However, this is all starting to change; thanks to the arrival of celebrities and some professional networkers!

Twitter: The celebrities

UK comedian and actor Stephen Fry leads the way. It’s not only that he has over 100,000 followers that’s interesting, it’s that his numbers have doubled in just 12 days!  Yes, Kevin Rose has around 100,000 followers too BUT it’s taken him 2 years to get there!

Britney Spears has gained over 20,000 followers in a week.  Even UK TV presenter Philip Schofield has attracted 20,000 followers in the past 2 weeks. The tech celebrities can’t compete and are quickly falling down the ‘most followed’ rankings.

Twitter: The networkers

With the exception of Robert Scoble – all the tech celebrities seem to have made a pact.  They REFUSE to follow people back unless they know them personally.  This is the 180 degree opposite of the approach being used on Twitter right now, by hundreds of professional networkers!

There are legions of professional networkers, spending hours every day; following thousands of people and gaining thousands of follows.  These guys are also seeing their follower numbers grow far faster than the tech celebrities too!

The new face of Twitter

If you want to keep up to date with the rapidly changing top 100 Twitter users (based on number of followers) – You can do so at twitterholic.com. It makes for surprisingly interesting viewing!

Are TWiT’s numbers cause for concern?

Leo Laporte has been showing up as a guest all over the place recently, plugging the excellent twit.tv network.  Leo suggested at the end of his slot on Buzz Out Loud, that listeners / viewers were leaving TWiT, accusing him of  ‘jumping the shark’.  So, I took a look at the traffic numbers for twit.tv and it seems he might not have been joking!

According to compete.com, traffic numbers to twit.tv have dropped steadily since last October.  Alexa.com also shows traffic down.  Whilst neither compete or alexa can provide exact data, they both show a negative trend in Leo’s figures.  This, after he’s invested massively in new broadcast equipment and lost Visa as a sponsor.

Less advertising & broadband caps – Ouch!

Internet TV needs advertisers / sponsors in order to survive, however, companies are cutting back on their advertising budgets as the economy struggles.  These shows also need viewers too – Many of whom are now on capped broadband packages from their ISP’s.  This might mean some people are having to think, before ‘investing’ in watching that full screen video stream, from TWiT every day. In my opinion, if you are keeping an eye on your download quote – TWiT is NOT the thing to drop – Leo ROCKS!

Could this explain the drop in figures – what do you think?

OK – So Kevin Rose, one of the the guys behind digg.com and revision3, is now the second most followed person on Twitter.  This would be fine – but he’s waaaaaaaaaay too boring on Twitter to have that many followers! In case you don’t already know, a typical Rose Tweet is something like;

“Went rock climbing, drank some tea, climbed another rock..”

Does that sound like the second most interesting person on Twitter? Of course not – If anyone else was that dull, they would have even fewer followers than a crap blog writer like me!!

So, what else could be attracting people to Kevin Rose?

He’s rich – I mean, INSANE RICH!  Fortunately for him, there are legions of people out there who are attracted like ass-kissing magnets to rich people.  They love to kiss rich ass – they can’t help themselves.  They just ‘need’ to get close to people with money. He’s a smart guy, but he’s about as interesting as one of those rocks he climbs on Twitter.

Perhaps if he REALLY drank the fake booze he uses with his ‘friend’ on diggnation, he might loosen up a little. (You knew that he’s really a tea-drinking health nut right?)

Follow Kevin Rose on Twitter

PLEASE – if you do not already follow Kevin Rose on Twitter PLEASE START NOW! See for yourself, if it’s his dazzling wit or bank balance, which is topping the Twitter charts!

Kevin Rose’s predictions for the new iPhone!
As inaccurate as his last effort? Lets see!

Twitter ‘broken’ by Robert Scoble!
I predict Scoble will actually ‘break the Internet’ if he doesn’t slow down!

Google is giving it all away – for a small fee of course!
By Maggie Shiels at the BBC’s dot.life tech blog.