Travel Blogger Love FollowFriday on Twitter

Do you like Twitter? It's been an unexpected an  amazing help on our peripatetic global journey as we knew nothing about social media with travel  before we began our family world tour in 2006. I wrote a while ago about Twitter & Travel 2.0 and I recently commented to Chris Guillebeau on The Art of Non-conformity when I agreed with him about it's surprising value;

"So many people think Twitter is a waste of time, but it’s been a phenomenal resource for us as we travel the world ( yet I doubt I would even know about it without our travel lifestyle). Not only did it get us featured in the New York Times and the UK Guardian ( out of the blue through DM’s), a fantastic Halloween with Conde Nast Traveler’s Wendy Perrin and family, an awesome violin teacher who works over Skype internationally… to name just a few of the wonders, but also helped our family find us when I landed in the hospital after a bike wreck in Austria."

There is a tradition to recommend others on Twitter every Friday and it is called #followfriday. Sometimes it can be overwhelming. I usually get too many to thank everyone individually and I often want to recommend all of my followers. One thing I suggest if you like to follow people with a passion for travel is to follow the people on my Twitter travel lists. 

I'm going to try to start a tradition of listing great people on Twitter to follow every Friday ( or the Fridays that I can). There are so many great people, I will never run out of possibilities, but here are a few to start the ball rolling in no particular order:

1)  @wendyperrin-

What's not to like about this icon of  travel who often brings her wonderful kids and amazing photographer husband along with her on her travels? Always friendly, always great advice!

2)  @elliottng-

Great heart, dad of three & smart guy plus my "go-to person" for everything China!

3) @thetripchicks-

- A real lover of travel and all around sweet lady who knows her stuff. Love all the interesting, quirky travel tidbits she comes up with. We did one of our first Skype cross-continent radio interviews with her.

4) @whereivebeen-

  How can you not like someone who writes such a cute article about soultravelers3 and started  Traveltuesday? Lots of fun tips!

5) @PeterSGreenberg-

If you want great advice and tips you will find them here. Everyone knows him, right?

6) @PaulineFrommer

I love most everything she says and find myself agreeing again and again. Can't miss with the daughter of Arthur Frommer who has been traveling since she was 4 months old.

7)  @elliottdotorg-

Another dad of 3 cool kids with a great heart, smart and full of great tips to protect travelers. You might know him as Chris Elliott from MSNBC.

8) @WanderingEds-

Wonderful folks who love travel and education as much as we do and they homeschool their daughter. Great site and tweets. We did a fun interview with them too & some travel tips!

9) @GotSaga-

Patricia Vance runs this great site and if you love travel you will never run out of fun ideas on their site and on Twitter. They just relaunched and did a cool interview with us.

10) Marilyn_Res-

One of National Geographic's special treasures and chief researcher at National Geographic Traveler. Always interesting, always surprising.

 

Comments

[Elliott Ng]

Unbelievably flattered to be on this list! Glad we share so many interests -- travel, China, social media, even impending global financial currency crisis. ;)

Mutual appreciation society. Thanks so much for your contributions to travel and social media!

[jessiev]

thanks so much, j, for putting us on this list - i, too, am flattered! we love following your travels and THANK YOU for sharing so much about unschooling and travel with the world. YAY!

[Kim]

So this blog along with all your others has inspired me so much that I created my own travel blog and a twitter account too. Thank for putting up other great travel twitterers I already have 11 people to follow!

[Marilyn_Res]

Thanks very much Jeanne, and I'm honored to be included in such illustrious company. Your adventures and generous spirit are part of the reason I wanted to join the travel blogging/tweeting community. Happy trails.

[soultravelers3]

Elliott- Aw, thanks, I really appreciate your kind words! I forgot to mention your cute sense of humor! You are an amazing guy who makes it all look so easy! I've really appreciated your support and always love the conversation.

[soultravelers3]

JessieV- You are always such a supportive and kind person & I love it that our passions match! I'm excited about your upcoming journey to the British Isles!

[soultravelers3]

Kim- That is so exciting and I'm so happy to hear that! You are off to a very exciting adventure that I wish everyone your age could experience.

My best tip for Twitter is to follow at least 100 people ( other wise heavy tweeters will bother your stream) and start joining in conversations! There are a lot of people passionate about travel on Twitter.

Good luck!

[soultravelers3]

Marilyn- Aw, thanks so much, such sweet words from an icon of travel! I'm so honored that I had an influence and love your brilliance. National Geographic is always so beloved by every traveler and you demonstrate the heart and soul of it.

I'll always remember our fun late night ( for me) Twitter meeting while waiting for the Lonely Planet Awards to be announced. ;)

[Britt-Arnhild]

Thanks you Jeanne for this list.

Twitter, Face book and blogging - what a lovely way to explore the world and its people. I got a message on fb today from a blogreader who is in Krakow/Poland right now, following my suggestions to restaurants and cafes there :-)

[Wendy Perrin]

You've hit the nail on the head about Twitter, and thanks for your kind words about my family! More important, WHEN are you coming back for another holiday?! We do an awesome egg hunt each Easter. ;)

[soultravelers3]

Oh Wendy, you are so cute! We had so much fun with you guys that maybe we will surprise you some Easter! ;) Sooner or later we might meet on the road somewhere which would be fun too. We are heading back to the States for a visit this fall, but I don't think NYC is in the plan, but ya never know. ;)

[soultravelers3]

Britt- Thanks! Isn't it a small world today? I love that and we have met so many wonderful people from around the world online,( like you! ) which we never expected before we left. It's added so much to our journey and you are right that it's fantastic how we can pass tips along to each other too!

I love having a global neighborhood to chat with online in my spare time as we roam. I love how we can help each other.

[giuliadventures]

Thank you for the tips, I just started following some of them thanks to your advice:)
I love Twitter and I totally agree it's a great tool for many things! First of all to get in touch with great people and share our passion for travel:)

[Katy lynch]

Oh my goodness!! Thank you so so so so sooo much for including me on your top 10 list! :) I'm very flattered & pleased to know that you find #traveltuesday useful and informative!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Katy
community manager / social media strategist

[John Williams]

Jeanne, What a great idea!! As you are well aware, I find lists of @usernames a waste of bandwidth. The description of the #FollowFriday featured Tweep is most useful to other Tweeple, looking for others to follow or to add to their lists. (There is no reason to follow anyone unless you want to send each other Direct Messages). As far as the Tweeps awarded #FollowFridays are concerned the description shows how much you actually know about that persons stream. To go well beyond that Tweep's Twitter Bio shows that you actually take an interest in their stream. Much more of a tribute than to be one of 10 or more @usernames.

[soultravelers3]

giuliadventures- Glad you liked them and glad to see you here! I love it that there are so many passionate travelers on Twitter too! ;)

[soultravelers3]

Katy- So glad that you were pleased! You do such a fantastic job for whereivebeen! So glad that we have gotten to know one another through Twitter!

[soultravelers3]

John,

Yes, I REALLY get your point, but the thing about Twitter is everyone has there own way of using it and that's cool too. ;)