That's the Way we Became The Twitter Bunch...

I took a tour through the top 100 Twitterers based on number of followers and it was an eclectic trip to say the least. How does Kim Kardashian at #18 mesh with Barack Obama at #5 fit with venture investor Chris Sacca at #79 mix with skateboard dude Tony Hawk at #27 , I have no idea, but there they are - a melting pot of the who's who and instantly famous that thave risen the ranks of the Twitter leaderboard.

I created the Twitter Bunch graphic above to show 12 intriguing examples of who has risen above the morass of the general public to grab one of the top 100 spots.

I'll explain their position on the grid:

From left to right - the clear celebrity to the psueo-celebrities jumping the Twitter shark to the weirdly popular B, C and D-listers to the newly web famous, came out of nowhere

From bottom to top - the shallow in depth, content or Twitter history climbing upwards to a smart, savvy grasp of the medium with always interesting content.

The Celebrity Icons

Oprah  (rank #8) - with 45 posts, hardly justifies the followership but she is the Queen of daytime and likely the only person on this list that only needs a first name to be known

Most insightful post recently:  "John Legend is everything Q wrote about and more in TIME. great performance. But hard to get INFLUENTIALS to dance in public."

Lance Armstrong (rank #15) - even after the messy Sheryl Crow breakup, I still wear my Livestrong bracelet - frequent poster, rarely provides deep insights but can provide some nuggets from behind the scenes that stokes the bike hardcore

Most insightful post recently: "St 9 done. Unfortunately not the best day for the fans OR the riders. We (the peloton) collectively took the decision to neutralize most..."

Tim O'Reilly (rank #92) - in danger of falling out of top 100, too bad - good, relevant and just breaking information from the CEO of O'Reilly media and lead Web 2.0 Alpha geek - good retweet frequency of other content too

Most insightful post recently: "Computational geometry, from Algorithms in a Nutshell: http://bit.ly/PtPtH #tech"

The Pseudo-Celebrities capitalizing on Twitter early adoption

Brooke Burke (ranked #42) - the athletic and amply-asseted queen of sports turned mom is trying to blanket her interest groups with a running stream of consciousness

Most insightful post recently: "Cutting pasting (literally) editorial beauty tips w Shaya on my lap-he just said mama!!! Yeah!!!"

Ashton Kutcher (ranked #1 ) - probably says something about our collective culture when the lead actor from "Dude, Where's My car?" rules the roost with 1.7 million followers but one incredibly savvy campaign pitting himself against the CNN colossus has mainstreamed Twitter by itself - his posts are chewing gum for the idle mind

Most insightful post recently: "I think what makes me most angry about P 90 X is when Tony acts like a bad ass and cranks out 50 reps after skipping 3 exercises"

Jimmy Fallon (ranked #11) - you truly get the feeling that this guy is reading and responding to his posts online - the late night guy gone Truman show like Stewart, but more personal and much more humble, best example of crowdsourcing content online as he always is posing challngfes/asking questions of his viewers/followers

Most insightful post recently: "about to make a video... I have on Spock ears and a do rag. I'll explain on Friday. http://yfrog.com/6q9wbj"

The weirdly famous, perhaps in a 15 minute way

MC Hammer (ranked #25) - scatteringsof posts from the 80s pop star with the big silk pants to 2009 reclaimed business success, what of what though is he teaching at Stanford?

Most insightful post recently: "Mon (CA)..Tues (Dtroit)...Wed (DET/NY)..Thur(NY) ..Fri(DET) Sat (Vegas) Sun (Vegas)..Mon (CA) Stanford.. I work !! - http://is.gd/BgDd"

Rainn Wilson (ranked# 24) - the bent "Stevn Wright"-like musings of The Office's ma man, like show, like real life, very funny stuff

Most insightful post: Sitting next to the incredibly lovely Melanie Griffith! She's watching me twitter. Perv. (dustin hoffman aka DHoff is in front of me!)

Levar Burton (ranked #74) - former Trekkie into a pileload of other stuff, perhaps trying to leave his Trek life behind, can't avoid it (file under George Takei and Walter Koenig) - interesting RT and ME: response format gives fans a shot at getting on his Twitstream

Most insightful post recently: "RT @gllopc: I've known you were a geek for years: a book geek; a Trek geek; and a drama geek. You're a geek's geek! )Me: Absofrickinlutely!"

The instant web fame, Lonely Girl club

Adventure Girl (Stephanie Michaels) (ranked # 91) - I don't get it, as this globe trotting word traveller has an informative tweet once every fifty posts - the rest is just puff pastry, grammatically challenged  tweeting

Most interesting post recently: "@alicarene "can u plan me a 25th bday trip...somewhere nice&warm?" Awww- Well, am not a trvl agnt- but can give u some ideas?"

iJustine (Justine Ezarik) (ranked #43) - Valley girl who is obsessed about blogging and Apple, if you paired Paris Hilton with Obama girl with Amber Macarthur - you'd get close - redeeming grace, posts fresh content, whether I like it or not

Most interesting post recently : "Just posted my new video. It makes me look like a crazy person but it is a true story!!! What do you think? http://bit.ly/CDYmw"

Brandon Mendolson (BJ Mendolson) (ranked #70) - a man with a cuase if a powerful thing, raising the profile on detecting cancer early scores points on nobility, his recent posts suggests that he is an unsuspecting Twitter success just as surpirsed as we are and now aksing for help, wisdom and altruism

Most interesting post recently: "Looking for folks in Massachusetts for tomorrow's #CharityTuesday micro-campaign. If you're over there, send me a tweet:-)"

So who are your 12 Twitter Bunch?