Right now I’m following 472 people on Twitter (with just over 1,000 following me). How do I decide who to follow? It’s fairly simple: I follow those who provide value.
Value can have different meanings. Perhaps it’s one of my friends. Perhaps it’s someone local who interacts regularly with my friends. Perhaps it’s an industry leader. Perhaps it’s just someone really smart and fun to read. Perhaps it’s someone who is at a conference I’m following.
I don’t follow services. I don’t follow anyone who uses Twitter as a one-way broadcast medium. I don’t follow Twitter accounts that are nothing more than announcements of new blog posts (if I wanted to read the blog, I’d subscribe to the blog’s feed).
In short, I follow those who are interesting and want to participate in a conversation via Twitter. When I get a follower notification, within a few days I’ll check out that person’s page and decide whether to follow back. If I choose not to follow you, it’s probably not personal. At some point I have to filter things down a bit. What I’ve mentioned are some general guides as to whether I’ll follow someone on Twitter.
Random quick tip: if you have no location and no bio, I won’t follow. Don’t make me work to figure out who you are.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Good post. I hadn't really thought about it, but I use a very similar thought process when deciding who to follow.
Well put Aaron. I agree completely. Too often I see newcomers to Twitter not engaging in conversation but creating a one way diatribe. No thank you. (Unfortunately these abusers tend to land largely inside my industry…)
Completely agree with you follow no follow process. The people who are there to spam, usually unfollow me within 24 hrs without a follow back. Only proving they have a agenda