MarkWhittaker.com

I’ve learned a few new things about Twitter in the last few weeks: If you follow the right people, more people will start to follow you. It’s also become apparent that a number of folks who “follow” me (@mwhit14) are doing a version of Internet marketing, hoping that I’ll return the favor and maybe even visit their websites.

There are two basic ways to use Twitter. One is to send messages (tweets). The other is to follow other people’s tweets in hopes of learning something, being entertained or finding a bargain. So far, I’m not much of a tweeter. Since I opened my account May 1, 2008, I’ve sent just 55 messages, or updates.

However, I’m an avid follower. I check my Twitter feed several times a day to see what people are talking about and to discover links to articles of interest. I follow people I respect in the news and online advertising industries like Steve Yelvington (@yelvington), Vin Crosbie (@vincrosbie) and Kathy Schwartz (@kathyschwartz). I follow some friends and colleagues, and I get news or info from David Pogue of the NY Times (@pogue) and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat writer at the Post-Gazette (@dejan_kovacevic).

A few weeks ago I started following Jay Berkowitz (@JayBerkowitz), who is the lead instructor for an Internet marketing class I’m taking through the University of San Francisco. Jay is an Internet marketing expert and CEO of Ten Golden Rules, a consulting and marketing company. For comparison, Jay has 5,440 Twitter followers and follows 2,269 folks.

Almost the moment after I began following Jay, I began receiving notifications of people starting to follow me. Most of them are Internet marketers or consultants. I’m sure they’re hoping I will return the favor by following them, thus adding to their own cadre of followers. The more followers you have, the more traffic you are likely to have to your website. And, if you’re selling something on your site, more traffic can lead to more sales.

After a quick search, I found one site, TwitterGrid, that show’s you who’s following who on Twitter. And there’s probably some software somewhere that helps folks identify the newest followers of a particular tweeter.

I admit I haven’t returned the favor to all of my new Internet marketing followers, but I have added some. I may even have time to visit their sites now and then. And, by the way, I’ll be tweeting a link to this column. Visit me!

I “binged” myself on Thursday. No, I didn’t injure myself in the process.

Instead of “googling” Mark Whittaker, I searched “Mark Whittaker Pittsburgh” on MSN’s new search engine, Bing. Why? My handy Google Analytics gives me all kinds of cool info about visitors to this site, including the referring search engine and the search terms used. Someone “binged” me this week, so I figured I’d “bing” myself to see what popped up.

The link to this site was at the top of the list, and my still-visited post about Mark Whitaker of NBC News also is near the top. No surprises. But on the second page of results, there was a link to Twitterholic, which ranks Twitter users by the number of followers they have. What fun!

It turns out that my 21 Twitter followers place me at number 874,847 among all Twitter users. Best of all, I’m ranked in the top 600 in Pittsburgh at number 487. Heck, I feel privileged.

Ashton Kutcher reigns supreme with the most Twitter followers. There are almost 2.9 million of ‘em (and I’m not among them). Ellen DeGeneres is second with almost 2.6 million followers.

So who’s got the top spot in Pittsburgh? Her name is Susan Smith, and she runs a blog called Together We Flourish. The blog helps non-profit organizations get the word out about their various activities. Susan and her blog have 4,240 followers, according to Twitterholic. Cool, huh?

In second place is a 22-year-old Pittsburgh musician, T.J. Cornwall. I spent a little time listening to T.J.’s tunes on his MySpace page. The kid’s got some talent (and thus my contribution to your serendipity today, dear reader).

I’ve moved from Bing to Pittsburgh’s top Twitterers (Tweeters?) in just seven paragraphs. Isn’t that enough reason to follow my Tweets? If you do, I promise I’ll write more often!