The news that Britney Spears had joined Twitter had the internet a flutter this weekend, with even Techcrunch claiming it was ‘solid gold’ in Twitter’s push for the mainstream. Britney doesn’t seem to be directly involved in the updates herself, which are being done by ‘her team’, but it is good to see they are savvy enough to realise that Twitter should be part of the latest ‘re-launch’ of Britney. On the plus side they have started adding ‘Posted by’ at the end of tweets, which is good for clarity on who is actually doing the updating.

It is however interesting to look at this and compare it to the other big name adoptee of the past couple of weeks, actor/comedian/writer (uk national treasure) Stephen Fry.  Much to the delight of those following him, Fry has taken to Twitter like a duck to water immediately getting the point - with general ‘I’m doing x now’ mixed with engaging with the community. For anyone even remotely famous looking for a guide on how to do it - Mr Fry’s is the one to adopt although perhaps not follow back as many people as Stephen has, which - whilst lovely, and I do treasure my ‘Stephen Fry is now following you’ email, - might result in drowning in a sea of tweets. [that said, someone else who seems to ‘get it’ also follows back almost everyone that follows him - MC Hammer - no, really, Hammer is quite an interesting tweeter]

Of course, Britney is not the first recording artist to spot the potential of Twitter (as Hammer demonstrates above), I already follow a couple myself and know of a few others, as well as some actors too, such as:Snoop Dogg - This seems to be the man himself doing the updates, but the fact that he hasn’t followed a single person back shows that Snoop doesn’t get it at all. [Followers 3785 / Following/ 17 updates - last update 12th Aug]
Kayne West  - Goes one better than Snoop and is at least following the Barack Obama updates. Unlike Snoop the content seems to demonstrate he could be a decent tweeter, but Kayne, you need to return some love and follow some people and throw out a few @ replies. [ Followers 2367 / Following 1 / Updates 56 - last update 19th Oct]
Sara Bareilles - Love Song was a huge hit worldwide and whilst not a big updater, she does seem to be the one doing it herself. [Followers 2408 / Following 29/ Updates 50 - last update 16th Oct]
Aslyn - Another fine piano based singer songwriter who is not great at updating but does seem to be doing so herself. [Followers 58 / Following 1 / Updates 17 - last update 7th October]
Wendy & Lisa - Still probably best known for their work with the small purple one, but still making music [Followers 207/Following 82/ Updates 103 - last update 16th Oct]
Lisa Loeb  [Followers 1099/ Following 751/ Updates 245 - last update 16th Oct]
Cardinology - the tweets of Ryan Adams and the cardinals [ Followers 948/ Following 616/ Updates 66 - last update 18th Oct] - for those who are fans their is a tumblr blog too.¼br> Warren Ellis - Author, and graphic novelist. Posts a lot. [Followers 8625 / Following 75 / Updates 1599 - last update 7th Oct]
Wil (Westly Crusher) Wheaton - Has been a big twitter user for a while now. Wil was also one of the first known actor bloggers.  [Followers 19550/Following 69/Updates 2481 - last update 20 Oct]
John Cleese  - Yes, before Fry came Cleese. [Followers 7191 / Following 31 / Updates 84 - last update 3 Sept]

There are a lot more out there, but this will give you an idea of the types of people engaging (or not) on Twitter. Who will be next?