Oprah and Ashton are on Twitter - But Have NO Clue What They Are Missing!

My desire with Spreading Joy Corporation is simple - I want to be spreading joy everyday! I have a huge desire to give big - Oprah Big - but until that day comes, I have decided that I will simply give what I can.

Twitter allows me to do just that. While SJC is an IRS approved Non Profit Organization, we currently do not have a steady stream of income. So, when I purchase things for the homeless, for Joy Packs, books, thank you cards etc, it is coming from money my husband and I donated - which is fine because we are doing what we can until we can give big.

But twitter - it allows me to make a difference and THAT is what people who only follow a "few select people" such as @oprah and @aplusk are missing out on. Granted, Oprah hasn't been using it that long and I'm sure she will probably add more over time, but when you are only following 98 people like Ashton is, then you are missing out. Sure what you have to say goes to your million or half of million followers and they comment on what you said, but you are missing a HUGE opportunity to make a difference.

Oprah is following 11 people

Ashton is following 98

Demi Moore is following 78

Larry King is following 46

Jimmy Fallon is following 97

Ellen Degeneres is following 20

Al Roker is following 47
Katie Couric is following 75

I was happy to see that Shaquille O'Neal is following 488 people. So he isn't missing out as much, but I wonder how many of the people he is following are fellow players.

The reason these guys are missing out is because they are only keeping up with each other. There are so many wonderful people on twitter which equals to so many ways to make a difference!

They are missing the fact that every Friday people in twitterland tell who is making a difference in their corner of the world with #followfriday. Many people will suggest who you should follow based on the content of their tweets. You can connect in so many ways but if you don't follow people and get to know them, you'll never know what you are missing.

There are people who are dealing with things like cancer and while they want to remain positive, they do have down days. Imagine how a simple tweet from @oprah would serve as an instant pick me up. Miley Cyrus is only following 34 people. If she were to desire to get the most from twitter and follow others, she would know that Jonathan Jay was a 15 year old fighting cancer and loves her. Imagine how a horrible day could be turned around with just 1 tweet! They would also know that Heather is a young mother that will be having her 3rd brain surgery soon and the new medication has zapped her energy. But regardless of that Heather will pray for you and unashamedly tweet that she is praying for you should you ask for prayer.

Following various people that you do not know, the opportunity for learning is unbelievable. Maybe because I'm doing what I can with what I have and money is not something I have a lot of right now - I love learning for free. I'm so new at this and I've asked for "honest" opinions. People like Jill and Brian will help newbies like me and give valuable feed back on their sites. Not only is the feed back awesome, but the articles that get posted are amazing! Someone recently tweeted about 25 Ways to Let RSS Feeds Optimize Your Life which will help me tremendously! This is what it's all about! This is what you miss out on by only following a few people!

By only following a few people you miss connections with people that you would otherwise never have the opportunity to get to know. For instance, Lark a "Poet, technical writer, movie lover, voracious reader, and witchy woman." and myself your basic do what you can with what you have - have more in common that what is on the surface. She is going through a similar journey with her Step Dad that I went through with my Step Dad 14 years ago. If I had not followed her, I would have never known. Her interest in the paranormal and love for horror flicks is what got my attention in the first place. I enjoy her tweets everyday but there will be days that she is down or the treatments aren't going well and I hope that I'm attentive enough to make a difference!

By only following a few select people - you miss out on awesome stories of changed lives! Mark who has been homeless in the past, came out of it and then due to this economy recently lost his home again still helps the homeless. His number one goal is to make the issue of homelessness front and center. To help invisible people become visible again! Mark received a call that one of his homeless friends, John, had been mugged while traveling north to find work. He sent out a tweet for help and Jimmy was working close by and was able to help. John didn't have to spend the night in 27 degree weather after having been mugged. Mark was able to help a homeless friend through this crisis even though he was no where near John.

I'm truly glad that so many Hollywood people are on twitter because they are the ones that have such a huge voice. Me - as of this posting, my voice is at 949 but I'm LISTENING to over 1,100 people and loving it! This is just a tiny speck of what you can get from utilizing twitter to the fullest!

I love communicating with James at Be Legendary. It reminds me to be courageous during the scary times. I love getting quotes from insightful1. Michelle and I both love buttered popcorn flavored Jelly Belly's. No matter what Catrina is doing, she is "always a mom first" - which is awesome considering so many of our children are left to their own devices. Valerie always has great articles and she communicates with her followers. Kristen and Sandy are helping Non Profits. Stillsafe provides me with awesome quotes and is a great retweeter. Lolly inspires with tweets such as "give gratitude". Liz is one of several bloggers who is helping others become successful and outstanding! If you are new to blogging, her blog has so much info to help you get going! DJ Change always has great articles. I never know what kind of tweets I'm going to get from Kim because she "tweets about art, film, comedy, twitter, design, tech + music. i love pop culture, sunshine + laughter/ #ROFL. =)". Larry gives us random thoughts from Hawaii. Then there's The Art of Joy. A group in Scotland that is using beautiful art to fund raise for various groups. Josh takes amazing photos. Jessica helps people with marketing on a budget and she helped me to understand twitter when I first started using twitter. Susan helps others find happiness. Adam is fun to keep up with. Great ideas and articles from Designriffs. Again, there are many more that I love to keep up with, but you get the idea!

Ashton may have reached 1,000,000 followers first, but I'm spending the weekend looking for the best, brightest and uniquest people that I can follow. Who knows, maybe I'll be the first person on twitter to FOLLOW 1,000,000 people!

"Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for a kindness."~Sallust