suggestion - Twitter's CEO @ev may be receptive if you suggest it.)

2. I get the sense that many Twitter users search for their favorite bloggers and follow them. Having a blog seems to increase a person's number of Twitter followers by an order of magnitude, possibly because the person is already widely known on the Internet and has earned a reputation for writing something that's worth reading. Sometimes I read the blog and follow the tweets. But there are some bloggers I follow whose blogs I don't read, because in my opinion their aphorisms are better than than longer posts.

3. You can suppress the @replies by clicking on "Settings" in the upper right corner of your Twitter home page, then clicking on "Notices" in the gray bar, then selecting "no @ replies".

One great thing about having as many followers as you already do is that you can ask questions and get immediate answers from lots of people. For example, if your next tweet were:

"Please reply @kevin2kelly with your answer: if you could follow only ONE twitterer who would it be?"

...then I think you'd soon be able to click on "@replies" in the green bar to the right of your Twitter home page and see plenty of responses.

Enjoy!

Armstrong is pretty good at tweeting:

http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong

Team leader Johan Bruyneel actually tweeted during stages of the Tour Down Under:

http://twitter.com/johanbruyneel

Mostly I follow for humor or because I find their blogs interesting. Accordingly, my top picks:

@wilw (Wil Wheaton)
@neilhimself (Neil Gaiman)
@tinybuddah (cause we can all use a bit of advice some days)
@jdroth (J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly)

and @woot for woot.com deals

@rands is http://randsinrepose.com and his twittering is similar to his weblog posts -- often insightful, funny, or interesting thoughts about engineering, social media, management, etc.

I'll second the Mr. Tweet suggestion. Following people is very subjective. Mr.Tweet gives you 200 msuggestions that you can choose to follow or ignore.

For you, @timoreilly

Twitter has changed my life. I love the brief 140 characters. But it soon got overwhelming with the number of tweets. You MUST get some sort of aggregator, like Tweetdeck. It allows you to organize tweets into groups.

I highly recommend following Tony -- the Zappos CEO http://twitter.com/zappos . Down to earth, very approachable, and willing to share good ideas.
Happy twittering.

Hey, http://www.textism.com/favrd/ is a good source of witty/humourous tweets/tweeters

@dahowlett - accounting, enterprise, SAP mentor
@symtym - medicine, law, technology
@doshdosh - philosophy student, unique marketing/web perspectives
@shannonpaul - pr, kind person (most important)
@mattcutts - google master

@philbaumann - me: micro-sharing for health care, contrarian views

Kevin,

your question is nearly impossible to answer unless you specify what it is you are looking for in Twitter. There are (web) celebrities enough out there, but that will surely enough get you into a world of echo you are most likely already in.
If you get past the a-list there are numerous people that are smart, funny, nice, interesting , experts, chit-chats etc.

To me Twitter is like a river of 140 char messages. I dip in every once in a while. Sometimes I find myself in an incredibly funny conversation. Sometimes I pick up something really interesting. Sometimes people can make me think. It's all there.

I wouldn't think in terms of good of bad twitterees. Pick a few people you like or admire. Follow them for a while, check out who they follow and take it from there.

Good luck!

@vanelsas ;-)

hey kevin,

the PRIMO twitter resource/tutorial site on the web right now is TwiTip.com -- started by darren rouse of problogger. he's got lots of tools and suggestions (and yes, lists of people to follow, by interest). check it out, and good luck.

jackie

If you're interested in fictional twittering, try http://twitter.com/Othar

This is the Twitter of a comic book character, and some darned good adventure-style storytelling. I recommend reading the archives from the beginning.

(I read it through Google Reader like a blog, not as a Twitter.)

Adam Savage @donttrythis
@laughingsquid
@NASA_Ames_Web
@bldgblog

Kevin-- I would recommend using Twhirl (http://www.twhirl.org/), so the feeds passively feed onto your desktop.

To quote Tim O'Reilly "twitter is like a river, you dip in when you feel like it."

Twitter is not like anything else. More like texting on a mobile phone than blogging or other social media. The idea is engage, not replicate. Engage with anyone out there. Enter the conversation, do the small talk thing. Ask some questions. Actually, you ought to be asking all these questions on Twitter. You'd already be on the way. I read your stuff. Can't decide here if you're putting us on, or really don't get it, which I find hard to believe from you. Anyway, jump in. Most of it is a glorious waste of time, but can be fun if you wade thru all the noise. One more thing: I like the way you think about technology and the future. Keep it up.

1. Set up a FriendFeed (FF) account.

2. Have it auto-post your blog posts (to FF and Twitter)

3. Go more viral than you already are

KK....your shit ROCKS!

you have a great blog, I would skip twitter unless you want to drive traffic, in which case am sure one of the above suggestions would do the trick...

john
www.very.fm

Hi Kevin,

You have experienced what few people do when it comes to Twitter. Most people need to work at finding others to engage with, so what are have seen is a show of support for CoolTools and an interest in seeing what you have to say! It's a compliment to have so many followers even though your Twitter stream is... quiet.

As an avid reader of CoolTools (and Twitter), I am giving you a short list of personal recommendations that I think you may enjoy. Should you choose to follow me, you can find me at: http://twitter.com/SharnAtlanta

I'd be interested to see what you think after you follow these folks for a while. And, if you would like any help with Twitter, please let me know and I'd be happy to help!

http://twitter.com/wilw
http://twitter.com/CaliLewis
http://twitter.com/veronica
http://twitter.com/leelefever
http://twitter.com/zeldman

Hope this helps!
Sharon Rosen

I use Twitter to find people who are interested in nanotechnology. I subscribed to RSS feed of search "nanotechnology" in search.twitter.com

People I recommend you are @2020science, @johndcook, @tim_harper, @sciencebase, @richardbranson, @BILL_ROMANOS, @joergheber

I am @nanoturkiye

Cheers!

http://twitter.com/neilhimself

This guy is pretty good. :) and popular

Initially, my opinion of Twitter was similar to your own.

Over time, however, I have managed to build a network consisting of (real-life) friends as well as students and professionals with interests similar to mine: machine learning, statistics, and programming.

I wrote up a short list of the machine learning and statistics people over at my blog:

http://mark.reid.name/iem/ml-and-stats-people-on-twitter.html

You may want to read through it and follow some of them.

Minor nit: a single post on Twitter is called a tweet.

Somebody touched on it above, but I'm finding local Twitterers to be the most valuable. For example, I follow a local reporter who tweets as she covers news around town, and an organizer who tweets on the progress of her projects to help Hurricane Ike victims.

This resource stands alone in usefulness. Links to introductory articles, tools, & jargon in a tidy list: http://bit.ly/resources

Also, don't miss @moltz — this week he's tweeting "his" "experiences" "at TED." (Excessive irony quotes mine.) He did this last year, and it's what really sold me on Twitter.

I love TED (was there in '04 & '05), but his taking the piss is spot on.

Thought I would chuck in my own must-follow list:

http://www.limbicnutrition.com/blog/my-twitter-must-follow-list/

Wow! I am one of the ones you mention who was/am on the fence. I signed up to find out what the fuss was about, but then didn't know where to go from there. I currently "follow" two IRL friends, but for one, I can read her updates on her blog & facebook page. What's the point? I ask. I'm totally parasiting off of all the recommendations you receive here. Thanks for doing this!

Your welcome to follow me if you like, but I don't update terribly often now. If I start to be inspired, that may change, and I'm pretty good at it IIDSSM! (old hat with the Facebook statuses)

(btw, I've been lurking here on Cool Tools for quite some time & appreciate the valuable service you provide)

My favorite Twitterer is the novelist Jonathan Carroll who goes by jscarroll. Also the daily blog Carroll keeps on his website is a joy to behold most days:
www.jonathancarroll.com

Thanks so much for asking the question.. I have signed up for a ton of new people after reading all of these suggestions (thanks Axel!) and feel like I walked from a quiet hallway into a bustling conference hall before a great speaker emerges from the wings.. the conversation stream is a lot of fun.

I definitely worry about the time-suck aspect, and already received both an email from a friend explaining "How Twitter Can be Corrossive to Online Marketing" and a bunch of followers (what did I do? maybe I hopped in at just the right time?). I notice that local people follow me back more readily than the big guns.

Hope you update us all on your take on it -

-Audrey

I am posting this because it might be of interest.

I have a Twitter account but I don't use it in the normal sense. I don't have any followers, because my feed isn't public. I am the only person who listens to my Twitter feed.

I use Twitter as a universally accessible TODO list. I have access to my account through my phone, and I have Twitter widgets on my desktops at home and work. Any time I think of something I need or want to do, it goes into my feed. I delete things as I do them. So far it seems to be working pretty well.

I am amused by http://twitter.com/Bizarrobama

Wow, thanks for asking the question Kevin! I'm trying to get my brain around Twitter also, and this dialogue has really helped.

tim
http://twitter.com/thelifesimple

Coincidentally, another blog I follow was recently talking about Twitter. I like both your blogs, so you may like his twitter:

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2009/02/what-to-expect-if-you-follow-me-on-twitter-or-how-im-going-to-disappoint-you-in-6-quick-steps.html

The twitter is @wilw, and he doesn't recommend you follow on your phone for him. :)

Here is how you do it. Those same people who's blog you were reading well some will likely have twitter accounts. Navigate to their profile page and just randomly check out the people that THEY are following. Just go ahead and add a dozen or so. before you know it you'll have conversations flowing all over the place.

It's strange at first, because were all used to keeping our 'chat' persona private. Or at least it was to me.

Feel free to look me up on twitter as RobRolls

Hello Kevin. I've been a long time recommender of your work and specifically set out today to find out whether you were on Twitter yet - having already run into the OTHER Kevin Kelly there.

There are many reasons for using Twitter and it is best to decide what your planned use is before you start following and being followed. Since you are famous and already have so many Twitter followers, you may wish to have one or more separate Twitter accounts for family, friends, and to follow those you wish to have intelligent conversations with - although I prefer FriendFeed for that.

I have done (and linked to) many posts on what to do with Twitter and who is worth following. I don't know your policy on links here and you don't provide the usual box for one so I'll just say they're at GrowMap.com in the Twitter category.

I recommend the Twitter FriendFeed Quick Start and TwiTips Top Ten Niche Twitter Users Lists as good places to start. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have in that blog, or at Twitter or FriendFeed. They're all under GrowMap.

Thanks for all of your great sites and ideas.

You got the large # of followers despite the lack of Tweets because you are a genius and whatever you say will be good, when you get around to it.

There are fantastic Twitterers, but that's NOT the point. Don't miss the real value of Twitter (and Twitterific the auto feed of your followeees) which is the instant connection to your people. It's all about being connected.

Having said that, Jeffery Zeldman is consistently hilarious and tech saavy funny (http://twitter.com/zeldman), and Nick Warren's under 140 character novels are often brilliant (http://twitter.com/nickwarren).

sample: "By fifty he had accepted his limitations, but they met, and she blew them all away. It was love, and for a moment anything seemed possible."

I like good writing more than tips or links, so here are three interesting writers who usually tweet once a day or less:

http://twitter.com/anildash
"Any product, no matter how useless or obscure, becomes far more appealing when reduced to Travel Size."

http://twitter.com/mimismartypants
"Winter and I'm not that into leg-shaving. If husband has any secret "sex with a tarantula" fantasies, now would be a great time to speak up."

http://twitter.com/fireland
(Ed note: this is a fictional stream)
"Um, where are my good Crocs? No, these are for when I need to go into the garage to yell swears. I'm talking about the nice ones for church."

I'm @Maggie on Twitter, and I don't use Twitter for conversations either. Hope you find your niche.

After having a peek at your blog, I have to say that you are doing the Twitter community (seekers of content a-plenty) a terrible disservice by not sharing your CRAZY AWESOME knowledge and insight.

@web20empire is me. I am a very heavy Twitter user. I follow every single new person who follows me first (that's my first tip) to get to understand who wants to know what I am thinking and sharing.

The list is endless and depends on your taste and interests, but you can get a very good picture yourself by clicking the "everyone" tab from time to time and follow the people who stand out to you.

I need more than just a blog comment. I am so intrigued by you right now and want so much for my readers (at my blog, not Twitter), to get a load of some of what you have on your blog.

If you ever want to tour the social media world with me (that's what I do on my blog, videos, etc.) and give the world a gift, let me know and I'll show you all of my training videos that no one but my team and, when I decide to package it for sale, my customers, and occasionally a one-on-one training request.

I'm very passionate about social media and it's still not ready to scare away the bad elements that make it dirty. I'm on a mission to talk to as many people as I can about shared intelligence, skills training, and innovative idea exchanges that make social media such a powerful tool.

You belong to the people who you wrote all of that amazing content for but I bet there are many who need something you know who may never see your talent and miss out on learning something very powerful to them.

Get in touch with me if you can see what I'm trying to say here, and I think anyone who writes like you is pretty quick. I'll also email you my phone number and links to my social portfolio to check out if you're curiosity it tweaked.

Sincere apologies for any attempt to "teach the teacher" that just happened. I didn't realize you you were until I started digging into your blog after I made that comment.

In my defense, how many people with your level of expertise would ever be humble enough to ask for help using Twitter?

Right?

I still hope to see you on Twitter joining the conversation as soon as you get a chance.

It was mainly the emailme hyperlink inviting your readers to directly contact you like you're just some guy. It's just something you don't see every day.

I still say that there are a bunch of non-tech people who just aren't aware of your content (like myself), but it's for more than super-tech savvy readers.

@sheree: I get to try a lot of tools. I've been trying Twitter as a tool and still not sure the time spent is a plus for me. But I'll give it some more time and effort before I decide. Thanks for your encouragement.

Very useful list. I found some new people to follow.

This came up a couple of times but I didn't see an answer -- so in case it's still an issue:

@ replies can be blocked on your Twitter Account -- go to Settings - Notices. You can block all @replies, or see the ones that are sent only to people in your network.

Wow, this list just keeps growing! Definitely some good names here, and if you're interested in advertising, technology, photography or motorcycles, feel free to add me as well: http://twitter.com/CoryOBrien