Girl on the Brink: Surviving Desperate Times with Desperate Measures

When I got email that Barack Obama was following me on Twitter, I got all a twitter. I mean, the president—of the United States. I can’t think of anything more flattering than having someone important “follow” you, which means they’ve placed you in their flock of tweets.

I’m now part of the cacophony of tweets on more than 90 Twitter sites that belong to people whom I don’t know beyond their profile.

I’m trying to get Richard Branson, the rich Virgin guy, to follow me. Trick: To get followed, you need to follow others. You simply click on a person’s “Follow” button on their Twitter homepage. It then adds the person as people you are following on your homepage.

The other person gets email saying you have just taken action to follow them and displays your Twitter homepage web address in the email.

When you get email like this, curiosity takes over, and you click through to see who is following you. If you like what you see, you can reciprocate by following them. Do you follow that?

And, please, don’t spoil my fun and say, “How do you know it’s really him (Branson), despite his picture squared off in an icon on his Twitter homepage?” Well, honestly, I don’t.

The illusion of being part of something that’s bigger and more important than you is part of the fun and makes Twitter addictive. Does everything need a business application? And, I like getting email from real people rather than scrolling through all the spam email I get concerning jungle passion, amazing organs and turbines for your meat jet.

After I delete all those, I’m left with another empty inbox, and that makes me feel like no one knows I exist except the spammers…and my hungry cats and kids. We all find ways to feel wanted, right? So, follow me @girlonthebrink.