Who Do You Follow and Why?

Who do you follow on Twitter, and why do you follow them? Following is a sample of the types of people and organizations I’m following on Twitter. I’m curious to know how you guys are using Twitter.

Friends and Colleagues

I follow my friends and colleagues simply to keep up on what’s going on in their lives and at work. I also follow them because most of my friends are interested in many of the same things that interest me. Therefore, I quite often get good nuggets from them, like links to interesting blog articles, funny pictures, etc.

Sega and Other Video Game Organizations

I also follow @Sega, @SonicGames (the arm of Sega devoted specifically to Sonic the Hedgehog), @OCRemix, @MAGFest and @GameUnicon because of my interest in video games, and Sega in particular.

I also follow Sega because of their #freestufffriday competitions. Every Friday, Sega puts together a batch of really cool Sega paraphernalia to give away on Twitter. They alternate from week to week between their US office and their UK office. Last week, I won a batch of stuff from the video game “Viking.” The prizes range from simple things like notepads, shirts, etc. to soundtracks and full video games. For those of you with Xbox Live, they also give out XBLA codes on a fairly regular basis.

OCRemix is a really cool group that takes music from video games (popular and obscure) and remixes it into new and interesting stuff. All of the music they put together is available from their Web site.

MAGFest and GameUnicon would traditionally be called video game conventions, but they are actually much more than that. They are festivals of video games and game-related music. Basically, they are events where you spend all weekend doing nothing but playing video games, listening to discussions about video games, listening to music from video games and more. You eat, sleep (for those who sleep over the weekend) and breathe video games for the entire time. I like getting updates about what’s going on with the festivals. I am a regular attendee of MAGFest and like to keep my finger on what’s going on with the festival. GameUnicon is in Massachusetts, so it’s too far for me to travel, unfortunately. However, the guy in charge of that account regularly posts fun stuff.

Tech App Developers

I follow some developers of various applications I use on my computer and the iPhone. For instance, I follow @Tapulous, the makers of the Tap Tap Revenge, the greatest portable game available on the market, today. I also follow the makers of @TweetDeck and @boxee and the developers of @Linux_Mint to keep track of what’s going on with those products.

Tech Bloggers

Because I am interested in many things related to technology, I follow a handful of tech bloggers, including Allen from @CenterNetworks and Holden and Alex from @TechGeist. The three of them are always posting fun and interesting things about technology and their lives in general.

Musicians and Celebrities

Some of my favorite updates come from various musicians I follow, including @celldweller and @16volt. I am a huge fan of their music, and I love to read the updates they post. @celldweller consistently posts funny stuff on Twitter and his blog. 16Volt posts some interesting information from his life, and also posts some links to various articles about the music industry, his music and more.

I also follow @DonGeronimoShow, who was previously half of the nationally syndicated radio duo “Don and Mike.” I have been a fan of Don and Mike since I was a kid, and I enjoy seeing what Don has to post on his Twitter account. Many of his posts are rather inane, but there’s always a nugget in there that makes it worth it to follow him.

News and Humor

I am a big fan of NPR (National Public Radio), so I follow their political feed (@nprpolitics). I also follow @theOnion, @icanhascheezburger and a few others. Those last two, I follow strictly for comic relief.

So, my real question to you is, who are you following? Why do you follow those people? Who should I be following?

2 Responses

  • Who Do I Follow and Why:

    Well I am pretty specific about who I follow on my lovely account. So everyone I follow either A) There involved in tech somehow and I value there opinions B) I blog with them or C) I find their tweets to be entertaining in some form or fashion.

    Otherwise, I don’t simply follow people cause they followed me. Learned my lesson about doing that when i following about 1,000+ people a while back and didn’t get a thing out of it.

  • jelliya

    really great post! seriously i dont know the concept of followers and following,after reading your blog post it will help me a lot !