You’re not on Twitter’s suggested user list but you are in good company:

September 26, 2009 By

OK, so when Twitter came out with its Suggested User List I went through a bunch of emotions. Hatred. Jealousy. Self loathing. Blaming. Anger. Denial. All that kind of stuff. I have lashed out at it over the last few months here and there. Pissing off Tim O’Reilly and Veronica Belmont and a whole raft of other people. After all, I had more followers than any of my friends did before this list came along and now they all have millions of unearned followers that were gifted to them by winning a lottery called “the Suggested User List.” Also known as the “SUL.”

But the other day I heard Tony Robbins give a great speech at the Twitter Conference (the recording will be up soon, I hear, it will be a must watch) but he pointed out that looking at the world that way is destructive.

So, I went back to a talk that Jim Fawcette gave at one of our offsites back in the 1990s (he ran the magazine company that gave me my first job out of college). In that slide deck he pointed out that there were two kinds of people: those who viewed a half-full cup as half empty and those who looked at it as half full.

For most of 2009 I’ve been the half empty kind of guy when it came to the SUL.

Today, I thought I’d turn it around and look at it as half full.

First, lots of people are asking what the Suggested User List (aka SUL) is. That’s Twitter’s list of people it recommends to new users when they sign up for Twitter. Here’s Twitter’s own blog about what the list is and what it’s supposed to do and how it’s chosen (I don’t believe that the definition is given is right, but we’ll go with it). It has a few hundred people on it. How can you tell someone is on the Suggested User List? Well, if they have more than 150,000 followers they almost certainly are on the SUL because that’s the only way I’ve seen someone legitimately get that many followers. Oprah being the most famous example.

So, last night, I took a different tactic — a glass is half full one — where I went looking for really cool people who are NOT on the suggested user list. I Twittered a bunch, here’s the list, hope this helps you find some more people to follow. Please do share your own list in comments here, or on your own Twitter account.

These are in no particular order. Hope you enjoy!

Twitter’s founders @ev (Evan Williams, Twitter’s CEO and cofounder) @biz (Biz Stone, Twitter’s CEO) ARE ON the SUL (you can tell, they have more than a million followers). @dom (Dom Sagolla, Twitter co-creator and author of @thebook and co-founder of iPhone Dev Camp) is not (he was the eighth user of Twitter and one of the original team). @noah was one of two guys who came up with the idea, as the story goes, for Twitter and even he isn’t on the Suggested User List.

CNN’s @AmanpourCNN (Christiane Amanpour) is the best journalist on CNN and she can’t get on Twitter’s Suggested User List.

@OndiTimoner (Ondi Timoner) is the only movie director to win the Sundance Film Festival TWICE and she can’t get on Twitter’s Suggested User List (her movie “We Live in Public” is an awesome movie about the New York Internet Scene in the late 1990s and what happens when one group of people decides to live online 24/7).

@zefrank (Ze Frank) is funnier than anyone on the SUL but still isn’t on it. His videos on Time.com are must watch videos!

@Pierre (Pierre Omidyar) started eBay but can’t get into the Twitter Suggested User List. Of course Steve Case @stevecase started AOL but he can’t get on either (and he even gave a talk at Twitter’s headquarters a couple of weeks ago).

@OSTRICK (Marc Ostrick) did Obama’s campaign video and can’t get on the SUL.

@Zephoria (danah boyd, social media scholar) isn’t on it and she’s keynoting @sxsw next year that’s where Twitter got hot. Heck, @missrogue (Tara Hunt) wrote a book on how companies can increase their Whuffie and she isn’t on it.

You can write lyrics for the Grateful Dead, like @johnperrybarlow did (he also co-founded EFF), but that won’t get you on the SUL.

@paulocoelho (Paulo Coelho) wrote some of the most popular (and best) books ever and can’t get on Twitter’s SUL.

You can run camera for NBC at the White House, be on first-name basis with Obama, like @newmediajim (Jim Long) does, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can blog under government oppression like Isaac Mao does in China @isaac but that won’t get you on the SUL.

@IBMResearch invented the hard drive (among other things) and can’t get on Twitter’s SUL.

You can start Creative Commons like @lessig (Larry Lessig) did (he also argued a case in front of the US Supreme Court), but that won’t get you on the SUL.

@liamcasey (Liam Casey) makes lots of stuff you use in his supply chain company in China (you would be shocked), but isn’t on the SUL.

You can teach and make one of the most popular web 2.0/social media videos of all time (watched more than 10 million times), like @mwesch (Michael Wesch) did, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

There is 100x more smarts at MIT’s @medialab than most other places but they can’t get on Twitter’s Suggested User List.

My favorite recommendation site @yelp finds me lots of great places to eat but can’t get on Twitter’s SUL.

The coolest blog in the world @BoingBoing can’t get on Twitter’s Suggested User List, but then neither can @Lifehacker.

Every geek who uses @GogoInflight raves about it (wifi in airplanes) but they can’t get on Twitter’s Suggested User List.

@mattcutts (Matt Cutts) is Google’s best blogger and even he can’t get on Twitter’s Suggested User List.

@rsarver (Ryan Sarver) runs Twitter’s API team and he can’t get on Twitter’s Suggested User List but at least he probably has lots of Twitter stock options to make up for it.

You can run the Rhode Island School of Design like @johnmaeda (John Maeda) does but that won’t get you on the SUL.

@bramcohen invented Bittorrent and he can’t get on the SUL. @mcuban owns Dallas Mavericks and HDNet and can’t get on.

@scottgu (Scott Guthrie), who runs developer tools at Microsoft and is one of the smartest people I interviewed while I worked there, is not on the SUL.

Tim Bray, who is one of the authors of XML, is not on the SUL.

You can create Ask a Ninja like @kentnichols but the Ninjas can’t beat their way onto the SUL.

You can be a grammy nominated musician, like Peter Himmelman @furiousworld (great show, by the way to watch on Tuesday nights) but you won’t get on the SUL.

You can be a former rock star turned physicist who works at CERN and now is a famous face on the BBC, like Brian Cox @profBrianCox, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can be President at the world’s largest hosting company, Rackspace, like Lew Moorman is @lewmoorman, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can know more people in the tech industry than anyone else, like Buzz Bruggeman, @buzzmodo, CEO of Activewords does, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can be CEO of a big and important technology research firm, like George Colony @gcolony is of Forrester Research but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can be the chief marketing officer of one of the largest retailers in the world, like Barry Judge, @BestBuyCMO, CMO for BestBuy, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can publish Global Voices online, one of the most important blogs I read like @EthanZ (Ethan Zuckerman) and @Rmack (Rebecca MacKinnon) do but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can be a Republican Congressman from Texas who does videos from the floor of the House of Representatives, like John Culberson @johnculberson does, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can be a conference where Bill Gates releases mosquitos, like @tedtalks did, on stage, but that doesn’t mean you will get on the SUL.

You can invent the wiki like @WardCunningham (Ward Cunningham) did but you won’t get on the SUL.

You can invent a lot of what made blogging possible, like Dave Winer @davewiner did, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can invest in Twitter, like Fred Wilson @fredwilson did, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can say Office and RSS and Comments are dead, like Steve Gillmor @stevegillmor has over the years, but that won’t get you on the SUL. Maybe the SUL is trying to tell Gillmor something? :-)

You can draw funny little cartoons on the backs of business cards, like Hugh Macleod @gapingvoid does (he also did the SXSW bags last year, and all the Techcrunch posters, among other things) but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can be one of the best-known people in Tel Aviv, Israel, like Orli Yakuel @Orli is, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can be one of Silicon Valley’s best and nicest investors, like Jeff Clavier is @jeff, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can run the Demo conference for more than 10 years, like Chris Shipley @cshipley did, where tons of famous companies have launched, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can say markets are conversations and co-write one of the most important business books of the past 20 years like Doc Searls @dsearls did but the SUL won’t let you onto it.

You can come up with the commercial web browser and do lots of other interesting things in technology but that won’t get Marc Andreessen @pmarcablog into the SUL.

You can hire three people to help you Tweet, like Guy Kawasaki @guykawasaki does (he has the most organically-grown Twitter followers that I know of), but that won’t help you get onto the SUL.

You can be the one who gets Scoble on FriendFeed, like Louis Gray is (and continues to find cool new social media startups before I do) @louisgray but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can be a great photographer like Chase Jarvis @chasejarvis (who also has the coolest iPhone photo app out, released this week), Kris Krug @kk, or Thomas Hawk @thomashawk are, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can be ultra cool robot maker @bre (Bre Petis) but you can’t get on the SUL (he founded MakerBot, which makes robots that make things). Neither can the smart people at @carnegiemellon (Carnegie Mellon University, which has one of the best robotics departments in the world).

You can teach everyone to make a mean cocktail like @drinkboy (Robert Hess) does (he also owns the Museum of the American Cocktail) but he can’t get on the SUL. He also is one of the smartest people at Microsoft and his team makes and evangelizes lots of bleeding-edge developer-focused stuff.

You can invent the spreadsheet, and co-found VisiCalc like @BobFrankston (Bob Frankston) and @danb (Dan Bricklin) did but you can’t get on the SUL.

Want a tour of Alcatraz? @rangercraig (Craig Glassner) does that every day to tons of tourists but can’t get on the SUL. He should lock Twitter co-founder @biz (Biz Stone) up! :-)

I blame Drew’s cancer that @drew (Drew Olanoff) isn’t on the SUL (he recently learned he had cancer and instead of letting cancer win, has started a movement with the hashtag #blamedrewscancer and has raised tons of money and awareness for organizations fighting cancer.

The @gatesfoundation (Bill and Melinda Gates and team) is making millions of people’s lives better but can’t get onto the SUL. Neither can most other charities/nonprofits.

If @facebook (Twitter’s top competitor, according to @ev Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter) got on Twitter’s SUL that would be funny! But imagine a world where Twitter gets that confident!

You can be a “sir” and one of the best speakers ever like @SirKenRobinson (Ken Robinson) but he can’t get on the SUL. (Look for his videos on Google, I especially like the one about how schools kill creativity).

The best writer at Fast Company magazine @ellmcgirt (Ellen McGirt, who has done cover articles on tons of interesting executives and causes) can’t get on the SUL.

He might be a key player in the HTML 5.0 spec, but @diveintomark (Mark Pilgrim) isn’t on the SUL.

Bob Cringely @cringely was one of first Apple employees, works for PBS, is one of smartest people I know, is building moon rockets, and can’t get on SUL.

Patrick Scoble @pscoble (Patrick Scoble) is my son and can’t get on the SUL, neither can my wife, @maryamie (Maryam Scoble).

@euan (Euan Semple) who worked in a senior position for the BBC is not on the SUL. Nor @charleneli or @jowyang who are great social media analysts.

Everyone I know in tech industry reads @techmeme but that can’t get onto the SUL (great tech news from blogs). Of course, the guy who invented Techmeme, Gabe Rivera @gaberivera, can’t get on the SUL either.

@Sequoia_Capital has more money than @god but can’t get on SUL. Neither can any other VC I can find.

This guy @tedr (Ted Rheingold) steps in dog poop so you don’t have to (he runs Dogster.com, which is very popular with dog owners) but can’t get on SUL.

Running Salesforce.com and getting the world to believe in cloud computing won’t get @MarcBenioff (Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com’s CEO) on the SUL.

If you read the “TwitterGate” papers that @techcrunch published you probably understand why @marissamayer (Marissa Mayer, Google VP) isn’t on the SUL. (The TwitterGate papers revealed that the Twitter team didn’t like her approach with them). Oh, and TechCrunch got kicked off of the SUL shortly after these were published and @arrington, who founded TechCrunch, has never been on the SUL.

Neither is @myspace.

@megnut (Meg Hourihan) was one of the cofounders of Blogger with @ev and she can’t get on the SUL. Neither can @LisaStone (LIsaStone) one of Blogher cofounders (famous blog and conference for women). In fact, none of the BlogHer cofounders, including @jorydj (Jory Des Jardins) and @ElisaC (Elisa Camahort) are on the SUL.

You can, like Shel Israel @shelisrael, co-author a book with me, write one of the best books about Twitter (Twitterville) and still not get on the SUL.

@kodakCB (Kodak’s chief blogger, Jennifer Cisney) has a better video camera (the Zi8) than the Flip and @stevegarfield (video blogging expert Steve Garfield) says so but neither can get on the SUL.

One of the most powerful women in Silicon Valley @tseelig (Tina Seelig) who runs entrepreneur program at Stanford University isn’t on the SUL.

@apatzer (Aaron Patzer) won techcrunch conference award two years ago and sold Mint.com for a Mint but can’t buy his way onto SUL.

MySpace might have just synced up with Twitter but @danidudeck who runs PR at MySpace isn’t on the SUL.

You can start Europe’s coolest music app (will be huge here too) called Spotify like Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) did but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can be a great designer, even one who works at Twitter, like @stop (Douglas Bowman) or one who doesn’t @veen (Jeffrey Veen) @zeldman (Jeffrey Zeldman) or @AvantGame (Jane McGonigal) but they can’t get on the SUL.

Some people believe Twitter is killing @googlereader but it cant get on the SUL. @bing is not Google and also isn’t SUL.

You can be the one who really made Twitter popular, like @leolaporte Leo Laporte did, but talking on his technology radio shows and on his podcast network about Twitter (which made it popular at @sxsw in 2007) but that won’t get you on the SUL.

@CERN started the web, might discover the meaning of life, or destroy the earth, depending on who you believe and is not on the SUL.

The NYTimes Tech team @nytimestech isn’t on the SUL. Neither is @huffingtonpost or @ariannahuff (very lame not to have them on it, after all, they have a seat at the White House but don’t have a slot on the SUL).

@nicknotned (Nick Denton) started Gawker, one of the most successful blog companies around, and he’s not on the SUL.

Hah @Microsoft isn’t on the SUL. But @Google is. @Yahoo ? Nope. @Oracle? Nope. @apple (doesn’t even Tweet!) @dell ? Nope. @hpnews ?Nope.

You can write the best gadget blogs in the business but you can’t get on the SUL: @engadget @gdgt @gizmodo @gearlive

@savitz (Eric Savitz) covers tech for Barrons and isn’t on SUL.

You can be CTO of Amazon like @werner (Werner Voegels) is but that won’t get you on the SUL.

The geeky and good @hackernewsbot (my favorite geek news after @techcrunch and @techmeme) isn’t on the SUL.

A great follow @MichaelHyatt (Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers) publishes more bibles than anyone and he can’t get on the SUL. @god isn’t either. @RickWarren (Rick Warren, who runs one of USA’s biggest independent churches, and did Obama’s innvocation) isn’t either.

You can start one of the top three most popular websites, like Craig Newmark @craignewmark, did (Craig’s List) but that won’t get you onto the SUL.

You can sell more than five million records as a rapper, like @Chamillionaire has, but that won’t get you on the SUL.

You can start Apple, be one of the only people alive on earth who has designed and built their own computer from scratch, not to mention be a damn nice guy, like Steve Wozniak is @stevewoz, but you won’t get onto the SUL.

Anyway, I could keep going. There are hundreds of thousands of interesting people who aren’t on the SUL. I personally wish that Twitter would just get rid of it.

It is causing Twitter’s engagement scores to go down and I believe that this has been one of the reasons that Twitter’s usage scores have started to go down.

See, if you slap your community in the face with something that isn’t merit based then people lose interest in your service and go elsewhere.

How to fix this? Get rid of the list altogether. Turn off follower counts for everyone and come up with a new “engagement score” that is more focused on how you use Twitter and how people engage with you. That’s more important anyway than how many followers you have, especially since so many followers are lurkers at best or bots and spammers at worst.

It’s time to change the game Twitter. Or leave the door open to Facebook.

Oh, and only one person I know of has turned down being on the Suggested User List. That’s NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen.

Update: my real “SUL” (Scoble’s User List) is the 3,267 people/brands/objects I’m following (which include all these stars and many other innovative people). Follow me @scobleizer and then troll through the list of people I’m following.

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  • http://twitter.com/planetsab Sebastian Keil

    I never thought i would comment on a blog post from my iphone, but you made me. First of all, a great list (although you forgot the great @speakingenglish podcast ;-) ). There were a few i was missing.
    As for twitter's SUL, i guess we are seeing an old school business model with a 'new' company and we don't like it. Maybe twitter also did not anticipate the social consequences of the list.
    With the last round of funding though, sympathy and understanding will go down.

  • http://twitter.com/planetsab Sebastian Keil

    I never thought i would comment on a blog post from my iphone, but you made me. First of all, a great list (although you forgot the great @speakingenglish podcast ;-) ). There were a few i was missing.
    As for twitter's SUL, i guess we are seeing an old school business model with a 'new' company and we don't like it. Maybe twitter also did not anticipate the social consequences of the list.
    With the last round of funding though, sympathy and understanding will go down.

  • competia

    And Me @competia ? :)

  • competia

    And Me @competia ? :)

  • http://twitter.com/KatTwit Kat Rutherford

    brilliant.

  • http://twitter.com/KatTwit Kat Rutherford
  • re2

    entirely agree – it can be really hard to find people with particular specialist interests – and that would certainly increase interaction/exchanges/communication

  • http://twittercism.com Sheamus

    I'm not a fan of the SUL either Robert, as you may recall. Serious question, though: if, out of the blue, Twitter added you to the SUL, would you accept that spot, and if so, would you then continue to be as vocal about the injustices of exclusion for everybody else?

  • http://www.facebook.com/alexandre.linhares Alexandre Linhares

    I am in good company, with you? There is no way that can be true in any imaginable universe. Please take yourself out of your misery.

  • http://www.twitter.com/bph Birgit Pauli-Haack

    I think you are not there yet – at the half-full place.

    This is a great list, and if it wouldn't have “Doesn't make it on SUL” “Can't make it to SUL” in every sentence it wouldn't be too repetetive to read.” I got bored by this redundancy. The headline of the posting already told me what I will find and I looked very much forward to that. The only thing you mentione 150 times is SUL:-)

    I like how you celebrate the people and give tribute and credit where it's due. Thank you for that…. I just need to copy/paste the list and purge the “Suggested User List, half sentence.”
    Then it would be a great post to RT:-)

  • http://twitter.com/steveames Steve Ames

    Argh, you're bitter man! Your glass is still pretty half empty! I agree with Birgit. Relax man, you're already awesome.

  • gerardmclean

    Kinda amazing, but I found and was following most of these folks even without the help of the Twitter SUL. Quality tweets, blog post and the thoughts behind them always finds their way to the top, in spite of the “top lists” that hide them. Thanks for the list!

    PS follow my dog @dogwalkblog As far as I know, there are ZERO dogs on the Twitter SUL and if Rufus ever made it there, I would follow Jay Rosen and decline. Not just anyone can scratch his ears ;-)

  • gerardmclean

    Kinda amazing, but I found and was following most of these folks even without the help of the Twitter SUL. Quality tweets, blog post and the thoughts behind them always finds their way to the top, in spite of the “top lists” that hide them. Thanks for the list!

    PS follow my dog @dogwalkblog As far as I know, there are ZERO dogs on the Twitter SUL and if Rufus ever made it there, I would follow Jay Rosen and decline. Not just anyone can scratch his ears ;-)

  • http://www.web21th.com Dominique Rabeuf

    I am dead. See http://www.xmltoday.org/content/mobster-spam-an… Everyday lot of Britney want to do very bad things with me. But MafiaDeadMan@Dinesco Will probably buy a Winchester 30/30. Am I right or may I find better. Just to prevent from Internet administrative disconnection ! Et en français dans le texte MafiaDeadMan @fredbascunana Normal puisque je suis officiellement décédé. Cependant, même mort j'ai faim et soif. ETIAM mortuus bibeo

  • http://www.web21th.com Dominique Rabeuf

    My phantom will have few followers and followings, but how to see precisely what a Bot is doing and how many Zombies are following you but not declared as. I am in fact the skull of Yorrick

  • donchawanano

    sure, lets all virtually hold hands and sing Kumbyeya…mostly a blizzard of the banal

  • http://twitter.com/featureBlend Ahad Bokhari

    Some great peeps on this list, especially like @AmanpourCNN and @CERN !!

  • http://thefuturebuzz.com AdamSinger

    Twitter suggested user list sucks, plain and simple. Why don't they offer me people that actually are reflective of the content in my profile that might actually interact with me?

  • http://twitter.com/BrickandClick Jeff Crites

    I discovered the potential of emerging technologies like Twitter because I followed people like Robert a few years ago, when a select group of early adopters had influence. Thanks to Twitter especially, we're all early adopters now (or can be).

    So here's my theory about Robert, Twitter and his NOT being on the SUL. Timeline:

    A) Robert is the Pied Piper of Twitter during its first year (lovefest kicks off at SXSW)
    B) Discovers FriendFeed, waxes endlessly about how superior Friendfeed, abandons Twitter and is stunned everyone else doesn't follow.
    C) Twitter takes off like a rocket, suggested user list appears (along w/celebrities, media, etc). Robert realizes he missed a huge op to connect with hundreds of thousands of Tweeps, if not a million-plus. And sorry folks, but numbers like that are hypnotic and the list of things you can do and accomplish when connected to that many people, is long.
    D) bitter, can't understand why Twitter won't put HIM on the SUL. (see part about Friendfeed)
    E) now having found peace (wink ;-) … trying to regain original leadership status with pieces like this that aren't about the numbers (wink ;-) or getting on the SUL (WINK WINK ;-) . Nod to Twitter brass in first group he suggests aside ….

    Did I miss anything? ;-)

  • Barb Siddiqui

    wow…thank you so much for your list. Twitter is only as useful as what we choose to make it, and you’ve helped admirably.

  • http://www.loiclemeur.com loicdirect@gmail.com

    only Scoble can write a post like that, very cool!

  • http://www.rluxemburg.com Rachel Luxemburg

    Scoble — you've put a great list together here and I thiank you for it.

    However, it doesn't pass what I call “the in-laws” test. — would my in-laws back on Long Island know or care about those people and want to follow them? For better than 80% of that list the answer is “no”. They want to follow Kanye and Oprah and people with more mainstream fame, not the people who matter to us here inside the Valley Bubble.

    Frankly I think any SUL is going to be problematic to someone, given how big Twitter's userbase is now. A better approach would be for Twitter to suggest some of the people your friends are following (a la Facebook).

  • http://twitter.com/kahenya Kahenya

    Interesting. While brand building personal/corporate is an important task, I don't believe being on SUL really makes me less or more of a success, cause once guys figure out just how boring I am, they will leave, so a SUL recommendation really does not matter, so I'd rather remain with my own friends and associates and those who follow me cause I guess, they need to follow me cause we know each other and it would be rude not too, and I guess its easier for them to find out if I am alive the next day, or maybe I just happen to be lucky.

  • frankiecarl

    I love you! Found you without their help because of what you bring to the discussion. Thanks this is a great list and I congrats on your new view of life – more full than not :)

  • frankiecarl

    I love you and found you all by my little self because of the great contribution you make to the world and tech. Sharing what's in your head, honestly, is valuable to all of us. Thanks for this great list with a bit of history included. I learned some interesting facts about some of the players. :)

  • http://sharisax.com/ Shari Weiss

    Great read, Robert.
    Here are some of my thoughts:
    1. Re: Half full/half empty dilemma. Here is a third perspective from an engineer: How much is really in the cup?

    2. That makes me wonder How Much Value is in that “half-full/half-empty” SUL? It's obvious from your additions that there is a HUGE amount missing. So one very good reason for the list was to give you the inspiration/motivation to clue your followers like me a host of other great minds to follow.

    3. Final thought before proceeding with other online activities [which could include sharing on Twitter @sharisax]: The SUL list reminds me of the current discussion on “Who is a Social Media Expert?”

    How on earth can anyone “claim” to be an “expert” when great new stuff is invented every single day?

    The SUL list [which I haven't checked out] is probably full of “experts” who may or may not be Thought Leaders — like you, Louis, Guy, maybe even me — all of whom are “out there” trying to make sense [and dollars] from this exciting revolution in communication, technology, business, life.

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    You should have disclosed that the publication you write for, Mashable, is on the SUL. Seems like it's easy to dismiss other people when you are already on the SUL and benefiting from it (as all writers for Mashable do). Mashable had fewer followers than I did before being added to this list, now has 1.5 million. All gifted to them. It has reinvigorated Mashable's business in a big way, too, and I note that now Mashable writes about Twitter many times more often than before, so this gift worked.

    I also note that Mashable doesn't write about “real problems in the world.” So, what the heck?

    The suggestion to check out TweepML is a good one, though.

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    Tony Robbins isn't for everyone but he DID do one of the best keynotes I've ever seen at the Twitter Conference last week. It was so good that he ran 1.5 hours over time and no one cared. I've never seen that happen and I've been to a LOT of conferences.

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    I'd agree with you, but there are a ton of people, even some geeks, on the SUL that your inlaws wouldn't care about either. Truth is, they still add them.

  • disqusbeta

    that is the greatness of Scoble i think he does act like a commoner even though he is not one, it gives us the commoners a smile to see someone is there who would respond to us even, on the other hand even you might not reply (haven't tried yet) to us, Thanks Scoble it was worth reading as always, you have huge processors and a great lot of RAM on your brain i think

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    When you tell other people that their use of social media is wrong you come across as far worse than selfish and egotistical. I'd rather stay on this side of that line.

  • disqusbeta

    it is like GigaOm>TechCrunch>Mashable

  • http://www.andrewmager.com mager

    I have been trying to get on this list forever :)

    @mager

  • http://twitter.com/jsmakr Johnny Makkar

    Nice. I had the same similar idea recently too and was hoping more people would do this instead of just tweeting quick Follow Friday suggestions: http://www.attentiondigital.com/suggested-users…

    Anybody who works in marketing or advertising should know about these people if they aren't following them already. I follow 574 people and maybe only a couple of them are on the SUL simply because Twitter does not know anything about my interests.

  • http://dancoulter.com/ Dan

    There are probably a fair number of people who have over 150,000 followers who aren’t on the SUL. Felicia Day, Neil Gaiman and Wil Wheaton come to mind.

  • http://twitter.com/moon moon

    @moon should be on the SUL

  • http://twitter.com/Pepperfire Tina Brooks

    duplicate post.

  • http://twitter.com/cronai Cora Rónai

    I never even looked at the SUL, but one of the funniest Twitter Moments I ever had was following Scoble while he was twitting his own list through the night. Name after name after name — it was ludicrous to see the people the SUL left out.

    I'm glad to see you've collected them all here, Robert: thanks a lot. This is certainly a list I can relate to! Great job.

  • http://twitter.com/srbelken Sherrie Belken

    Thank you so much for the introductions. Most notable find for me in this list is @tsleeg

    Also, I would like to say as a newbie to twitter (2 months now) I was given the impression it was all about celebrities, large news, the big guys oh and the vultures.. I got this impression from the suggested user list. It is pure accident that I stumbled on to quality, business, innovative, leaders. This brings up a very important need that that needs to be met. How do we find who we are looking for on twitter? So far I have spent a lot of time and effort building the list that I have. I do like my celebrity tweeters as well though, I have an understanding how each of them tweets. I know which ones that are making history and making things happen and I followed one right to friend feed.

  • http://twitter.com/allisonr Allison Reynolds

    Jennifer thanks for the comment :) My view is coloured by various prejudices (hasn't that become a dirty word?).

    1. I don't see the SUL as a negative and I certainly don't think anyone should demand their name be on it just because they are “big on the internet” ;)
    2. Promoting others for your own gain is not what social media is about for me. Maybe I am reading him wrong and he is being selfless and giving up on feeling that he somehow deserves to be there?

    Appreciate your opinion . Thanks

  • http://twitter.com/LiveCrunch Live Crunch

    Sweet post @scobleizer

  • http://twitter.com/grobertson Grant Robertson

    I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

    Twitter may take navel-gazing to new heights, but it takes a Scoble to make it an artform.

  • chagass36

    Lista de que eu sigo: http://bit.ly/3pd42z

  • http://twitter.com/jayfeitlinger Jay Feitlinger

    Great list and hysterical comments to your post. I wonder how many of these people will now (or have) made the SUL because of your post. You should do some analysis as a before and after you made this post to see if any of the recommendations end up on SUL.

    I followed about 50 of the recommendations and am learning a lot following them already. Some more than others of course.

    Hey maybe I will one day end up on SUL if I tweet enough interesting comments; however, probably need to end up on a Jimmy Fallon show and have my twitter id displayed before that will happen though.

    - @jayfeitlinger (http://www.twitter.com/jayfeitlinger) :-)

  • http://twitter.com/jayfeitlinger Jay Feitlinger

    Great list and hysterical comments to your post. I wonder how many of these people will now (or have) made the SUL because of your post. You should do some analysis as a before and after you made this post to see if any of the recommendations end up on SUL.

    I followed about 50 of the recommendations and am learning a lot following them already. Some more than others of course.

    Hey maybe I will one day end up on SUL if I tweet enough interesting comments; however, probably need to end up on a Jimmy Fallon show and have my twitter id displayed before that will happen though.

  • kkrewell

    I agree with you Robert on the business of Twitter and users who's business is affected by Twitter, but the SUL has nothing with my personal use of Twitter. I follow people that interest me and I don't need a lot of followers. My suggestion to Twitter is that they constantly rotate the SUL and use an outside advisory board to pick the SUL members. Right now it looks too corrupt.

  • http://www.blogher.com/ Jory Des Jardins

    Remind me again, then, who the hell IS on the list?

  • http://zubeta.com/ 9swords

    This is hot. I tweeted this.

  • ericsavitz

    Thanks for the mention, Robert. I was wondering where all those extra followers came from….

  • http://lifestream.fm/blog/ tinythoughts

    i put all of your #SUL on TweepML. Part 1: http://tweepml.org/?t=5197 Part 2: http://tweepml.org/?t=5198

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