Twitter is growing, in the UK it is mentioned almost daily in major media channels from BBC Radio 1 to The Guardian and almost everywhere in between. Almost a day doesn’t goes past that we hear about celebrities using Twitter which is in turn stimulating take up of Twitter. Whether this will be a long term take up is the subject of another discussion.

So if you are new to Twitter who should you follow?

Well, the criteria for who you follow is ultimately a personal one. There are a number of people out there that have stated why they follow people or won’t follow people and you over time will work out that balance. Personally, I follow anyone who is tweeting useful and interesting things (I can learn a lot from a twitter stream) and those people that wish to engage and be part of a two way community. I don’t follow or unfollow people that just pump out messages, are rude or just boring.

So here are some groups that may help you follow people…

Friends

That is an obvious one but start here – are your Facebook friends on Twitter? You can always see who your friends are following so once you have a few people on your radar, you can see who they are following and grow from there.

Celebrities

If you want the excitement of ‘rubbing shoulders’ with celebs, you can try Stephen Fry, John Cleese, Philip Schofield, Jonathan Ross or Chris Moyles. You can also check out this article which lists the top 10 celebs on Twitter.

Porn Stars

If you want your celebs to be a little more risque then you can try the top ten porn stars currently on Twitter – try this link (SFW) or this link )NSFW )

Brands

Many brands are harnessing Twitter – some use Twitter as a one way channel to broadcast their messages and others, like espares, fake bake and dogstrust are part of the conversation. You can see Mashable’s list of top brands on Twitter as a good starting point, although it is quite US focused.

Politicians

Politicians are also on here, http://tweetminster.co.uk/ covers all the UK politicians Canadian Politicians are listed here and Open Freedom has a list of all known US politicians.

@andrewmin has put together a twitter stream of all the politicians on twitter.

Charities

Charities are also using Twitter for their benefit – Econsultancy has a good list of UK charities . I am struggling to find a list of US charities on Twitter – I will add one if I find it.

Journalists

Journalists are also on here, if you wish to follow what they have to say.. this link covers UK journalists

Fun Fakes

Don’t forget the ‘fun fakes’ – people who are not who they say they include @mayoroflondoff and @thefuckingpope and we can’t forget @santaclaus (OK Santa is real, he has a lot of time on his hands at the moment).

Web Celebs

Depending on your involvement in/on the web – you may or may not have heard of these people. @kevinrose, founder of digg.com. @scobleizer – Robert Scoble ‘the daddy’ of breaking new technology. @leolaporte – host of Twit. You should also check @techcrunch and @mashable – to constant streams of useful content and links.

And finally, you can follow me @jamieriddell - I can’t promise to be as exciting as @wossy or as humorous as @thefuckingpope but you mind find it interesting.

You may also want to follow the kind people that helped me compile this post @deekdeekster , @serrysm @gcharlton.

Feel free to let me know who I should be following?

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The opinions expressed on Innovation Station are those of their authors and may not be endorsed by, nor representative of associated companies or employers.

President Obama‘s inauguration speech has already been hailed as one of the greatest, and certainly one of the most consumed, discussed and shared. I personally enjoyed it and was amongst the global online audience watching, sharing and discussing it.

I read with interest then a post from the excellent Read Write Web with a tag cloud of Obama’s speech. I include it here for ease of viewing, but you need to read the whole article here.

For comparison here is George W Bush’s second inaugural speech.

Please read the whole article, there are many other speeches reviewed and it makes for interesting reading.

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The opinions expressed on Innovation Station are those of their authors and may not be endorsed by, nor representative of associated companies or employers.

Google continues its aim to map the world with the launch of Google Ocean. This update to Google Earth includes mapping of the oceans which is a wonderful addition to the tool but not the only change in this release.

Google have also announced the addition of historical imagery allowing the user to see the same location over time. On images I have tested, there seems to be the opportunity to change to specific dates, based on the data they have. Naturally, pictures of my house (or your house) don’t have many versions but Ground Zero, for example, has many versions back to 1997. The touring function also allows users to make trips and share them, much more easily.

These new features are available on Google Earth V5 which is available now for download.

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The opinions expressed on Innovation Station are those of their authors and may not be endorsed by, nor representative of associated companies or employers.

@Tomgriuffla pointed me at the latest Twitter API use – Twittersheep. Twittersheep uses the API to create a tag cloud (a bit like Wordle does for blogs), showing the key words appearing in my followers bio’s.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my followers are big on digital, founders, marketing and social.

The opinions expressed on Innovation Station are those of their authors and may not be endorsed by, nor representative of associated companies or employers.

The latest ‘buzz’ about Barack Obama’s Blackberry must have been great brand opportunity for Blackberry. Looking at Blogpulse, we can see a massive blip in Blackberry mentions, coupled directly with the mentions of Obama + Blackberry.

What is even more impressive, for Blackberry, is the fact that his machine won’t be a Blackberry but a General Dynamics piece of kit. The fact that it is referred to as a ‘Blackberry’ suggests that Blackberry is now the defacto name for a hand held communication device. Is Blackberry what Hoover was for vacuum cleaners?

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This post was inspired by Neville Hobson’s post: ‘The New Pecking Order.”

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The opinions expressed on Innovation Station are those of their authors and may not be endorsed by, nor representative of associated companies or employers.