Charlotte Magazine / June 2009 / To Tweet or Not To Tweet

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To Tweet or Not To Tweet

Diddy's doing it. Same with Ashton. And Martha, and Seacrest, and Demi. From Twitter (where you send out 140-character "tweets," or notes, updating followers on anything and everything) to Facebook to networking site LinkedIn, it's easy to follow just about anyone these days, including Charlotte's movers and shakers. So we tracked down the local people you should be following.

	SARAH AARTHUN Aarthun's column in the Charlotte Observer details her nightlife exploits, but her Twitter account, twitter.com/paidtoparty, offers a much more candid look inside the club and bar scene, as in she spots a celebrity and posts about it before anyone else. Plus, head to Aarthun's Facebook page for more risqué photos from the local nightlife scene that Aarthun couldn't run in the Observer.
	CHARLOTTE CITY COUNCIL Follow Councilman Warren Cooksey (twitter.com/wcooksey), who tweets his opinions about big City Council votes before the meeting takes place. Others to watch: Andy Dulin (twitter.com/adulin), who learned how to tweet via his buddy Cooksey, and mayoral candidate John Lassiter (twitter.com/lassiterjohn), who occasionally uses it.
	DAN MAUNEY As co-owner of Dilworth's Sloan and STEP by Sloan, Mauney's seriously connected to all things style in Charlotte. He tweets about fashion in the city (twitter.com/dantheshoeman), and he once used Facebook to tell loyal customers about a $700 Kooba purse that just hit STEP's shelves (it was gone in an hour).
	DUSTIN LONG This sports writer hits thirty-plus races a year. He's so close to the excitement that he might as well be part of the crew. All of this means Long's tweets (twitter.com/dustinlong) consist of NASCAR gossip such as driver-pit convos (think: Carl Edwards explaining why he didn't scream at his crew after he lost a race) that you won't find in the local paper.
	ANTHONY FOXX The Charlotte city councilman started using Twitter to campaign for mayor even before he formally announced his candidacy. His 450-plus Twitter followers can weigh in on Foxx's campaign theme song options, and at his Facebook page you can voice your concerns for the city and actually be heard.
	CHRIS HARRINGTON This Charlotte-based public-relations guy (twitter.com/chrisharrington) is using Twitter to get information to fans of Charlotte's biggest sporting events. During this year's Quail Hollow Championship, Harrington kept people in the loop on everything from the leader boards and how to nab last-minute tickets to whether you can bring an umbrella to the 18th hole.
	CHARLOTTE FIRE DEPARTMENT Charlotte's Fire Department is the only city agency twittering (twitter.com/charlottefd), and it will let you know every time the sirens blare and why. If you were following the department in April, you would have been among the first to hear about a deadly car wreck that shut down a major part of Tyvola Road.
	CHARLOTTE BOBCATS After just one month on Twitter (twitter.com/gobobcats), 600 people were following the team's game-time tweets. Followers know before anyone else when players come off the injured reserve list. And now in the off-season the team's tweeter promises to let us know which NBA hopefuls the head office is bringing in for draft workouts.

More local tweeters you should be following

For Techy News, Follow … Jason Keath
Keath (twitter.com/jakrose), Charlotte’s social-media guru, runs Social Media Charlotte. More than 18,000 people follow his twenty-five to fifty daily tweets about everything technology, which is why local businesses like Heels.com are turning to him for help on how to take advantage of all that Twitter offers.
Find him: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

For Dining News, Follow … CLT Dining
From restaurant openings to news on what eatery’s open on a holiday, this tweeter is the go-to source for everything dining in Charlotte. The real draw: the news on discounts at local restaurants and bars, which in past tweets included Las Ramblas, Harper's, and M5.
Find it: Twitter

For Everything Charlotte, Follow … CLT Blog
CLT Blog’s tweeters (twitter.com/CLTblog) sift through other local Twitter accounts and re-tweet the information that's useful (i.e. Anthony Foxx's upcoming town hall meeting, casting calls for reality TV shows, etc.) so you don’t have to pay attention to everything, all the time.
Find it: Twitter

Plus, follow Charlotte magazine at twitter.com/charlottemag.