I’m not the kind of public relations professional who sucks up to a journalist and tries to become their personal friend, just because they’re a journalist. To me it’s rather disingenuous and, well, slimey. While I can make small talk, I can’t maintain a small talk relationship. I’m not much of a surface dweller in that respect. So for me, Twitter is an awesome way to engage with industry peers. In the short time since its inception, Twitter has proved to be great way to develop professional relationships, to discuss news, trends and developments, as well as to share a laugh… or 12. One of the lovely things occurring on Twitter of late in the UAE is that it’s brought together members of our industry, public relations professionals, media, analysts and communicators – and at every level. The conversation is sincere; it’s professional; it’s interesting and fun! Often it’s not just a conversation between two industry peers; it’s a conversation between a number of people. And somehow, egos and arrogance don’t blare so loudly. There’s no bad body language; people are welcome to jump in and out of a conversation; there are none of those awkward “so… um… hot today isn’t it” type chats. There’s always plenty to talk about and so much information to be generously shared. Thinking about this led me to share my Top 10 people on Twitter in the UAE (in no particular order):

1. @Adnationme: Eliot Beer from influential advertising, communications and marketing website: AdNation. Fun, probing and insightful
2. @AdamFlinter: Web Editor for Gulf News. And a total plane spotter!
3. @Tomgara: The National journalist who writes The National blog, Beep Beep
4. @dxbluey: Grant Bishop works in the film industry and is a digital communications fanatic. He created Dubai Daily Photo, which was nominated for Middle East photo blog of the year. His current site is dxbluey.com.
5. @HHShkMohd: Yes, our tech-savvy leader is on Twitter, as of June 09
6. @youseftuqan: CEO of digital agency Flip Media with smart and fun commentary
7. @GMRME: Gulf Marketing Review’s Precious de Leon. Nice to see a media outlet that is conversational, rather than one-way editorial push. Sadly, my only female entrant on this list
8. @simeonkerr: The Financial Times correspondent. Like many on this list, Simeon is engaging, smart and fun
9. @alexandermcnabb: author of Fake Plastic Souks and food fanatic, Alexander always has something interesting to say
10. @modhesh: Yes, he’s yellow and evil, I mean yellow and fun!

This was not an easy list to create. There’s many interesting people to talk with on Twitter – so jump on in and discover it for yourself.