20 Reasons to Follow Me on Twitter

Twitter is all the rage these days with Ashton Kutcher racing CNN to be the first to get to 1 million followers and Oprah broadcasting her first tweet. This kind of publicity generates interest and at the same time it turns others off.

Don't despair, there are many ways to get value from time spent on Twitter. It's not just working to try and get a bunch of anonymous followers who may or may not have the same interests as you. If you decide to follow a bunch of people, get a tool like www.tweetdeck.com to help you manage the stream.

Some say we are in an age of oversharing, but that is what filters are for

The stream of tweets comes at you continuously and there is no way for anyone with a life to try and keep up with it. I liken it to standing in a fast moving stream with fish swimming by. You can't catch them all, so you take what you can get. I work days in marketing at a tech company. For security purposes, we can't get social media or personal email connections on our computers. Nor can we have a cell phone out. So, other than a quick Blackberry email scan at lunch, I'm out of the loop. It's just as well, the job is consuming.

If you find Facebook, Twitter or other social media interfering with your job and time management, you might consider self-imposed restraint and limit your access to certain hours of the day. It works for me. If it didn't, I would learn to live without all of it. That is, I like using social media and believe it adds value to my life personally and professionally. However for me, having it in proper perspective takes away any angst over how and when I use it. These are fun tools, but in nearly most cases, not game changers when it comes to your success.

Don't be concerned about missing out on the good stuff

If I let it, lack of daytime access could be a problem because many of my fave tweeps are daytim users. I'm usually on late at night with a different equally interesting crowd. With Twitter and Facebook, what I do is find those who seem to consistently put out tweets that have ideas or links I want to read.

Here is one solution for time shifting. If you click on the name of someone in their Twitter profile, or know their Twitter address, such as mine, which is: http://twitter.com/barneydavey, it will present their tweets in chronological order. Then you can quickly browse just their tweets to find those you want to read. You can also click on the star in the tweet to favorite it so you can get back to it for future reference.  

I do have some dialog with others in my tweets, but many more are either short ideas, observations or links to other items of interest. Naturally, most are art related, but occasionally I include a link from a recording artist or some other item of intrigue to me and perhaps you too. Here is a sample from the past weeks of some tweets I trust you will find interesting:

1. Art for Cash: An Artist's Guide to Selling Work Check Out These Local Places to Hang Your Art http://twurl.nl/qyqial
2. For New Hotels, Art Isn’t Merely Decoration http://twurl.nl/iq6pp3 Stills from from about Warhol art pool bottom http://twurl.nl/g882px
3. Joanne Shaw Taylor's "Bones" from her White Sugar CD flat out rocking blues singing and picking with serious chops! http://twurl.nl/14bogt
4. Winery settings for local artists' works add fresh flavor to Wine Country experience. I toast this concept! http://twurl.nl/jhbtqy
5. First Impressions of Facebook’s Ad Platform http://twurl.nl/m3bcna You'll find experienced insightful with this post.
6. Gatekeepers & Music Promotion Overload: The Good News = applies equally to visual artist http://twurl.nl/zs37mf
7. iPriest, David Hockney "It's absurd to call it digital art. That is like calling a traditional drawing pencil art. http://twurl.nl/0tkhim
8. Venus Envy. What a clever name for an all-female arts festival! This one has grown to be the largest of its kind http://twurl.nl/isk2at
9. Amy Winehouse and Linda Ronstadt "You Know You're No Good" Yowser! I'm gonna say it again...Yowser! http://twurl.nl/pzu55u
10. Way cool Gaping Void makes Purple Cow an art print. Geek art on commerce and marketing made w/old school serigraphy http://twurl.nl/qhd6a7
11. St. Louis Art Museum shows works on paper http://twurl.nl/qchihz they possess a freedom more self-consciously important works often lack
12. IMHO, not since Hendrix has anyone played the electric guitar with as much sensuality as Ana Popovic http://twurl.nl/nw34qn
13. Type Porn - 20 websites for font, letter and symbol enthusiasts - http://twurl.nl/4pcocc
14. Copyright Clearance Center teaches “Copyright Basics” with its animated educational video. Free stuff http://twurl.nl/yzdola
15. That's right, giclee lampshades... what next? Giclee couches! Giclee polo shirts....jeez http://twurl.nl/zajmxw
16. Time mag: The New Internet Start-Up Boom: Get Rich Slow http://twurl.nl/aa0zog
17. Entrepreneur mag: 25 Common Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs - Self-assessment Do you have what it takes? http://twurl.nl/v3r5f2
18. Digital Artist 2009 The first awards to showcase and recognize the best digital artists and designers across the globe. http://tr.im/iK9m
19. I love this newsletter. Read Magnolia Editions. You will agree it is truly magnificent and inspiring! http://twurl.nl/dxt3vk
20. Free topnotch serious university level learning. I did say free!! This is a great concept. Check it out! http://www.academicearth.org/