In recent days, we’ve been discussing Twitter authority and tracking people in the public eye such as Diddy (@iamdiddy) and John Mayer (@johncmayer) reaching out to the masses via Twitter.

Many celebrities have established their Twitter Persona and actively engage, as we see on blogs such as Celebrity Tweet which give a real time feed on celebs like Solange Knowles (@solangeknowles), Ryan Seacrest (@ryanseacrest), Britney Spears (@britneyspears) and Greg Grunberg (@greggrunberg), who all have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.

While many of these people in the public eye have already embraced their inner geek, many are just getting started with establishing their profiles.  And then there are those celebrities who are using their voice and influence to promote others’ — the Twitter Influencers.  As word of mouth marketers, we’re obsessed with the power of the shout out and its influence on the Twitter population we like to call Tweeps.

Take the recent Jimmy Fallon experiment as an example.  A few nights ago, Jimmy’s guest was Bryan Brinkman (@bryanbrinkman), who had 7 total followers on Twitter. After the shout out from Jimmy (and the founders of Digg also appearing on the show), Bryan now has almost 35,000 followers, and growing by the hour.  The shout out was then featured, written about and syndicated on blogs and sites (like this very one) which continues the shout out momentum.

Another great example is Ellen DeGeneres who talked about Twitter on her show very recently. The day her show’s Twitter profile @theellenshow was launched, there were just a little over 9,000 followers.  She now has over 200,000, growing rapidly.

While most of us aren’t able to appear on television to get the official shout out to spread the word about our Twitter presence, the power of influential bloggers is not to be underestimated as a way to grow your Twitter audience.  Mashable, a highly influential blog in the social media space regularly features people to follow in several verticals, ranging from Professors to Brands and the People Behind Them.  It’s safe to say that this blog drove a few followers to those profiles.  Ok, maybe more than a few.

We’ll be keeping our eye on the Twitter Influencers and paying attention to the power of the shout out.

We recently wrote about our fascination with the Twitter phenomenon known as @iamdiddy.

Sean Combs, once known as Puff Daddy is someone who certainly gets what Twitter is all about — having established almost 165,000 followers (30,000 more than when we last wrote).

We at KARMA Media Labs love to follow people who inspire and teach us what Social Media is all about, which is why we we’re even more impressed to see Diddy not only take a proactive approach to “Take The Power Back” on Twitter, he’s also apparently listening to what is being said by his fans online.

We’ve seen many celebrities in recent months embracing Twitter, including Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk), Demi Moore (@mrskutcher), John Mayer (@johncmayer) and others — but we love that Diddy’s not just talking to his fans, he’s listening.

Within 24 hours of writing our blog post, we found our words featured on Diddy’s Official Web Site Diddy.com, his official MySpace page, and linked on Bad Boy Entertainment.

So again, we want to thank Diddy for the shout out and for inspiring us to not only Take the Power Back on Twitter, but reminding us how important it is to to keep our eye on brand and reputation conversation. Diddy is someone who truly understands what social media is all about.

Image above from Diddy.com.

Lori gave us some great tips last week on how to establish a Twitter authority. It’s all about the number of followers you have, how often you are retweeted, your @replies, and the number of people that click on your links.

I couldn’t help but think of one guy who’s really got it down: Sean Combs. Once Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and now just Diddy, he’s taken on one more powerful voice: @iamdiddy. With more than 135,743 followers, he’s a Twitter phenomenon.

Take a look at @iamdiddy’s location on his Twitter profile, and you won’t be surprised to see “EVERYWHERE” in all caps. (When you are living in 135,743 people’s Twitter feeds, it’s a pretty good description.)

Even a quick browse through @iamdiddy’s tweets and you’ll see plenty of exclamations and capitalizations. One from this morning reads “Is anyone awake with me?????? WAKE UP!!!! Anyone out there????? Talk to me!!!”

@iamdiddy is not just updating his followers - he’s inviting them into his world, and as he told Ellen, “tak(ing) the power back”. He only has around 388 updates (and counting) but his excitement is contagious -Retweetrank ranks him 19 based on how often his tweets are retweeted. And he’s not just connecting through Twitter. With the recent launch of P Twitty TV LIVE, fans can see and talk to Diddy live.

So what’s the big deal? The idea of connecting with celebrities via Twitter isn’t new – Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and Demi Moore (@mrskutcher) mastered it a long time ago. What makes @iamdiddy different? Take a look one of my favorites:

“i try to answer as many as i can. and but by concept is to distibute love, inspiration, and positive energy!!!! and have fun wit yall!!”

Maybe it’s because he has figured out a way to not only connect and engage with his fans, but also inspire them.

Jackie Mayer is Manager, Social Media Marketing at KARMA Media Labs