I participate in a real estate tech group on Facebook where questions, opinions and answers are bounced around. Recently someone asked if you automatically follow someone who starts following you. I think there is no right answer...however, I do have "my" answer which I'll share with you.
I have been using Twitter since 2007 (July 14, 2007 to be exact per Hootsuite). I think before you decide who or how you're going to follow, it's important to consider "why" you're using Twitter. If you want to connect with as many people as possible, then go ahead and follow everyone back who follows you. If you're goal is to connect or have conversations with a certain segment of the Twitterverse, then you may want to be more selective. It's entirely up to you!
As of writing this post, I'm fortunate to have over 4,034 followers and I'm currently following 2,390 peeps. When I began to use Twitter, I was so tickled to have someone actually follow me, unless they were an obvious spammer, I'd follow them back. Now I've found that I really want to fine tune who I'm following or your Twitter stream can become kind of noisy. Tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck do help cut down the noise and allow you to zero in on certain groups or topics you're interested in following.
I receive emails throughout the day when I receive a new follower on Twitter...and I save these emails until I have a moment of free time to go through them and determine who I'm going to add to my Twitter stream by following back. I'm often quickly sorting through 50 - 100 emails with this process (right now I have 62). Here are things I look for (based on what's important to me and how I use Twitter):
- are they local? I'm looking to connect with folks who are in Washington State.
- do I know them? I love to follow people who I actually know.
- is their profile complete? I'm trying to learn as much about them as possible.
- do they have a photo or are they still an "egg"?
- are they a spammer? An obvious "no follow", block and report.
- do they engage with conversations or is every tweet "broadcasting" their message? I don't need to be sold to...I may make an exception and follow if they're local or if it's something I'm interested in.
- do they have multiple accounts where they're te-tweeting info (if so, I'm going to pick one to follow).
- are they actually the person behind their tweets or have they hired someone to "auto-tweet" for them. (This is a "no-follow" for me...don't bother with social media unless YOU are the person being "social")
You can see it's important to have a complete profile on Twitter or any social media platform you decide to participate in. People are deciding quickly whether or not they want to follow or "friend" and they need as much information as possible. Again, this isn't the "right way"...it's only "my way".
What is your method for deciding if you're going to follow someone on Twitter?
Yes... I followed @DavidHStevens back!
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