Welcome! to the long awaited Part 2 of my study of the MVP’s of Twitter. Oh boy…in this edition, we tackle the feeds of Penelope Trunk, Naomi Dunford, and Guy Kawasaki. Social media gurus, they’ve all vowed to show us the forms behind the flickering shadows on the Facebook wall and remind us what exactly we’re trying to accomplish here on the hot sticky surface of social media. Their Twitter feeds have legions of followers, and, perhaps more importantly, often attract the two little letters we love to see: “RT”. How do they stack up, and what are they doing that you’re not?
Penelope Trunk, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Penelope…”
Honestly, Penelope’s a tough one to gauge for me, mostly because I’m a bit of a Penelope Trunk freak. She can write some batshit crazy stuff, and I’ll read her post and actually think she’s making a lot of sense. She combines the best of emo-Livejournal-style rants with inductive logic intended to help her vault social convention and rise above the crowd. If Google Inc. has made its brand on giving away products, Penelope has done the same thing with her personal information. Her autism, her crying jags, and moments of triumph are all laid out in her blog, so it’s no wonder that her Twitter is Penelope Lite. Check out the Tweet heard round the world, about her recent miscarriage and all the accompanying press coverage. Her Twitter feed is personal to the core, because that’s what Penelope does best. She pulls off the dirty laundry/personal branding package to perfection; before you knock it, just ask yourself if you could do the same.
Authenticity Rating: 5/5 Penelope’s heart and soul in 140 characters.
Usefulness: 1/5 Career advice this is not. At the intersection of work and life, sure.
Branding Mojo: 4/5 Some folks are turned off by Penelope’s candor. Just ask Erica Jong how much this holds you back.
Following to Followers Ratio: .48 (10,222 Following, 21,260 Followers)
Interesting: The queen of baring it all once severed her Twitter account from her blog after a backlash from cranky fans. Then, of course, she put it back on, guessing correctly that personal branding and Twitter are truly meant for each other.
Naomi Dunford: Mz. Dunford If You’re Nasty
Oh, Naomi Dunford. Where to start? Personal branding in marketing is her element. In fact, she practically is an element. Dunfordium-121, which, if you stand next to it, will strengthen your nitty-gritty knowledge of social media and make you more prone to using the f-word. As you would expect, her Twitter feed is occasionally offensive and usually consists of multiple conversations she’s having with other people. It’s littered with @ replies, just like you would expect from a foulmouthed social butterfly. Despite the expectorations, Naomi’s use of her Twitter feed is actually very businesslike; considering her business does indeed commonly allude to threesomes and the scuzzier side of of the bright shiny new social marketing coin.
Authenticity Rating: 4.5/5 Naomi is a little nicer on Twitter, for some reason. What is it about our Twitter manifestations that siphons off the nasty? I like the nasty.
Usefulness: 3/5 Dunfordium-121 means you get interesting links to other resources on a regular basis. Then, more cursing.
Branding Mojo: 4/5 The @ittybiz Twitter feed is dwarfed by the magnificence that is the IttyBiz website.
Following to Followers Ratio: .43 (1893 Following, 4372 Followers)
Interesting: From @TiaSparkles Have I mentioned how much I like pie? Because I REALLY like pie. Like, a lot. More than is reasonable, really.
Guy Kawasaki, Infectious Enthusiasm Ad Nauseaum
Guy seems cool and nice, and friendly, and he did start a company for under 13G’s. But I had to unfollow him recently because he was blowing up my account with time-waster links (come on, Guy, cut this distracted brain of mine a break!), and the repeating the same Tweets four hours later. Sorry, Guy, you can’t hang. He has recently written a FAQ about how he uses Twitter, mostly as a cutthroat marketing implement for Alltop. Alltop is probably flourishing, but @guykawasaki is a waste.
Authenticity Rating: 1/5 Who is the man, the myth, the Guy Kawasaki? Couldn’t tell you. I think he likes macs.
Usefulness: 2/5 Sometimes the links were interesting. Throw enough Kraft singles at the wall and some of them stick.
Branding Mojo: 2/5 Generic and devoid of personality. This shit won’t stand a year from now in the personal branding arena. For now, Guy’s got a cash cow.
Following to Followers Ratio: .99 (189,236 Following, 191,045 Followers)
Interesting: Not so much.
