Many people who are down on Twitter never have really tried it. They don't understand it and many have no idea what they are missing.
I love Twitter and have been active since long before it became cool in most circles. I actually started the
Twitter feed for the Sports department of my last newspaper, the Daily Press of Newport News, Va. It was far from mainstream at that point and it took a substantial amount of work to even be allowed to go live with it. Now every sportswriter at the Daily Press and the sports editor have Twitter feeds.
Twitter obviously can be dangerous for public figures.
You could argue that a tweet from Marvin Austin probably represented the start of the downfall of Butch Davis as Carolina's football coach and the investigation that will eventually lead to NCAA sanctions.
Rep. Anthony Weiner certainly could tell you about the pitfalls of Twitter!
Even with Twitter's popularity, it still has plenty of detractors.
The classic beef I've heard from people who don't know much about Twitter? That it is full of people sending out updates about what they are having for dinner. But the huge value of Twitter is the information and news that it offers.
I follow lots of Twitter feeds, but there are some that are so interesting and informative that I have each tweet sent to my phone as a text message. There are many Twitter accounts that are very interesting that aren't sent to my phone. Those might be people who tweet too much or post too much about other topics that don't interest me.
The beauty of Twitter is that you can cater your timeline to your interests. When I was at the
Daily Press, I followed lots of NFL-oriented and some NASCAR-oriented Twitter feeds because it helped me keep up with the news and helped me do my job better. But I'm not a huge NFL fan and care nothing about NASCAR, so I unfollowed all of them when I left the
Daily Press.
There are many good Twitter people I won't mention, but here is a list of Twitter accounts from which each tweet is sent to my phone as a text message:
News
Breaking news alerts around the world from hundreds of sources 24 hours a day. Get more on BreakingNews.com, and follow our team on. http://www.breakingnews.com
The No. 1 Twitter feed for anybody who follows the news closely. A little too heavy on foreign news at times, but still essential. This feed eliminates the need to have the tweets from a lot of other news sources sent to my phone.
Media/journalism topics
Romenesko has, for years, been the gold standard when it comes to aggregating media news, particularly newspaper news. If you care about the newspaper business, he is essential to follow.
HowardKurtz
Washington D.C.
I rarely miss his CNN show,
Reliable Sources, frequently read his columns at
The Daily Beast and enjoy his insights about the way that the media are covering various topics. He also can provide solid analysis on politics.
Co-author of THOSE GUYS HAVE ALL THE FUN Inside the World of ESPN
I bought and enjoyed the ESPN book
Those Guys Have All the Fun, and Miller dishes out some interesting tidbits about ESPN that I probably otherwise wouldn't get. It's like getting extra 140-character chapters.
Andy Bechtel
North Carolina, USA
He has interesting thoughts on journalism and news coverage, and posts political and sports tweets at times as well. He writes an good
blog about journalism and other topics that includes Q&As with interesting people (
with one notable exception.) Just don't ask him if he likes Cris Collinsworth.
Bill Walsh
Washington, D.C.
Washington Post copy editor and author of Lapsing Into a Comma and The Elephants of Style. (See also.) http://www.theslot.com/
I love the sometimes snarky posts about edits that he has to make in copy. He doesn't tweet that often, but it's always interesting if you're a word geek.
Grammar Monkeys
Wichita, Kansas
It's all about clarity. Grammar and language tips from the news editors at The Wichita (Kansas) Eagle, tweeted by Lisa McLendon. Have a question? Ask. http://blogs.kansas.com/grammar
This is one of many grammar-oriented Twitter feeds I follow, but it's the best and most interesting. The series of posts prefaced with "when spell-check won't help" are hilarious.
Chronicling obvious errors in the Raleigh News & Observer. Submit any that you see to Not affiliated with the N&O. http://nandoops.tumblr.com
If the N&O makes a mistake, this feed likely will have a link to an image of the error.
UNC athletics
UNC Hoops
Chapel Hill, N.C.
The official Twitter account for Carolina basketball comes up with links to interesting stories. It also lets you know when press conferences are going to occur that you can watch on your computer.
Robbi Pickeral
North Carolina
I first had her tweets sent to my phone when she covered UNC football and men's basketball for the N&O, and it's just as helpful as she has shifted to ESPN.com as the Carolina basketball blogger. She provides good in-game tweets and UNC news, as well as sending links to her latest blog posts.
Andrew Carter
Chapel Hill, N.C.
Covers the University of North Carolina athletics, and the ACC, for The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer. http://www.newsobserver.com
Carter took over the UNC beat at the N&O shortly after Pickeral left the paper, and has a very good Twitter game. During press conferences and Roy Williams' radio show, he'll tweet quotes in real-time in addition to sending interesting pregame, in-game and postgame tweets.
Harold Gutmann
Chapel Hill
Another good source for UNC information. Having his feed and the above two sent to my phone does mean I do get bombarded a bit during games, but I find myself sorting through them at that time for the most interesting insights.
Adrian Atkinson
Raleigh, NC
I'm the editor of MSP's Tar Heel Tip-off and a contributor at ACCSports.com, Tobacco Road Blues, and HoopSpeakU.
Adrian Atkinson is basically Carolina basketball's answer to the Elias Sports Bureau. He comes up with numerous fascinating statistics about Carolina basketball. I don't know how he finds the time to put it all together, but I'm glad he does.
Jones Angell
Chapel Hill, NC
Tar Heel Sports Network
Jones is relatively new to Twitter and doesn't tweet that much, but provides good information. Many times, it's information that I'm learning for the first time.
ACC sports
All of the N&O's beat writers contribute to this account, which offers updates on not only UNC, but Duke, N.C. State and sometimes East Carolina. The in-game updates for the non-UNC games that I'm not watching are particularly helpful.
Columnist for the News & Observer and Charlotte Observer
Tudor has been in the area as a columnist for the Raleigh Times and now the News & Observer for years, but is fairly new to Twitter. His tweets aren't that numerous, but they're usually pretty interesting or informative.
General sports
ESPN Stats & Info
Bristol, CT
We provide information to ESPN's production teams around the company. If you send us a tweet, you consent to letting ESPN use and showcase it in any media. http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/
This account dishes out lots of interesting sports statistics, although it tends to be heavily weighted toward events that are airing on one of ESPN's channels.
John Buccigross
Your subconscious
If for no other reason, have the tweets from this ESPN anchor sent to your phone for his flurry of 10 tweets each morning around 7:30 packed with interesting information and stories. Also a solid guy for hockey information.
ESPN Analyst, attorney Moore and Van Allen, PLLC. President, Hair Club for Men. All opinions expressed here are mine, and should be adopted by you immediately. http://www.jaybilas.com
If you can get past the fact that he's a Dookie, he's a good guy to follow. He mixes informative and reasoned opinions on college basketball with quite a bit of good humor. He can be quite hilarious.
Although he also posts links to interesting stories, there is one main reason I have his tweets sent to my phone. He alerts you when there's a good game about to finish and tells you which channel to flip to. I've seen many good finishes that I would have missed otherwise thanks to him. The only negative with him is that there are too many soccer tweets.
Carolina Hurricanes
Essential Twitter feed for Canes information. If anything big is happening with the Canes, I'll usually hear about it first from Chip. From as insignificant as line changes to much-bigger issues, he'll quickly keep you informed.
Mike Sundheim
Raleigh, NC
PR guy for the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League since 2000.
Good source for interesting, authoritative nuggets about the Hurricanes. He'll let you know when players are going to appear on radio and TV stations as well.
Chicago Cubs
The fine Cubs beat writer for the Chicago Tribune. In addition to keeping me informed of big and small Cubs news, he provides humor and snark that are helpful for Cubs fans as we endure what usually is a painful season.
Politics
Chuck Todd
Washington, DC
Political junkie; Reporter and analyst for; host of ’s ; Covering politics since '92; And, yes, I tweet about sports too. http://firstread.msnbc.com
An essential feed if you are a hopeless political junkie like me. Very good information, particularly during the campaign season. He'll also throw in a sports tweets here or there, particularly if his Miami Hurricanes are going well or doing poorly.
General
Mental Floss
New York/Birmingham/Cleveland
The Twitter account for Mental Floss magazine, it provides lots of very interesting facts on a daily basis.
So there are my suggestions, but the best Twitter feeds for each user will vary as much as the personality of each user.
If you haven't tried Twitter, give it a chance. You won't regret it.
