50+ Birmingham Twitter users you need to follow

9thDec. × ’08
By stef

Birmingham Twitter users

Twitter has really taken off in Birmingham (UK) this year. Here’s a list of some of the people who are using it and I think you should be connecting with you if you haven’t already!

Twitter is a micro-blogging service that answers the question “what are you doing now?”, but it’s also becoming a substitute for blogging as well as being a great way of chatting about interesting things in a public way.

There wasn’t much activity in the city until around the South By Southwest conference in Texas about nine months ago. Now, though, it’s there’s a vibrant community forming.

I think more people should be using it, but it can feel a bit confusing at first unless you have friends who are using the service.

A ‘getting started on Twitter’ list for people you should connect to (In no particular order):

(You can find me on twitter as aeioux)

I’m sure I’ve missed lots of people, but as a starting point for people new to Twitter in Birmingham, follow a bunch of these people and you will suddenly find yourself in the middle of a conversation that actually makes sense!

For even more people to connect to, try a search on Twellow.

Suggestions for other people to include in the comments please!

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  • I may not live in Birmingham but I do work here and have done for most of the last 8 years (with the exception of last year) - I like to think I'm part of the Birmingham web scene too as the Multipack is based there.

    Twit me up!
  • D'oh! I knew I was going to miss some good people off this list - a dangerous thing to start! But there's no 'view friends by location' service on Twitter, unless someone can tell me otherwise?
  • Useful list Stef, thanks.

    I think Twitter sometimes needs an editorial filter to suggest who you should follow for particular purposes - you start to see the same names cropping up in replies, but it helps to have someone in the middle of it all to make sense of the noise.

    Good to see 4Talent's own @celentari on there too!
  • My twitter habit would be all the poorer without:

    @graphiquillan - artist Shona
    @deplorableword - Substrakt's ever helpful/interesting Tom Martin
    @nicklockey - idea engine

    Actually, I'm going to leave it at the first 3 as I browse down my list. There are always more...
  • Thanks for including me Stef! On a similar vein, there is a service called Mr Tweet (http://mrtweet.net) who will suggest people on twitter to follow for you. Haven't tried it but may be a useful tool for new twitter users.
  • Thanks Chris - some big names I missed off there! Oops...
  • Dom - thanks. And thanks for Tweeting this link: If you want _more_ people to follow, try here: http://www.twellow.com/search.php?q=birmingham uk
  • Heyyy! I'm honoured - thanks Stef ;o)

    A few more of the many who add value to my twitterstream are:
    @karenstrunks - Karen Strunks, photographer
    @hellocatfood - Antonio Roberts, artist
    @regengirl - Jen, regeneration queen
    @strix_aluco - Nick, public sector king
    @danjones101 - Dan Jones, head of New Media at Maverick TV
    @dancingwombat - Alex Hryniewicz, Mav NM producer & Future 500 fellow

    Now I'm worrying that I've missed a load of people too, so I'll leave it there.
  • Gav
    twitter.com/holeycoww - Gav - Graphic Designer and Web Developer
  • Carl
    Be rude to not promote my Twitter-addicted friend, Mr Jon Hickman:

    @jonhickman- Visiting BCU lecturer and Interactive Cultures researcher
  • Sorry to be a publicity whore, but you have missed One Black Bear: http://twitter.com/oneblackbear ;)
  • Thanks Stef, I would also recommend:

    @hanuman
    @jezhiggins
    @marksteadman
    @gavinwray
    @iandice
    @stuartparker
    @danux
    @ashtrygrrl

    and probably a few others I've missed (difficult job this list business, isn't it?!)
  • And I'd be delighted if you'd welcome a youngster into your midst. @jakedubber is a 16 year old drummer, fledgling graphic designer, self-confessed geek, and a smart, funny guy. He also happens to be my son.

    I can't think of a better, more appropriate or smarter bunch of people to chip in the odd bit of advice, guidance, mentorship, friendship and online, ambient socialisation.

    I think we may have missed @bobbiejane as well - Community musician, social media trainer, and - as one half of Mama Feelgood - a damn fine funk DJ.
  • Oh - and how could I forget:

    @clutchd - Musician, renaissance man, whisky enthusiast, scenic carpenter, Scottish envoy to Birmingham, genius

    @craig_fots - Music industry mogul, absurdist, dog owner, next Mayor of Kings Heath, savant
  • Brilliant. This is so much better an idea than what I was discussing for a Media top 100. Although if one was to write a 'Media Power Top 100' for the West Midlands I wonder how many would be on Twitter?

    Thanks for the inclusion. I'd add:

    SoullaStylianou (second life specialist)
    annettenaudin (Media Enterprise Lecturer/researcher)
    digibrum_si (Digital Birmingham colleague/ IT implementation amongst other stuff)
  • Thanks Stef, as a newbie to Twitter this is really useful. I also got some good advice from the very helpful Pete Ashton which goes like this:
    - find someone whose blog you follow and is also on Twitter (e.g. I chose Dave Harte as he gave his Twitter alias daveharte on his blog homepage)
    - look up their profile page on twitter.com
    - click on the 'view all' under 'following'
    - click on someone you want to follow as well and click the 'Follow me' button
    - hey presto you're now following them

    Stef, if your top 50 is on your profile people could maybe follow the above steps to link to them quickly.

    Hope this helps.
  • Thanks everyone! Phew! I'll have to stop editing _at_some_point_! I'm just in the middle of some craziness so I'll update the list in a short while. Think we might be hitting 100 pretty soon!

    Steve. Good call - that's not obvious straight away on Twitter and good advice from Pete.

    What this list does is give you a slice through my followers of just the ones that are in Birmingham and the region - pretty handy for getting geographical conversations going!

    Dave - yeah, I mean, who needs fancy lists to be a member of ;-) I've already seen a few tweets today saying 'where have all these followers come from?' and 'nice to meet you' - job done. Oh - it's not a job... - playing done.
  • This is a great list! Interesting to note the slant towards people involved in the creative, media and IT (techie-end) industries... is this just sample bias or does this reflect the reality of the Twitter community? Are there no brummie accountants, anthropology lecturers, burger-flippers, hotel managers, pensioners and homemakers who Twitter? Or perhaps they have nothing to say?
  • @Richard - I'm inclined to think these are the reasons:

    * You have to be pretty web-savvy to understand why you need the service
    * The network seems to have kicked off out of the blogging community, so that's self-selecting
    * It fits into your other activities online, so you have to have time available to you to tweet. I fit it into my day, but accountants probably wouldn't get very far doing that!
    * I am also totally biased, because I've used a combination of a few ranking tools as well as my personal network to list these, so I'm probably selecting people I would connect to anyway. Hey - it's not perfect, but it's a good start for a beginner!
  • Loads more suggestions via Twitter - update coming soon!
  • Stef. Fantastic idea to give Brum's already thriving Twitter community a new momentum.
    Richard put his finger on what I think is the medium's (is it a medium?) biggest challenge: getting 'ordinary' people to use it as part of their everyday working / personal / civic lives.
    When we reach this tipping point, we could be in a whole different world.
  • Hi Stef. What would be useful as well for us newbies is some sort of playrules - not hard and fast but a sort of 'netiquette' for Twitter. So we don't make a complete tw*t of ourselves. Also, if there is a Brum twitter network emerging, why not tag tweets aimed at this network with #brum or equiv - wouldn't stop other people following, but it would make it easier for us to follow public conversations. Just a thought anyway.
  • Steve: here's a great article on Twitter netiquette: http://tinyurl.com/5lcrqr , and here's a search for current Brummie Twitterers: http://tinyurl.com/5g9e3x
  • JC
    @barnardhobbit LOL!
  • @Steve, @marc - good points both. I think there are some big opportunities in almost every area of business and civic life through this service:

    * Getting councillors and people involved in local politics to tell you what they are doing with public money? So Barnard's a good example of that - @mikewhitby anyone?!
    * Getting a slice of life across the city. What do lawyers do all day? What about the people running New St. Station? Would we be more accepting of other people's mistakes if we knew them at least a little more? Ambient intimacy"
    * How could we use Twitter to talk about the Big City Plan? Perhaps we should just use the tag #brum for a couple of months while we're chatting about the plan once it's released on Friday?
  • Thanks for posting this list Stef. It's really helpful for new Twitterers to connect quickly with what is a thriving Twitter community in Birmingham. I'll certainly be acting on this and following new folk as a result.

    @marcreeves good link on Twitter netiquette, I wish I knew of this when I started tweeting!
  • @stef That's part my job in Digital Birmingham. Taking what we're doing in this social media community and getting it into wider civic & public life. For business it's about what the best approach may be. Sector based? Have previously blogged about the issue in more detail.

    Dave
  • Never one to miss out on a chance for self publicity feel free to follow me.

    www.twitter.com/benjaminbrum
  • Scott Lucas
    Stef,

    Thanks so much for this. It's really useful as I've just started using Twitter. I'm a prof at the University of Birmingham, @expatbama, on Twitter. Last month, colleagues and I launched a new blog, Enduring America --- @enduring on Twitter --- which in turn is linked to our academic centre for research and analysis, Libertas.

    Best to Emily (she photographed my wedding in July)....

    Scott
  • Thanks everyone! Looks like it worked! Lots of new people to follow, lots of new connections.

    Keep suggesting yourselves here - don't be shy. Even if you're new to Twitter just leave a message...

    Scott - great to connect with you - that sounds really interesting. I'm checking the blog out now.

    Gavin - no worries - "pass it on" would be good twitter etiquette, plus "be useful", and "don't be too noisy".
  • Since I'm not in Birmingham, I shouldn't feel * so * disappointed that I'm not on this list, but somehow I am! Did I not play my part in getting Digbeth into the trending stats on that dull afternoon some weeks ago?!
    I guess it's just an illustration that because a lot of my Twitter network has grown in Bimingham I feel very much more connected to the place than I did before and an exciting development for me was a meeting about the #digitalmentor bid which was all set up through Twitter and helped me feel more connected to the workshop that happened later in London. Where we can't be everywhere at once, Twitter is a much more powerful way of being part of many more dialogues than anything we had before.
    These are definitely exciting times for anybody who enjoys collaboration and fast-moving ideas and the best way to start is just to get stuck in!
  • My friend just said 'I love Twitter but deleted my profile because I didn't know who to follow'. I've fwd her your article, so hopefully Bob's your uncle.
  • think i've referred to this list before, but just giving props. moved out of Birmingham to Bradford (Bradford!) three years ago, thanks to this list i still have some idea of what's going on in Birmingham, because i do still miss the place! oh and i'm @fudgeit by the way!
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