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If you’re already a regular twitter user, then chances are you’re following at least a few national celebrities. Maybe Tina Fey or Penn Jillette or even MC Hammer. But are you following any local celebrities? Do you get updates from the movers and shakers of Columbus who have adopted twitter as their latest communications tool? To help you get connected, we’ve put together a list of 10 locals that you should be following if you aren’t already.
Artie Isaac – Artie is the co-founder of Young Issac, a local creative advertising agency, and co-founder of SpeakerSite, an online resource for public speakers and event planners. Artie is also an adjunct instructor at OSU and CCAD and on the advisory board for Available Light [Theater].
Recent Tweet: Usually when I leave buildings, I take a deep breath and think “Wow. What a weird encounter.” In this weather, I can’t even take that breath 10:27 PM Jan 16th
Elizabeth Lessner – Liz is the go-to gal for all things related to young, energetic entrepreneurialism in Columbus. She’s the owner/co-owner of Betty’s, Surly Girl, Tip Top and Dirty Franks. She’s also the President of CORA and a board member of the Short North Business Association, just to name a few of her many civic leadership duties.
Recent Tweet: Dirty Frank’s Hot Dogs is now hiring! 10:34 AM Jan 25th
Pete McGinty – Pete is the Vice President of Marketing at Experience Columbus; the city’s Convention & Visitor’s Bureau. While traditionally more of an organization meant to draw new visitors to our city, Experience Columbus has launched new efforts at keeping locals feeling connected to Columbus.
Recent Tweet: Just had a great lunch with Mike Brown at Tip Top. The spinach salad with a scoop of tuna salad – the best! 1:47 PM Dec 9th
Ken Blackwell – Technically, Ken’s location on his Twitter page lists his hometown of Cincinnati, but a lot of his political career comes from time spent in Columbus as the previous Ohio Secretary of State. Ken also ran for Governor of Ohio in 2006, and is currently running for Chair of the Republican National Committee.
Recent Tweet: Apparently, I am such a new media ninja that Facebook will not allow me to add more friends beyond 5000. 8:47 PM Jan 21st
Andrea Cambern – Andrea anchors the evening and nightly local news on WBNS 10TV and has been one of Central Ohio’s most recognizable newscasters for nearly 20 years. Andrea serves on multiple boards of local organizations with an emphasis on health, wellness, and medical research, and lives in German Village.
Recent Tweet: Did anyone hear Kurt’s stomache growl???? The audio guys certainly did! 6:21PM Jan 22nd
Mary Jo Kilroy – Mary Jo was just elected to the US House of Reps after a very tight race against Steve Stivers. Mary Jo represents Ohio’s 15th District, which includes most of the western half of Columbus and Franklin County. Mary Jo was previously a Franklin County Commissioner and a Board Member of Columbus City Schools.
Recent Tweet: Very excited that ballots are being counted at the Board of Elections today. 12:51 PM Dec 6th
Monica Day – Monica is a local traffic news reporter for WCMH NBC4 who’s broadcasts can be seen every weekday morning. She was also recently crowned Miss Ohio USA 2008 and went on to win the Miss Congeniality title in the Miss USA Pageant. Monica also serves on the Advisory Board for the upcoming 614 Magazine.
Recent Tweet: Has anyone ever been to Punxsutawney pa? Planning a trip for Groundhog Day and trying to figure out the bar/restaurant/entertainment angle 9:00 AM Jan 9th
Johnny DiLoretto – Johnny is the Entertainment & Food Critic for WTTE Fox 28, and can be seen every weekday morning on the Good Day Columbus segments. He previously worked as a film critic for The Other Paper. Johnny can also be found co-hosting “Cinema Classics”, a film commentary show featured on local radio station WCBE 90.5.
Recent Tweet: Word is I looked like a tool today w my turtleneck and T-shirt combo. 10:11 AM Jan 23rd
Diane Warren – Diane is the owner of Katzinger’s Delicatessen, a German Village institution for nearly 25 years. Diane provides both homemade sandwiches and speciality items at Katzingers, but also provides service to the entire independent restaurant community through her work as President of Dine Originals Columbus.
Recent Tweet: Trying to absorb this day. i’m exhilarated, enthralled, inspired and exhausted, happy and hopeful. plus this is my page – i should write 8:43 PM Jan 20th
John Angelo – John is the Executive Director of the Short North Business Association. The SNBA has been serving the Short North business community for over 20 years. Additionally, John has helped to create several new cultural events in the Short North in the past year including Art al Fresco and Highball Halloween.
Recent Tweet: HighBall a grand success! 1:45 PM Nov 1st
Who else do you think should be added to our list? Any suggestions?
Oh, and don’t forget… you can follow ColumbusUnderground via Twitter too.
I love Twitter and as a platform it’s the most interesting social technology for me that’s come around in a while. There are no hard and fast rules really except – it should be a conversation. Especially if the content is coming from an individual instead of an entity. Liz you’re a great Twitterer. You talk with not at people. Same with some others on the list.
I agree that the strongest part of twitter is how open ended the platform is, but I don’t think it *always* has to be about a conversation. Many people subscribe to twitter accounts that publish information such as weather reports or traffic data not because they want a two-way conversation with it, but because they want to have that content delivered to them on the platform that they choose to spend their time online with.
Personally, I’m mostly a twitter lurker. I like to keep tabs on what friends, family, and other interesting people are doing, but I’m also a bit turned off by the fact that twitter is filterless. Adding something like customizable categories would definitely kill some of the beautiful simplicity, but I’d love to be able to follow @somedude-workchat and filter out @somedude-eatingdinnerchat.
The 10 people listed up top all seem to use twitter for different purposes. Are some purposes better than others? I think that’s subjective and depends upon what sort of user experience you’re looking to get out of it.
The more I use twitter the more I find that it is a different thing to different people, and it has one big strength that makes that possible: it is a feelings-free zone; you are free to follow people who interest you and unfollow those that don’t. Just about every time I hear or read someone saying what Twitter is and what it’s for, I find myself wondering what they’re smoking. That makes it tough to recommend people – I think Walker’s list of local notables who tweet was cool to read and I enjoyed checking it out.
(edited for grammar)
Great post and a great conversation. It’s nice to see folks digging in to the different aspects of Twitter and what makes someone (or something) a “Must-Follow” on Twitter.
Personally, I follow stuff in all different categories – friends w/ random chatter, newsbots, local newsfolks who are interactive and NOT bots (Kurt Ludlow and Jason_WCMH are probably my personal favs in that category), celebs, and some Twitterati.
I think there are a LOT of good, useful applications for Twitter. And a lot of mindless garbage.
Which makes it just like the rest of the Internet…
has anyone noticed … it’s always tough to explain something called “Twitter.” people automatically get defensive if they do it. it’s like Facebook. such a silly name.
why didn’t they give it a more stately name?
also, Walker has competition? i thought he was an enigma
There’s a grader tool out there, too, that ranks twitterers by location: http://twitter.grader.com/index.php?Action=TwitterUsersByLocation&Location=columbus%2C+oh
I like to use twitter to update where I am when I’m out on some motorcycle trip. I like to be that guy on GPS Twit that has the markers in the middle of nowhere. :)
Otherwise, I use twitter for business and to follow other CU friendlies. Not so much as a source of important information.
The three most engaging Tweeple/local “celebrities” are, IMHO, @kurtludlow10tv, @nbcsquire and the famous @10tv bot. They have a right to be well known in the community, but they are well known on Twitter in particular for being frequent, entertaining posters.
I wrote a list of local media personalities and businesses on Twitter, if you’re interested.
-Cheryl
@CherylHarrison
Has anyone been fooling around with Bright Kite? It strikes me as “location services + twitter”. I haven’t played with it much yet.
Lyndsey. You’re absolutely right. Twitter is tough to explain. I think the reason it’s tough is because it’s the first platform that has gotten any scale, which was designed to tie together disparate mediums. Cell, IM, iPhone app, web browser, etc.. It’s still up in the air how you publish and interact with information on these mediums. Probably always will be. That design I think is part of the appeal for me.
Umm. I would have to disagree with some of the people on the list. For me, Twitter is about building relationships, meeting really interesting people and exchanging great ideas. The best place to meet some of these folks are tweetups. There are tons around town all the time. If you want to know who to follow, just go to one of those and meet folks face to face.
I’ve always found Twitter to be more of a platform than a protocol. Once people explained what #hashtags were I was convinced. On a platform you would be able to add and manage metadata. With Twitter you can’t. There are many other examples of things you would do right on a platform that you can’t do with Twitter (because it is a protocol) and 3td parties end up offering it (for better or worse).
The list isn’t edgy- that’s my only problem with it.
But, this post gave me a creative idea about remixing people’s twitter posts- and for that I am thankful.
Lastly, I’m recommending that we all stop following the people we should follow once and for all- and follow the people we shouldn’t follow. You know- whatever you think, think the opposite and all that. See what happens…
From today’s Dispatch: http://is.gd/hnKm.
The best description I ever heard — which supports the vastly different ways people use it — was something like: ‘a really loud, fun cocktail party, a (couple) business meetings, a focus group, plus several others social situations, etc, all at once’ (that’s a paraphrasing of I can’t remember whom).
I sometimes think of the day-to-day social aspects as being like the modern-day equivalent of a high-school hallway between classes (except without all the trappings and adolescent angst of high school — usually — plus less lucrative hallway-drug-dealing, etc).
Did someone say tweetup? http://tinyurl.com/lablounge
Walker, Where’s @jganahl ??? the guy is a rock star. Anyone who’s been on TV doing the same thing for 30 years is a celeb. Not to mention, he was one of Victoria Secret’s top 25 sexiest weathermen in the country. I’m just saying.
Thanks for the list, love seeing the debate.
Damn Walker, this is a lot of pressure.
Ha! Hope you’re up to the task! ;)
Pogue on twitter:
http://tinyurl.com/cq3mc9