(Editor’s Note: This is the first of three posts where NonDoc staff answer the question, “For someone new to either Oklahoma City or Twitter, who would you suggest as good ‘Twitter follows’?”)
I like Twitter. I have tweeted 15.1k times, which I think is sort of awesome, but it’s probably more pathetic. (Note: Maybe 10 percent of those tweets were by my campaign staff as part of my unsuccessful attempt to remove a “Mountain” from elected office.)
I follow about 2,000 people, so trying to suggest only a couple worth your Twitter time is tough, but fun. (Most importantly, you should consider following @nondocmedia and retweeting our stories like y(our) income depends on it.)
A web developer who (apparently) pisses off utility companies
Handle: @brynbrnkmn
Followers: 16.5k
Real name: Bryan Brinkman
Who?: Bryan lives in El Reno, the home to one of the best fried onion burgers in the free world and my buddy Mike Leipart (who didn’t quite earn his own entry). Bryan is a gifted web developer and photographer, and I particularly like his terse but enlightening tweets on contemplative issues.
Why?: Even more interesting was this:
.@AMRice44 @TeslaMotors @OGandE… Well, that’s enough incentive for me. pic.twitter.com/xrJ0WpCC1a
— ∞ (@brynbrnkmn) December 1, 2015
I emailed Bryan to get his take on being blocked on Twitter by a publicly traded utility company that did not like his customer feedback. Here’s how he said it went down:
On the third day of being without power, I started to look into the Tesla Powerwall as an option for the future. I replied to a tweet regarding the lack of options for electricity consumers and stated that the Tesla Powerwall was a viable option. I mentioned @OGandE in the tweet in hopes of starting a dialogue at some point, but was immediately blocked. Blocking me is disreputable and accomplishes nothing. I am an El Reno resident and we [were] currently in a state of emergency. Anyone paying attention to (the) chokehold being cranked down on renewable and clean energy in Oklahoma should be appalled.
While I am sure OG&E has been stressed out from the ice storm power outages, this is a pretty great example of how a company should not use social media for customer relations. Sample tweet: For a country that sees bullying as intolerable, you’d never know it by the way American adults treat each other. — ∞ (@brynbrnkmn) December 6, 2015
An inspiring life coach
Handle: @BigBravely
Followers: 438
Real name: Sheri Guyse
Who?: Sheri is a nice and talented urban dweller of OKC. Her tweets are a good mixture of inspiring, funny, generous and helpful. Plus, I am pretty sure she voted for me a couple of times.
Why?: Sheri has an appealing new life coaching and counseling business called Big Bravely which I should have availed myself of before deciding to start an Oklahoma-based journalism business in the midst of an oil-price crash.
Sample tweet:
Not needing revenge is *actually* the best revenge, you know. ❤️
— Sheri Guyse (@BigBravely) September 25, 2015
An ad man with a sense of humor
Handle: @Mister_Sommer
Followers: 1,794
Real name: Christopher Sommer
Who?: Christopher works for @thevibrand and is a funny guy. (Disclaimer: Neither he nor his employer has facilitated any ad sales for our fledgling site.) Mr. Sommer has 10,000 more tweets than me, which is probably acceptable because he appears to be much younger.
Why?: Because you will laugh (see below).
Sample tweet(s):
#Ebola and #Obama. Shocking new notepad graph shows scary data. pic.twitter.com/mUCcVjua8u — Christopher Sommer (@Mister_Sommer) October 1, 2014
It is beyond me why my wife needs to disturb me while in the bathroom. pic.twitter.com/DWVQYmcfk9 — Christopher Sommer (@Mister_Sommer) November 13, 2015
So, look for William “Oklahoma Open Records” Savage’s suggested Twitter follows Tuesday and Josh “Web Scraping” McBee’s the day after.
In the meantime, feel free to email us your recommendations of hidden Twitter gems at letters@nondoc.com.
Or, you know, tweet at me.
