How to Maximize Your Twitter Experience

I joined the Twitter universe (@JoshHEllis) about three years ago at the request of my sister. She described to me a vast network of news makers, idea generators and network innovators tapping into a vast network of social consumers. At first, I felt lost. In spite of my B.A. in English, I felt 142 characters inadequate to thoroughly convey one’s thoughts, so for the first few months I simply followed the few people I knew personally and a grab-bag of celebrities I found intriguing.

Over time, I found myself following anyone whose tweets happened to make it in the news and my “Following” list dramatically dwarfed my “Followers” list. Occasionally, I would retweet something I found interesting, but I failed to discover the social networking fantasy land my sister and her boyfriend promised. Try as I might, I failed to find anything original to tweet about on my own. Compounding my frustrations, my mother joined Twitter and immediately found her niche, providing a daily haiku for her students and followers. My mother can master Twitter, but I can’t?

I suspect things began to change about twelve months ago, when a Hollywood starlet (Eliza Dushku) I followed (past tense), began extolling the virtues of socialism through her Twitter feed. As a staunch capitalist, I found myself launching into a new frontier, stepping over that threshold and directly challenging her on her political assertions. No one will ever win an ideological battle via the social network, but I did manage to engage the star, or her handler, in roughly 1,704 characters of Twitter discourse and I began to see the endless fun Twitter offered.

A few weeks later, as the health care debate began to build, I responded to a tweet by Brett Gurewitz, guitarist for one of my favorite bands, Bad Religion, on the hypocrisy of him supporting government-run health care, when his band penned the anti-establishment classic, “You Are the Government.” Much to my surprise, Gurrewitz responded and politely engaged in a brief discussion on his reasons for supporting the bill (in short, health care is one of the few things he felt government should be concerned with…).

My Twitter experience reached a new level of excitement in April 2010, after the San Antonio Spurs dispatched my Dallas Mavericks in the NBA playoffs. At the time, I followed several NBA media personalities, including former San Antonio star, and Maverick foil, Bruce Bowen. For years, Bowen’s dirty play had raised the ire of Mavs fans all across the globe. After the elimination game, Bowen’s Twitter blew up with praises for his former team. I forget exactly what I tweeted to Bowen, but it launched a 30 minute tweet fest between the two of us that ultimately ended with him dropping the f’bomb on me and blocking me from sending him any further tweets. I took pride that I had pissed off a Mavs killer enough to garner a f’bomb.

At that point, I began to reevaluate my Twitter strategy. I no longer wanted to be simply a consumer, but a commentator as well. I purged my “Following” list of many of the celebrities I previously followed and instead I focused on following regular people who shared my interests—sports, politics, movies and music. I discovered that 95% of people on Twitter, celebrities and common folks alike, merely spew the talking points of their leaders–95% of liberal Tweeps, tweet the talking points of the DNC, 95% of conservative Tweeps, tweet the talking points of the RNC; and 95%, nay, 99%, of sports writers tweet the talking points of ESPN. Only 5% of folks on Twitter have an original voice with an original message, finding members of that 5% segment can be hard, but is very rewarding.

If you’re thinking about joining the great Twitter universe, but don’t know where to start, here are Ten Tweeps I Highly Recommend:

1.) Kevin Keder (@keder) – Conservative pundit, but strays far from the RNC talking points. Dude has a real affinity for Chipotle burritos.

2.) Bob Sturm (@bobanddan) – Radio personality from The Ticket in Dallas, also strays far from the generic sports talking points and often into the realm of cultural critiques.

3.) Trey Garrison (@treygarrison) – Dallas based writer, possibly the funniest man on Twitter.

4.) Tom Ksobiech (@tomksobiech) – Assistant Dean of Career Service at Alabama Law–also some of the most honest and original hot sports opinions on the Internet.

5.) C.J. Wilson (@str8edgeracer) – OK, so I do still follow some celebrities. C.J. Wilson is not your typical athlete and rarely Tweets about sports. Truly one of the most interesting people I follow.

6.) Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell1) – CNBC’s sports reporter, gives you the business side of sports like no one else.

7.) Allison Winn Scotch (@aswinn) – Author, although I’ve never heard of any of her books. However, she does have some great tips for aspiring writers.

8.) Andy Levy (@andylevy) – Host of Fox News’ Red Eye.

9.) Eric Celeste (@ericceleste) – Another Dallas based writer.

10.) Amanda Ellis, Brenda Ellis & Brian Cuban (@aellislegal; @bepoem; @bcuban) – Three people who have helped me maximize my Twitter experience.