Hi, I’m Grace Smith

Twitter Face-Off: Cheth vs Richard Darell

Twitter Face-off

This is the second of a new series which takes two well known twitterers, gives them 10 quick fire questions to answer (connected to Twitter) and then let’s them battle it out before your votes decide who wins the round.

I’ve picked two of the best linkers to take part in the second in this series:

Cheth: @cheth – The man who needs no surname, he is one of the top retweeters and linkers on Twitter. Cheth is a designer, social media enthusiast and avid blogger.
Richard Darell: @minervity – Richard is a web designer and developer and founder of Minervity.com. He is known for his excellent twitter stream full of design and development gems.

Without further ado, let the battle begin…

1. How long have you been twittering?

	The first tweet was on August’08 but I guess the next one was 3 months later. So actively tweeting since October 2008.
	Well, started in January so it’s…6 months then. I first find out about it by accident really. Saw a clip on YouTube from the Web 2.0 and in that clip Gary Vaynerchuck talked about Twitter and I had to check it out. Awesome presentation! If you have the time you should really check it out.

2. Why do you twitter?

Many reasons! I love be connected with like minded people, it helps both personally and professionally. The best known method of self promotion in the process of promoting our friends.

Well, it’s for two reasons really. The number one reason is really to meet and interact with new and exciting people. It would have been impossible for me to meet all these great people going around the world. I would have time doing what I do if I had to travel to all of these people. Everyone has their value and as I am a knowledge fanatic I am constantly learning new things from these people. Second reason is really to get some feedback on the companies and work I put out there on the Internet. It gives me the inspiration to take things one step further. I am always out to better myself and this is what Twitter helps me to achieve.

3. How many hours do you spend on twitter on a daily basis?

	I take breaks of 5-10 mins (each hour) just to update my status. So it would make 3-4 hours at a stretch.
	Hm, that’s a hard one. I am sure someone would tell me too many. But a pretty accurate estimation would be like 19-20 hours a day. I only sleep around 2 hours a night if any. I am way to excited about being creative so I mostly can’t stop what I am doing until I am totally satisfied with what I am creating or doing.

4. Who is one of your favourite people to follow & why?

@mayhemstudios ‘coz he is one of the first tweeple I interacted with, plus all the quality tweets.

Well, I am a HUGE fan of Gary Vaynerchuck and I think his dedication and his way of looking at things are so healthy when it comes to working for success. I think being him for a day would be quite interesting to say the least. His energy is just off the hook and that is what I can relate to as I only have one gear…full on. I have a saying I came up with that says “Life won’t wait for you to make up your mind” and I live by that down to the very pixel I put on the screen..

5. What’s your favourite tweet and why?

	“I Tweet Therefore I am’” is my fave because it speaks the spirit of tweeting. Right?
	I think my favorite Tweet is anything that puts me in a creative and inspired mood. I guess you mean a specific tweet but there are so many and it’s so dependent on what I feel like learning that particular moment. However, I think my favorite Tweet comes from some of the Authors on my project BitRebels.com. BUT, also any Design related stuff.

6. Describe your twitter stream in one word

	One word oh that’s tough!! Hmm, a very good ‘connector’.
	From time to time I tweet promotional stuff, as does everyone. I tend to Tweet too much but I am so excited about the feedback and sometimes I get ahead of myself. However, my stream mainly consists of Design, Geek and Tech tweets…with occasional random stuff.

7. How has twitter impacted your career or business?

Immensely! It has given me to shake hands with some really awesome designers and moreover learn from them. Career wise I never had a heap load of freelance projects before joining twitter. So this is an excellent place for self promotion and to be noticed in the crowd.

It has had a profound impact on my career and business and without it I would know where I would have been today. Things are constantly growing and with an ever impressing speed. Twitter has been the fuel and the booster for both Minervity.com and also BitRebels.com which is just a puppy project as is was started just over a month ago. Already we’ve had over 60,000 pageviews and I am just blown away by its success.

8. Where does twitter fit into your overall marketing strategy?

	On the top of my list! Marketing and branding is now a part of a designers life and what better place than twitter where you can do it all yourself with so many buddies backing you up. Isn’t this just brilliant?
	Well, I tend to use it as a platform for directional accomplishment planning. To guide me in the direction where my creativity and the amassed audience liking meet so to speak. It’s important for me to know that what I am doing is beneficial to other people as well and not only for my own satisfaction when I think I’ve come as close to my own perfectionism as I can get.

9. How do you find the consistent stream of great links you twitter?

	I have a dedicated mail account just for design links subscribed from over 300+ blogs. With Google Reader And Digg + SU to fill my twitter stream with value.
	It’s quite easy I think. With so many great people doing so many cool and inspirational things out there it would really be weird if I didn’t find anything. However having said that, I do mostly Tweet the stuff that I have found useful and educational myself as well. If I like it maybe there are other people out there that likes it as well. That’s how I see it.

10. If you could only follow one person, who would it be?

	It would be @aplusk just to have a feel of seeing my replies section having 2 Million replies for each update!
	I would say @mayhemstudios on that one. Why? Well, first of his is a huge inspiration for me both professionally and personal. His links are off the hook and he was among the first people I started following when I first started. He became somewhat of a mentor on social media for me and I am forever thankful for all the great advices he has given me throughout the journey.

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Voting will automatically close in exactly one day – Friday at 1pm, so get voting now! The Twitter Face-Off will take place once a month on a Thursday so make sure to check back next month!

Grace Smith is owner of the small but perfectly formed web design studio Postscript5, in Northern Ireland. To keep up to date with the latest designalicious content, then please consider subscribing.