Professors of Twiiter

Here's a great list of 18 people to follow on Twitter from Lon Cohen (@obilon). I like the way the list is organized and the "Why (s)he's my Prof" piece for each - and the idea of using Twitter for real time education. I've excerpted the first six "professors of Twitter" - click the link to the read the story and discover the rest. Twitter Professors: 18 People to Follow for a Real Time Education

my professors of Twitter.

Many of them don’t even know it and that’s the beauty. There is no course outline, no costly tuition (yet anyway), no declared major, and you can take as many electives as you want. There’s also no hard and fast list of required experience to be my personal Twitter Professor and tenure is non-existent. I do have very simple guidelines I keep in my head when designating my Twitter Professors:

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Below are 18 people I follow for a real time education. Please suggest your own Twitter professors in the comments.

Christopher Penn @cspenn
Why he’s my Prof: Like many of the Twitter Professors, he gives information freely for which others might charge an arm and a leg. He provides a daily heads up on what to look out for by analyzing real financial indicators. Because of @cspenn, I know to track the TED spread and the BDI and why. He also gives advice about online marketing. Oh, and he co-founded Podcamp.
Courses offered: Finance, Online Marketing
Required Reading: christopherspenn.com, The Twitter Power Guide

JOHNABYRNE @JOHNABYRNE
Why he’s my Prof: He really engages people on Twitter, which is admirable for an Editor-in-Chief at a national business magazine’s website. Sure he could have assigned some lackey intern to Twitter all day, but he didn’t. I’d expect nothing less from a self-professed “Digital Journalism Advocate.” I even know the important people he’s HAVING lunch with and what they are going to talk about. He asks for suggestions on questions to ask them. He doesn’t just tell you afterward that they ordered the bisque and it was a little cold. He also gave us a list of all the other BusinessWeek writers that Twitter, which is where I found @shirleybrady and @stevebaker.
Courses offered: Business, Finance, Journalism
Required Reading: BusinessWeek.com

Jeremiah Owyang @jowyang
Why he’s my Prof: As the Senior Analyst in Social Computing at Forrester Research, @jowyang provides an endless stream of information about that voodoo that we do. Then he tried an experiment and purposely stopped Twittering for 20 days to refocus. Boy did I miss him. I learned that the world won’t blow up if I leave Twitter for 3 weeks, but if it did, I’d have to find out about it with everyone else in the world. He also cuts a mean run as a Salsa dancer.
Course Offered: Social Media Web Strategy
Required Reading: web-strategist.com/blog

Beth Kanter @Kanter
Why she’s my Prof: When I got my job at a nonprofit (@ALSofGNY) I dove right into Social Media as the primary way to connect with patients, families, caregivers and potential donors. I sought out others to learn how to do it better and @Kanter’s name came up. @Kanter imparts all her wisdom about how nonprofits can benefit from Social Media.
Course Offered: Nonprofits 2.0
Required Reading: beth.typepad.com

Ann Handley @MarketingProfs
Why she’s my Prof: Chris Brogan says about Ann: “She’s connected to LOTS of great people, so when I see who she’s talking about, I pursue and learn more.” Agreed. Ann has the coolest job title in the world as Chief Content Officer. She uses social media to share marketing resources with the crowds, and I’m here picking up the tidbits.
Course Offered: Content Marketing
Required Reading: annhandley.com, mpdailyfix.com

Chris Brogan @chrisbrogan
Why he’s my Prof: If I left him off the list, I’d get phone calls. The man is always pushing a boundary of New Media whether it’s doing a paid post for Kmart as a trusted blogger and lighting up the blogosphere or telling you why you’re micro-famous, dammit and you’re special so go out and conquer the world, no charge for the moxie. He’s one of the biggest proponents of giving away value to get value that I know.
Course Offered: Online Business Communications
Required Reading: chrisbrogan.com