I’ve become a big fan of twitter. For me it is a great example of how people want to share ideas and connect, it’s a huge social triumph. Every day I find new and interesting content and connect with very interesting people. It’s a great ideas portal and I hope someone is capturing the ideas and innovations that spring from this amazing phenomenon. The trick is to find the interesting people and cut through the riff raff of people telling you what they had for breakfast! Forbes magazine’sHalle Tacco (@halletacco) has written a great article based on research undertaken by Harvard Business Review on women twitter users and lists 20 inspiring women to follow. Interestingly she says that women are less loved on twitter and that men have 15% more followes even though there are more women users on twitter (55% to 45%). Men are also twice more likely to follow another man than a women and women are 25% more likely to follow a man than a woman…Personally I’m off now to follow all these 20 inspirational women they sound great!


20 Inspiring Women To Follow On Twitter
Halle Tecco (forbes.com)

Research from the Harvard Business Review last year showed that women get less love on Twitter than men. While the random sample of 300,000 Twitter users showed that men and women follow a similar number of Twitter users, men have 15% more followers. “This is intriguing,” the authors noted, given that there are more women than men Twitter users: 55% to 45%. Further, men are almost twice more likely to follow another man than a woman while women are 25% more likely to follow a man than a woman.

What can be done about this? We can start by seeking out and following more women on Twitter and other social networks. Below are 20 absolutely inspirational women who are tweeting up a female storm.

@aaker: Jennifer Aaker is a marketing professor at Stanford University who researches time, money and happiness. She tweets about social innovation, life as an academic and girl power.

@chefannc: Anne Cooper is the “Renegade Lunch Lady” transforming how we feed our children in school. She is an activist and author with a skill for putting her heart and complex issues into 140 characters. Follow her to keep abreast of the school lunch movement.

@developingjen: Jenny Stefanotti is a former Googler finishing up her master’s at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She both writes and tweets about the application of technology in socioeconomic and international development.

@EmilyChang: Emily Chang is a designer and entrepreneur in San Francisco. Her twitter stream is full of fascinating and creative links to all things design–giving followers reasons to think outside the box.

@GirlyGeekdom: Sarah Blow is the founder of Girl Geek Dinners, which was created in London after attending a networking event for IT professionals at which she was one of about 10 women in a group of 150, and was assumed to be someone’s girlfriend. Follow her for the latest news about women in IT.

@harrislacewell: Melissa Harris-Lacewell is a professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University. She’s a regular on MSNBC and a contributor to The Nation. Her Twitter feed revolves around politics and gender, race and religion.

@jennpozner: Jennifer Pozner is the founder and executive director of Women In Media & News, a nonprofit aimed at increasing women’s presence and power in the public debate through media analysis, education, advocacy and reform. She’s a progressive feminist and activist, and tweets along those lines.

@JessieNYC: Jessie Daniels is an anti-racist, sociologist and professor who researches how the Internet is (and is not) changing social inequality. Her tweets are informative and interesting links to blogs, news and research in this new field.

@KellyMcGonigal: Kelly McGonigal is an author, yoga teacher and psychology professor at Stanford University, where she focuses is on the mind-body relationship. She is a leader driven by compassion and pragmatism, and her tweets often discuss her interesting life as a vegan, animal-lover, yogi and scientist.

@kenyanpundit: Ory Okolloh is the founder of Ushahidi, an open source project that aggregates information from the public for use in crisis response. Right now the home page is all about Haiti. A Harvard Law School graduate, she tweets about citizen journalism, technology in Africa and the role of young people in reshaping the future of the continent.

@leila_c: Leila Chirayath Janah is the founder of Samasource, a platform connecting women, youth and refugees living in poverty to microwork–small, computer-based tasks that build skills and generate life-changing income. Her tweets revolve around social entrepreneurship, technology and international development.

@lissarankin: Lissa Rankin may be the coolest OB/GYN on Twitter. She is also the founder of Owning Pink, where women can explore the healing power of art, writing and femininity through workshops that facilitate health and wellness.

@pistachio: Laura Fitton is a Twitter addict and entrepreneur who founded the Twitter tool site, OneForty. Her tweets are a colorful look into the life of a woman balancing motherhood and running a tech company. And she’s generous about following people back.

@RuthReichl: Ruth Reichl is the former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Gourmet magazine and a former restaurant critic for the New York Times. She’s been writing about food since 1972, and has written or edited myriad books, including the 10-volume “The Modern Library Food” series. Beware: Her tweets will make you hungry!

@ShelbyKnox: Shelby Knox began her career as the 15-year-old star of the PBS documentary The Education of Shelby Knox, which was about her battle against conservatives in her hometown of Lubbock, Texas, to exchange abstinence-only education for more comprehensive sex ed. Now all grown up, she continues to express her views.

@Sloane: Sloane Berrent is an independent do-gooder, bouncing around the world in hopes of making it a better place. I met Sloane before she took off for a 12-week Kiva fellowship in the Philippines; now working her magic in New Orleans, and tweeting the entire time.

@staceyannchin: Staceyann Chin is a full-time artist, New York City resident and Jamaican national. She has been a poet and political activist since 1998 and tweets about her dynamic life in the Big Apple.

@UnhealthyTruth: Robyn O’Brien is a mother of four, childhood nutrition activist and founder of the Allergy Kids Foundation, an organization designed to help protect the one in three American children who now have autism, ADHD, asthma or allergies. She recently released her first book, The Unhealthy Truth, and tweets about why we should support food reform.

@VeronicaMcG: Veronica McGregor has tweeted from Mars. As the NASA news manager and former CNN NASA correspondent, she serves as the human behind the NASA missions @MarsPhoenix, @MarsRovers and @AsteroidWatch. Her tweets are, simply put, out of this world.

@YogaHopeSue: Yogi and social entrepreneur Sue Jones is the founder and executive director of yogaHOPE, a non-profit bringing yoga to underserved women in recovery or life transition: the incarcerated, those in drug and alcohol treatment, those living on the streets, battered women and women transitioning from hospital treatment for disordered eating issues. Follow her to learn more about making compassionate service your life.

Halle Tecco is a social entrepreneur, writer, and MBA student at Harvard Business School. Follow her on twitter at @halletecco.

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