How I Keep Up With The Thousands I Follow on Twitter + My Weekly Recommendations of People to Follow

This morning as I was going through my ritual email and Twitter catchups, I came across a questions from a new friend on Twitter named Liz Stroud (@liz2point0). Liz asked: “How do you keep up with thousands of people to follow??? Seiously!” So I thought, why not answer the question in today’s #FollowFriday blog post along with my weekly recommendations of people to follow on Twitter. If you haven’t already read my previous posts regarding my personal approach to #FollowFridays, please check them out here:

Why I Don’t Want To Do #FollowFridays On Twitter Anymore

Reasons I Follow People on Twitter – or Not.

At the end of each Friday post are more of my recommendations of people to follow – check them all out and follow some GREAT people!

So on to the question from Liz: How do I keep up with the almost 3,000 people I follow on Twitter? The short, honest answer is: I don’t.

Before you condemn me, race to stop following me and tell everyone else what a loser I am, let me explain.

When I say I don’t “keep up” with every single one of them, what I mean is that it is not possible for me (nor do I think it is HUMANLY possible) to read every single Twitter update from 3,000 different people. There is not enough time in the day. But some further explanation may help you see how to better “keep up” by checking in with many of the people you follow and more importantly accomplishing your goals on Twitter.

First, let me establish what my goals are. I believe it is important to know WHY you are using Twitter in order to determine HOW you use it. Here is why for me:

To expand my network of design peers, potential clients, new friends and colleagues

To discover and learn from resources that are shared

To engage and interact with people

To share who I am, what I have to offer and give of myself freely

With those goals in mind, here is how I try to accomplish them with the people I follow:

ORGANIZE

I use 2 different tools, depending on which one’s version is working best at the time, to conduct my time on Twitter: Tweetdeck or Seesmic Desktop. Both of these tools have the ability to organize people into groups in their own columns. I have groups based on the goals I am trying to accomplish. A group for design-related people. A group for genuinely friendly folks I interact with often. And so on. This helps me to stay more in touch as I check in throughout the day. Plus I can always add more people to a group as I discover them!

SOCIALIZE

Whenever I check in on Twitter, I am on the lookout in my groups and in the main stream of people I follow for anyone that is looking to interact. People who say things like “Good morning!” or “How is everyone?” When I see that I will do my best to jump in and talk with them. Answer their questions and ask about them. It seems that every day I meet someone new or get to know someone a little bit better. This is one of my favorite things about Twitter! Plus I try to share anything personal I am thinking or doing that I think might encourage others to interact with me or help them to get to know me better.

PRIORITIZE

If I did not control myself, I could probably spend entire days and weeks on Twitter trying to keep up with 3,000 people all the time. And honestly, it would be a blast for a Twitterholic like me! But the fact of the matter is that I am lucky enough to be able to feed my addiction by multi-tasking and checking in occasionally throughout the day because I work from home and do 95% of my design business on the computer. I am aware that many people are not so lucky, so this requires even more self-control and prioritization. The bottom line here is that there is no way I will connect with everyone daily, but over time I hope to connect with everyone EVENTUALLY.

I could probably come up with some more words that end in “IZE” but these three simple things have helped me to utilize Twitter in a way that works for me and accomplishes my goals. (There, I got in another “ize” word.) Without a doubt I miss far more from the many I follow than the treasures and tidbits I actually DO catch. But Twitter has opened the door wide to such a broad range of interests and interactions throughout the day I can’t imagine limiting myself to only following a few.

So now on to this week’s recommendations I have chosen from the many wonderful people I follow. I guarantee you that if you follow these people you too will discover the treasures they are and the value they bring to the Twitterverse. Enjoy!

@liz2point0 – Liz Stroud

Must start with the inspiration for this post! She’s a fun, friendly lady who I’m just getting to know. Plus, it would be GREAT to flood her with new followers!

@RichardLaksana – Richard Laksana

Richard is a very cool guy who was 1 of the first people I interacted with on Twitter. Puts out a TON of links & resources, plus he’s a really nice guy!

@RobinMWood – Robin Wood

Robin is a web designer from the SF Bay Area who shares great resources & is also known to send a cocktail your way (at least, a Twitpic photo of a cocktail)

@virtuosoblogger – Gautam

Gautam is an easygoing, funny guy who I have had a few conversations with now. He’s a blogging maniac and shares lots of great resources.

@NNNdesign – Natalie N. Niemi

Natalie is a friendly graphic designer & artist who shares great resources & interacts. Always has a fun comment or insight.

@cheth – Cheth

He needs no introduction to the design community, but maybe you haven’t found him yet. Cheth is a gifted designer who shares a never-ending flow of quality links. A really nice guy too!

@ReneeGannon – Renee Gannon

Renee is a TRIP! She is funny, brash, friendly & challenges the status quo. Not for the faint of heart but a definitely blast for me!

@MhdBadi – Mohammad Badi Irshid

Mohammad is a cool dude who shares good info & interacts with people. He’s a nice, friendly ‘tech geek’ who found me on Facebook too.

@Karin_Phokus – Karin Phokus

Karin’s a fun, classy lady who is always up for a laugh & making others smile. She’s encouraging, inspiring and a blast to talk with.

@teddyrised – Terry

Terry’s a cool photography enthusiast and web designer from Singapore who’s always interacting with people & sharing. Seems like he swims a lot too!

@leoraw – Leora Wenger

An artistic lady who shares design links & resources. She’s also very friendly & encouraging.

@mimojito – Efren

Efren provides a wealth of design resources as well as being a coffee lover (we’ve shared a cup or two virtually). A genuinely nice designer/developer dude!

@tkpleslie – Leslie Carothers

Leslie is one classy, encouraging & supportive friend who seems to be trying to help everyone she comes across. Truly a gem to discover if you haven’t already!

I hope you enjoy this week’s recommendations and by following them get to know them as I have.

If you think I should be recommending you and are disappointed that I haven’t yet, let me know! Don’t be shy! I follow almost 3,,000 people so each week I’m recommending those that I interact with or learn from the most. Say hello, drop a comment, or shoot me an email and complain (nicely) and you could be on next week’s list!

If you ever decide you would like to recommend me to your followers or to anyone else, would you please take a second and use the great tool called Mr. Tweet? It is fast becoming an excellent resource for finding great people to follow on Twitter, and the more people recommend you the easier it is for others to find you. Cheers!