• replace this sample text with your list
• begin each item with an asterisk
• The following are some of the best people I have connected with on Twitter and the first 99 people anyone should follow when first joining Twitter:
• Diana Adams: Blogger, friend, and always smiling.
• Robert Scoble: Geek, tech influencer, and nice guy.
• Shelly Kramer: Vlogger, so friendly, and always helpful.
• Susan Cooper: Sweet, informative, and real.
• Alyssa Milano: The only celebrity on this list for a reason!
• Calvin Lee: Great content, nice guy, very happy to help.
• Blair Semenoff: Twitter machine, top content, and great guy.
• Richard Darell: Talented blogger, friendly guy, and awesome content.
• Jeff Pulver: 140conf founder, great guy, profound tweets.
• Lori Moreno: sweet, helpful, and always tweeting top content.
• Aniya Adly: Smart, caring, and geeky.
• Ruhani Rabin: Talented writer, nice guy, and good friend.
• Jeb Brilliant: Mobile enthusiast, smart guy, and stellar content.
• Ilan Abehassera: Entrepreneur, extraordinarily nice guy with a vision.
• Hilla Ohayon: Fashion junkie, BlackBerry lover, and overall awesome woman.
• Luca Filigheddu: Major tech lover, mobile enthusiast, and brains behind Twimbow.
• MG Siegler: Brilliant writer for TechCrunch, enough said.
• Alex Wilhelm: Excellent writer for TheNextWeb, and really nice guy.
• Zee Kane: Editor-in-Chief of TheNextWeb and extremely talented writer.
• Liz Philips: Community Manager for HP and overall awesome chick.
• Itamar Weisbrod: Mobile geek, good friend, introduced me to Twitter.
• Sebastian Page: Huge Apple fanboy, talented blogger, and great content.
• Aaron Lee: Self proclaimed social media addict and an awesome friend.
• David and Sara Larson: Top source for all things Twitter. True social media experts.
• Chris Rauschnot: Social media lover, Apple enthusiast, and really nice dude.
• Michael Sarles: Marketing consultant, sports fan, and extremely nice guy.
• Guy Malachi: Chief Geek is his official title, need I say more?
• Shira Abel: Marketing expert, good friend, and constant flow of top content.
• Ben Parr: Mashable Co-Editor, crazy talented writer, and really really nice guy.
• Mike McCue: The brilliant mind behind Flipboard, and an extremely nice and down to earth guy.
• Brett Petersel: In charge of community and events at Mashable and an overall great guy.
• Jessica Gotlieb: Mom blogger, extremely smart and talented writer.
• Michael Gartenberg: Talented mobile blogger for various leading sites and really nice guy.
• Ezra Butler: Old friend with witty tweets that will always make you smile.
• Natasha Shine: Marketing Manager of Rounds, crazy nice chick, and totally gets it.
• Matt Cutts: Head of the Webspam team at Google, and really nice guy.
• Del Harvey: Head of Safety team at Twitter and responds to every single Twitter reply.
• Dell: The company that uses Twitter the way all companies should.
• Tremendous News: One of the funniest bloggers on the Web and really nice guy.
• Xan Pearson: Sports, marketing, and social media are just some of her topics of expertise.
• Pramit Nathan: Top blogger from New Delhi who has an awesome stream of content.
• Katie Boehret: Talented writer for The Wall Street Journal and extremely nice person.
• Brodie Beta: One of my geekiest friends and definitely the biggest fangirl I know.
• Kara Swisher: Writer for The Wall Street Journal and overall awesome person.
• Gina Stark: Great blogger, always optimistic, and extremely friendly.
• Pete Cashmore: Founder of Mashable.
• Jason Calacanis: Talented writer and blogger and CEO of Mahalo.
• Kim Sherrell: Tech, film, education are just some of her interests.
• Roger Byrne: Huge geek, great guy, and killer content.
• Chris Brogan: Marketing guru, nice guy, and stellar content.
• Douglas Idugboe: Marketing expert and talented blogger with constant stream of awesome posts.
• Ahad Bokhari: Crazy nice guy with top content and always a nice word.
• Krys Chong: Lover of video games, iPhone, and other geeky things.
• Richard Barley: Community Manager of Tweetdeck and responds to every reply.
• Ayelet Noff: Good friend, New Media PR, and top blogger.
• Evan Williams: CEO of Twitter.
• Biz Stone: Co-Founder of Twitter.
• Chetan R: Leading content, graphic designer, and really nice guy.
• Misty Belardo: Talented blogger, top content and always willing to lend a hand.
• Gerald Weber: Top Twitter personality and an extremely friendly guy.
• Tamar Weinberg: Talented writer and really really nice person.
• Jason Pollock: Multi dimensional interests, nice guy, and good friend.
• Loic Le Meur: Mind behind Seesmic and other great products.
• Oren Todoros: Good friend, online marketer, and nice guy.
• Mike Arrington: Founder of TechCrunch and talented blogger.
• Robin Wauters: Gifted Techcrunch writer and really really funny dude.
• Gary Vaynerchuk: One of the most inspiring people online.
• Ouriel Ohayon: Entrepreneur, Apple lover, nice guy, and good friend.
• Michael Eisenberg: Partner in Benchmark Capital, talented blogger, and old friend.
• Joshua Topolsky: Editor-in-Chief of Engadget.
• Talia Klein: Highly talented and moving writer, sweet person, and good friend.
• Lance Ulanoff: Editor-in-Chief PCMag, huge geek, and really nice guy.
• Walt Mossberg: Tech reviewer for The Wall Street Journal, technology guru, and old school reporter.
• Scott Stratten: Marketing expert, influential personality on Twitter, and really nice guy.
• Sharon Hayes: Entrepreneur, Email marketing expert, and top Twitter content provider.
• Natali Del Conte: Cnet tech reporter and mommy blogger.
• Barry Schwartz: SEO guy, mobile app developer, and great guy.
• Joseph Cannizzaro: Old Twitter friend, nice guy with a flow of top content.
• Orli Yakuel: Top blogger, tech enthusiast, and friend.
• Marcome: Musician, awesome content, and always a smile.
• Sarah Blow: Support for TweetMeme, huge geek, and really nice person.
• Brad McCarty: TheNextWeb writer, tech lover, and overall great guy.
• Greg Wilson: Social media, travel, and family guy who tweets top content.
• Dvir Reznik: Blogger, tech lover, good friend, and always willing to help.
• Benji Lovitt: Top comedian on Twitter, nice guy, and good friend.
• Christine Lu: Entrepreneur, online video expert, and always shares top content.
• PurpleHayz: Leading personality on Twitter with a constant feed of great content.
• Mahei aka Iconic88: Top content, always happy, and spreading good things on Twitter.
• Aditya: 16 year old Web entrepreneur with a Twitter addiction and top content.
• Mark Korman: High tech lawyer, family guy, and old friend.
• Amir Harpaz: Always tech informative, helpful, nice guy, and good friend.
• Martin Polley: Always willing to help, smart dude, and great content.
• Chris Luzader: Flowing stream of tech tweets, nice guy, and always happy to help.
• Debra Askanese: Non profit and social media marketing expert, nice woman and good friend.
• Shelley Shafran: Photographer, designer, founder of Twittabling, and really really nice person.
• Kevin Rose: Founder of Digg.
• Keith Crawford: Network engineer, social media geek, nice guy who is always willing to help.
• Yaniv Golan: CTO of Yedda/AOL, geek, and a really nice guy.
• Branko Rihtman: SEOer, internet addict, and overall really really smart dude.

If you are still reading, then I hope you found this post to be useful and not too long. There are many more people I can include here, but they either tweet in another language mostly, do not tweet content I think my audience would be interested in, or they somehow slipped my mind when preparing the list.