To Follow or Not to Follow

Posted by TeamCharlie on February 14, 2009 under Gabe's Twitter Gems, Social Media, Twitter | Be the First to Comment

I would guess there are thousands of posts on this subject about who you should follow on Twitter. Why not add another, I ask myself.  The reason I am writing about this subject is because I feel there are no right or wrong answers to this question, only opinions.  Mine has changed a bit since becoming involved with Twitter.  So for me it is interesting to see how I change as I use it more.  Anyway, I hate long introductions, so I will just get right down to it.

Do I “auto-follow” a person who follows me? Absolutely not.  There are many spammers out there and I simply do not want to be subject to their uninteresting tweets.  Since my main goal is to get exposure for KidsAreHeroes.com I seek out parents.  There are several hash tags going around (i.e. #momfaves, #wiimoms, etc.) whose participants are my target demographic.  So it makes sense for me to follow them.  I do not follow them blindly however. I really check to see if they engage with people. Sometimes when I watch my Twitter stream I see a bunch of people performing monologues about their business or whatever it is that they are hawking.  It’s almost like they are all in a room shouting at the same time and no one is listening to each other.  Other times people are conversing and engaging each other.  That is when I have the most fun on Twitter.  When I see a period of monologues I immediately go out and try to find other people to follow so I can engage with someone.  The more I use it the more I realize that Twitter is a platform that can provide real benefit as long as you are truly connecting with people.  Otherwise it is a grand waste of time.

As I have mentioned before if I see a big disparity between followers and those following a person I usually do not follow them.  One is just looking to beef up numbers and the other likes to hear himself talk.  99% of the time I will follow a person with a relatively equal amount of followers to followees. This person has more than likely taken a natural progression in their Twitter journey to connect with people.

I unfollow people that use excessive vulgar language.  Even though I am not a prude there is a time and place for everything.  Being in a crowded room is not the place to spew out vulgarity for everyone to hear.

I unfollow people that tout their wares too much.  We all know why Twitter is so popular, and that is so people can reach thousands of others for free.  Once I have connected with a person is the time that I am truly interested in what they do and if there is something that I can utilize myself and/or share with others.  This type of marketing is a thousand fold more effective.

One tool I have found very useful in my quest to follow the right people is Friend or Follow.  This tool shows you who you are following that is not following you back and vice versa.  When I first looked at it there was a good number of people that did not follow me back, and also a good amount that I was not following.  Since then I have reduced both numbers by weeding out people who do not follow me back, and taking another look at people who are following me.  Why would I unfollow people that aren’t following me?  For one simple reason – it’s much harder to engage with them.  Maybe they have looked at my profile and were not interested.  That’s all right by me as there are plenty of others who are.  So I have found this Twitter tool to be invaluable.

So there you have it, another person’s take on who to follow and why. I hope it was helpful to you.