Friday, April 10, 2009

FollowFriday Rockstars

One of the things I love most about Twitter is how it can bring out the best in so many people.  In my tweets I use "rockstar" quite a bit. I also blip a few songs about rockstars going out to my tweeps. To me a rockstar is someone who simply shines. Something beautiful and wonderful comes out from them. It is not about follower count. It's not about how often they tweet. It's not even really what they tweet about. It's about people that really help make Twitter what it is by simply being who they are.

Today I want to celebrate & share with you some amazing women who I believe are each beautiful inside and out. I've tried to provide an assortment of women from around the globe & with different interests and tweeting styles. Each of these women is truly unique.  Hopefully after you read what I have to say about each of them, you'll find yourself wanting to follow some or all of them yourself.

TasteLikeCrazy - Amy Tucker is my own regular source of comedic relief. She's Twitter's own Janeane Garofalo before Janeane went political. Her tweets are a combination of a hilarious look at the life of this blogging wife & mother and exchanges with her followers. I'm not sure if she realizes how great she is.

LollyDaskal - As beautiful a person inside as she is outside. Lolly is a uniquely talented artist. Her vocation is to help bring out the inner beauty of others by tapping into their spirit. She works with small business owners on mindset. Her avocation is her painting through which she lets us see a glimpse of who she is and how she sees the world.

MissNixs - You can't help but smile when you see her avatar float by on your stream. She's a "normal" person that is totally not normal. She has a delightful sense of humor, warmth and silliness all wrapped into one. 

Potentiate - Wendy's bio reads: "Marketing. Psychology. History. Progressive. Liberal Elitist. Alternative Rock. Nature. Freethought. Dogs. Teens. Wine. TechBiz. Fitness" - that's just a start of the many subjects that she engages in. She's one smart chick & someone I'm looking forward to knowing better.

SusanPowers - Susan is one gorgeous, smart chick that I'm truly happy to call a friend. Her full-time gig is as a real estate agent. She's into raw foods big-time & working as establishing herself as a name for herself in that area. She will be big-time one day soon. She has the drive and determination. Oh and she's also a yogi :)

SharneseLaNier - Sharnese is someone I hope I can get to know better. She is an incredibly warm, generous woman. She's a work-at-home mom building her own empire in Internet Marketing, health and travel.

JuliaRosien - Julia is a breath of fresh air. She naturally brings joy to those that are a part of her world. Huffington Post missed out by not including her on the "hot women of Twitter." Julia's interests are in sharing green, natural and organic choices.

VanessaCobb - I almost left Vanessa off the list because I'd like to get to know her better before too many people find this treasure. Vanessa is an enthusiastic businesswoman, novelist, mother, friend and cat lover. Her company focuses on presenting seminars to people throughout Europe on the subject of motivation and helps her business clients communicate more effectively through spoken and written word.

Mistygirlph - I haven't had much personal contact with Misty but have to include her in this list for her continual generosity to the Twitter community. Misty gladly helps her friends and followers however she can. Since starting to blip recently, I feel I've gotten to know the woman a little better through her music. I hope to get to know her more. She's just the type of woman I'd love to be able to call a friend.

LoriMoreno - You can't be in Lori's world without feeling her warmth. A former corporate attorney who has made the transition to entrepreneur, Lori is making her mark on Twitter. She's a true rising star.

Kirsty_Wilson - Kirsty is a virtual assistant who loves travel. She's a genuinely friendly woman. Kirsty contributed a wonderful guest post to this blog on Twitter resources - just to help others out. She loves to travel & often tweets about it.

Girlstoys - If you see Ghada's avatar - the warm laughter shining on her face with her spirit showing through - that is a good representation of who she is. Her tweets run the gamut from movies to social media to general chitchat. She's a great pick me-up when you are having a tough time.

If you weren't listed, don't take it personally. This is just a handful of the hundreds of great women on Twitter that stand out to me. Get to know me better by interacting, sharing, exchanging and maybe you'll be one of my next FollowFriday Rockstars :)

Of course, you're more than welcome to follow me too :) I tweet a lot. I try to interact with followers to the extent I can. I spin tunes at Blip.fm. I share links I think are interesting. I'm a news junkie, voracious consumer of information - much of it useless but that which amuses me in some way.  

Why I'm Changing How I Do #FollowFriday

The FollowFriday game on Twitter is a lot of fun. I've previously blogged about how exactly it works.

The problem is - like almost everything good - the original purpose of it has gotten lost over time. Too many people are just generating bulk lists of recommends without any further explanation of it. Unless you are just chasing follower numbers, this really doesn't do very much good.

As my own follower count has skyrocketed, FollowFriday's have become more difficult. The last 2 weeks I spent most of my time just thanking those that recommended me. It's not that I don't appreciate it - I do. But it clogs up the stream for everyone if I tweet 100+ thanks containing a half dozen or more people. I'm having to change the way I handle this to both maintain my own sanity as well as to do my part to conserve the integrity of the original concept.

Each week I'll make an effort to prepare a limited list of people I really do recommend & who I can give a specific reason why I recommend them. I'll either blog or tweet about these people on Friday's. For the most part, I'll try and focus on what I consider to be undiscovered shining stars. People that just stand out to me for some reason. People I truly feel that at least some of you will enjoy your Twitter experience more by getting to know them.

I'll blog the list later. Meanwhile, for those of you that have recommended me for FollowFriday - huge thanks to you. I really do appreciate that you thought enough of me and enjoy my tweets enough to do so. :)

If you aren't already following me, you can do so here.