My Sabbatical

Source: G0SUB at flickr

OK, everyone’s heard of Twitter, and some people are sick of hearing about it. This isn’t a raving fanboy post about how great Twitter is, so bear with me.

I had a conversation today with a friend about the site, and I expressed the opinion that there are not a lot of business uses for Twitter. Companies are basically using it in one of two ways: 

1. Customer Service - monitoring what people are saying about them and in some cases joining in the conversation
2. Advertising – pushing out a marketing message in a one-way direction

Big multi-billion dollar brands have established strategies for advertising and customer service, and they don’t include Twitter just yet. So you don’t see a lot of billion-dollar companies jumping on Twitter like it’s the next hot thing. It’s not.

Twitter is however a great place for personal brand management. Celebrities know this. Ashton Kutcher, and Sean P Diddy Combs, and even Larry King are on there interacting with fans in a safe, controlled fashion. (There are some recent stories of celebrities leaving Twitter, so we will see how long this lasts.) In fact, there’s an expectation that anyone who cares about marketing their personal brand will be on Twitter.

For me, I enjoy following a lot of diverse people. But there are a handful of people who’s tweets I don’t want to miss. I’m starting to have tiers of people I follow – the large unwashed masses and a small handful of must reads. (No offense to the unwashed masses.)

Here are some of my must reads – who I consider in some ways thought leaders in the personal brand management space.

@Jason – Jason Calacanis – Web Business Thought Leader

Now Jason is a bit of a controversial fellow sometimes, and some people see him as a bit egotistical. But if you can get past all that, he’s actually got some pretty sharp business acumen. His podcast, This Week in Startups, should be required listening for anyone who is in the early stages of starting a business. If I ever got to a stage where I had a business and received an offer to buy it, I would fly down to California and seek out Jason’s advice. He’s knows a good deal from a bad one, and is one of the few people publicly helping entrepreneurs get themselves to a place of independence.

@timferriss – Tim Ferriss – Nothing Is Impossible Thought Leader

Most people know Tim from his New York Times bestselling book, The Four Hour Workweek. And beyond the ideas in the book, Tim’s message is one of ongoing personal improvement through experiments. He’s the guy who no goal is impossible. Tim has never set a loftly goal without then going and getting it done. If he woke up tomorrow and decided he wanted to climb Mount Everest, he would then research the hell out of the topic, talk with a dozen people who have done it, hire a trainer, and book the plane tickets for the trip. Tim follows his dreams with intensity, and is a good model to follow to get your dreams done.

@keithferrazzi – Keith Ferrazzi – Network Building Thought Leader

Keith recently had a fascinating book called Who’s Got Your Back. The premise of which is every successful person has at least 2 or 3 people who they can be completely open and honest with, and who will be open and honest with you. These are your consigliere who you can trust completely and want to see you succeed. These are not your #1 fans, and these are not people you only know over the Internet. These are real true-blue friends who you will presumably be friends with for the next 50 years.

@leawoodward – Lea Woodward – Location Independent Thought Leader

Lea has lived and worked in various parts of this big place we call the Earth, and she blogs and podcasts about it to teach others how to do the same. Location independence is definitely something I am striving to achieve, so I watch her tweets and often find some very interesting things in there. In addition, she’s actively building a business and I am watching with great interest to how that goes. Other thought leaders in this area already have a thriving online-only business and so there is less to learn in real-time from them.

@chrisguillebeau - Chris Guillebeau – World Traveller Thought Leader

I’ve written about Chris before on this blog. He’s actually supporting himself through blogging, and living his dream of travelling the world to boot. Chris doesn’t travel to far off locations to work (like Lea does), he travels there as a tourist. He takes photographs and writes about his trip.

Not all thought leaders are on Twitter. And not everyone on Twitter is a thought leader. Have any more to add? Put them in the comments. If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m http://twitter.com/scottjduffy. If you only want to follow this blog on Twitter, and I sometimes tweet things having to do with sabbaticals, travel and location independence, please follow http://twitter.com/mysabbatical.

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