Today I have 3 reasons to express Gratitude:

• It's Good Friday
• It's #FollowFriday on Twitter
• It's been I year since I joined Twitter

Here's my way of showing gratitude for all the fantastic people I've connected with on Twitter.

You know I love to express myself with images, cartoons, mind maps, stories, metaphors…

Alors, voilà!

Among the 2 264 people I follow, I've selected the ones I interact the most with (125).

and click on each branch where you will be connected directly with people's twitter accounts, or blogs. I intend to refine this map which started in august 2009. I really would like it to be interactive, I don't know yet how to do that. I also would like to simplify it (with maybe fewer branches) and make it more complex at the same time (I want to add new sub categories in each branch, and attach interviews, pictures, articles, quotes…). I also want to show connections between branches…Add colours, sounds, videos…Big project, that I will develop along the year, as a coaching tool.

Mind mapping could be an extraordinary personal and leadership development tool, creative, interactive, intuitive, feminine!

After one year, I'm drawing personal conclusions about  Twitter:

• The Call of the Mermaid.We often refer to twitter as "the stream". Definitely as addictive as I was afraid it would be. Last year, when I started, I posted a lot about Twitter and its dangers.This summer, I even went on a "twitter detox".No, seriously 🙂 Now, if I'm working from home, and not busy with any clients, I'm not tweeting before I achieve 3 major tasks on my To Do list. It's part of my Time management Strategy. It's one of my rewards, and keeps me from falling into the seductive trap. Learning to swim and remembering to get out of the water!

• The Best Organic Networking Tool! I connected with people I never would have had the chance to meet in real life.I expanded the quantity and the quality of my connections. I increased my visibility and became also more aware of the different areas of interest I was attracted to.When I network on LinkedIn, it's very restrictive to the academic and business context. On twitter, I can express much more aspects of my personality, hence the mind map in 8 directions, like an Octopus! Come and join me in the Octopus's garden!

• A Giant and Cosy Learning Matrix of  Starbuck coffee (again, the mermaid!), Alexandria Library, Babel Tower, Magical Mystery Tour, Virtual Museum, London Tea Room, French 18th century Boudoir, Roman Agora and I learn and grow every time I spend some time there. I tweet in English in order to be connected with a wide range of languages and cultures. I share confidences, poems, novels, pictures, emotions and thoughts around the world.I learn about how people invest in what they believe in, what they fight for. It's a living emotional creature that feeds me with knowledge, and that I feed too.

So, back to this Good #FollowFriday MindMap!

125
people. 125 amazing people. If you read this post, interact with me and if you're not included, it must be a mistake! Doing this kind of map, although quite simple, takes time , requires patience and an attention for details..Not exactly my cup of tea…(Like Dory,in following Nemo, I can suffer from short term memory loss and get carried away by my enthusiasm!) Please tell me and I will
include you.

If you are in this map, tell me if you'd rather be in another category, or point me to someone else you know, at least as amazing as you, so that I could learn and expand!

My gratitude to @DorothyDalton, who by her latest post Twitter and Me-An Anniversary, reminded me to check when I first started Twitter. We joined almost together! She's also the first person I connected with via Twitter that I met in real life in Bruxelles. She has become part of my business network, CoheChange International, and we're designing together a workshop for European Women and Empowerment, which will take place this fall in Bruxelles.

Twitter leads to real business, as well!

I'm waiting eagerly for your comments and suggestions!