Twitter is simply an outstanding tool, a true social media marvel I would say, that lets people seamlessly connect with others on the internet, share stuff, engage in meaningful conversations, read about their activities, stay up-to-date and current with what’s going on in the world, follow hashtags to follow certain events and happenings from all over the world, and so much more.
The Twitter-verse is now 500 million users big, with an excess of 200 million active users sending out hundreds of tweets each second, and almost a half-a-billion tweets every single day!
Among these people are some of the most well-known, famous, extremely-successful and established business people and entrepreneurs, most of them are quite active Twitter (and social media) users themselves, and are definitely worth a follow!
Here are some of the people who you should definitely follow on Twitter to learn from, and maybe even use as a source of ideas and inspiration:
1. Donald Trump
Donald Trump is an active ‘Twitterati’, with almost 2.1 million followers (and counting)! He uses his Twitter to post thoughts and opinions (his own of course), plug his TV show The Apprentice, remind people to see his interviews and talk-show appearances, and in between, speak on politics (he seems to be very outspoken on social media when it comes to politics!), post pictures of himself playing golf and attending events with his wife Melania, and he also posts some genuinely useful and interesting tweets for entrepreneurs in between. Follow him on Twitter @realDonaldTrump
2. Bill Gates
As an entrepreneur, or just about anyone for that matter, you definitely want to be following the richest man in the world! Bill Gates, is worth $66 billion (that billion, with a ‘B’!), is the Chairman of none other than Microsoft as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and is also a very active Twitter user. He shares interesting tweets about his work with his Foundation (alongside his wife, Melinda Gates), interesting tweets about running businesses, entrepreneurial ventures, computers and programming, Microsoft, announcements, his Reddit AMA’s, robots playing soccer, and much more. Follow him @BillGates.
3. Oprah Winfrey
Oprah’s current Twitter has no less than 17 million followers! Which makes her one of the most followed women on Twitter. While not as active as some of the other people on Twitter, Oprah does will to send out tweets to her followers regularly, and stays in touch with them. She mostly tweets some excellent inspirational quotes, her opinions about current events and politics, pictures of her at various events, with other celebrities, and pictures of her working on her TV Show, Oprah’s Next Chapter. Follow Oprah on Twitter @Oprah.
4. Sheryl Sandberg
Facebook is by far, the biggest social network out there, and chances are that you, every single person you know and their grandma’s on Facebook! Which is why you should be following Sheryl Sandberg, who is the COO of Facebook. Sheryl currently has around 41,000 followers on her Twitter, which might not be a lot, but she does put up some useful stuff on her Twitter, including interesting links about other women entrepreneurs, interesting startups and projects, advice and helpful resources for women. Sheryl only has 16 tweets on her Twitter timeline, but she’s become much more active lately. Follow Sheryl on her Twitter (and ask her to post more on her Twitter) @sherylsandberg.
5. Richard Branson
Richard Branson, aka. the 4th-richest man in the UK and one of the richest people in the world, is a pretty active Twitter user. He is the CEO of Virgin, which is right up there as one of the biggest conglomerates in the world. And he puts some pretty interesting stuff on his Twitter. His timeline mostly consists of useful links and articles, stuff about new and emerging businesses and entrepreneurial ventures, investment opportunities, links to his blog where he posts frequently, his opinions and thoughts on current events, the work he does as part of his company as well as a philanthropist, pictures of his travels all over the world, and a lot more. Follow Branson @richardbranson.
6. Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki is a multi-faceted and a multi-talented person that every young businessman, woman or entrepreneur would do well to follow! He is a venture capitalist, a bestselling author (read ‘Art of the Start’, a blogger, one of the reasons why Apple is so successful today (he was on the Macintosh’s marketing team), and is currently the director of Garage Technology Ventures, a venture capitalist firm. He is also the creator of Alltop, the famous RSS aggregation service. Guy has around 1.2 million followers on his Twitter, and is super-active on social media, which can be seen by the fact that he has 110,000 tweets! He posts some excellent stuff on his timeline, including links, articles and resources for entrepreneurs and people doing business. Follow him @GuyKawasaki.
7. Seth Godin
Seth Godin is a highly successful marketer, entrepreneur and author, who has several best-selling books on marketing, selling and entrepreneurship to his name. He is a Stanford Business School graduate. He has been Yahoo’s Vice President of Direct Marketing (for 2 years), and is the man behind Squidoo, a social-networking and community & interests website. He also has countless other projects to his name. I suggest every entrepreneur and marketer read some of his books. He speaks about business trends, marketing news, entrepreneurial news and ventures, as well as social media on his Twitter, and you can follow him @ThisIsSethsBlog.
8. Bernadeen McLeod
Bernadeen is the founder of Mentor Works Ltd. – an organization that offers funding to small businesses and entrepreneurs, and is a well-known mentor and business coach. She has almost 10,000 folowers on her Twitter, with just under a 1000 tweets, and her timeline suggest she is fairly-active as well. She shares small business news and trends, tips, articles and useful resources for entrepreneurs and small business owners, especially to businesses and ventures in the SME industry (Small and Medium businesses), such as how to raise funds, best business ideas, etc. Follow her @Bernadeen.
9. Alan Sugar
Alan Sugar, aka. Lord Sugar is an extremely successful British businessman, media personality, political advisor, avid coccer fan (judging by his Twitter timeline! He follows a London-based team called Tottenham, who he was also the chairman of), and appears on the UK version of The Apprentice. He is worth $1.2 billion, which means he is loaded! Ventures accredited to him – all of which fall under the umbrella of the Amshold Group – include the likes of Amstrad, Amsair, Amsprop, YouView (he left as the Chairman of YouView earlier this month), and Viglen. He tweets about soccer (a lot!), as well as politics, current affairs, as well as posting links about his companies and different ventures he’s involved in. You can follow him @Lord_Sugar.