Sylvester Likes to Tweet?

http://technobabble2dot0.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/top-analyst-twitters-micro-bloggers/

Much to my surprise and quite to my chagrin, I found myself (through the help of a Facebook friend) staring at my name at the list of top analyst twitters (I always thought it was tweeters or twitterers, I stand corrected).  Of the top 49, I am ranked #46, a fabulous showing for having but a handful of followers and a very irregular tweeting habit.

I do now find that my followers have increased 400% since the story broke, and now, the chagrin kicks in--people care what I have to tweet and people are interested in sharing with me vis a vis that medium, yet I hardly know how to use it.

For several weeks, I've promised myself to re-explore Twitter, now that it is plainly obvious this is a critically important tool used by the technical literati, one with cred and some staying power (all that matters, though, is it is key today, I suppose).  I've heard fantastic stories from twitters about building enormous, amazing online and IN PERSON communities based on the tanglements of twitter webs, and I've been watching from the sideline, waiting for a spare creativity cycle to dive in.

Interestingly, while the aforementioned article points out that Twitter is a viable tool for analysts to use, that microblogging in fact builds credibility, helps analysts collaborate, and helps clients gain fast insight, it's not exactly a tool I hear employers encouraging.  In fact, I am not sure I consider myself an analyst who tweets, simply because I never tweeted under my company name or on anything immediately related to my research--but in my world, the professional and personal online personas collide without mercy.  Obviously, if I tweet more, my ranking on that list will likely climb, even if I tweet about my dog, treasure hunting or the price of gas, and not the digital consumer experience.  Then again, maybe knowing me is to love me, and that helps bring my community closer to me.