I get asked about this a lot… Here’s a kind of Twitter starter kit for execs:
First, my take on why it’s important, from this blog:
http://miketrap.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/thoughts-on-twitter/
Here’s a slightly more authoritative source on the subject: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2008/tc2008095_320491.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech
After you join, pick a few folks to follow to get started:
* The Wall Street Journal: http://twitter.com/WSJ
* NY Times: http://twitter.com/nytimes
* Digg News: http://twitter.com/DiggNews
* The Paisano: http://twitter.com/Paisano
* Chris Brogan: http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan
* The Savvy Entrepreneur: http://twitter.com/cfavreau
* TechStars: http://twitter.com/techstars
* John Battelle: http://twitter.com/johnbattelle
* Kevin Burke: http://twitter.com/KB33
* Jason Calacanis: / Mahalo http://twitter.com/JasonCalacanis
* Andy Gadiel / Jambase: http://www.twitter.com/andygadiel
* Brian Halligan / CEO HubSpot: http://twitter.com/bhalligan
* Guy Kawasaki: http://twitter.com/guykawasaki
* Sean Moffitt / President, Agent Wildfire: http://twitter.com/seanmoffitt
* Rob Lane / CEO, Overlay.tv http://twitter.com/roblane
* Kevin O’Keefe/ Lexblog http://twitter.com/kevinokeefe
* Tim O’Reilly http://twitter.com/timoreilly
* Biz Stone / Co-Founder of Twitter http://twitter.com/biz
Other sources:
* The Top 100: http://twitdir.com/index.php?top=topfollowed&auto_update=on&search=
* Big VCs: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/free-vc-advice-for-startups-via-twitter
* Directory of brands: http://blog.fluentsimplicity.com/twitter-brand-index/
There are also tools to search Tweets… Here’s the buzz on Obama: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Obama
You can also import and search your own address book for members if it’s in Google or Yahoo.
Finally, here’s how to get more followers, if you want them: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/11/looking-for-m-1.html
Did I miss something? Add it below!





Find people using Twubble: http://crazybob.org/twubble/
Read Write Web article: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/5_ways_to_find_more_friends_on_twitter.php
Post from your blog to Twitter automatically with Twitterfeed: http://twitterfeed.com/
Mike, very comprehensive list of good advice for new exec entrants to Twitter. I think the best advice that I can give is to be responsive and engage in conversations with others, regardless of how weird to difficult it may feel. They will soon get the hang of it and teaching others!