My Twitter Follow rule is extremely simple. I follow everyone who
follows me until they give me a reason to stop following.
For a lot of newcomers to the Twitterverse, they are spending too much time
checking profiles to determine if they are follow-worthy. Early on, at
times I checked profiles until one day I was checking out a profile of a new
follower, and noticed that the language and energy of their page was or appeared
to be out of alignment with my values. But they retweeted several of my
messages every day for quite a while. Apparently my messages had meaning to
them. Over time I saw a shift in some of the language in their future tweets. I
believe that we can learn from everyone we meet, and the variety of quality
twitizens in my stream gives me an opportunity to reach a very
wide audience.
However, an exception can be made for those on Twitter with a very,
very specific target audience. Should you need help in expanding your reach
into that type of market, let’s get together for a Twitter Strategy Session Call where we can focus
on your Twitter and Social Media strategy.
The more complicated matter is in deciding whom to unfollow. Here
are reasons I made the decision to stop following or to ignore
someone’s comments:
- Tweeting lists without any text and not telling us why you
are mentioning those people.
- Begging for a follow, RT or shout out – if you
have to ask, it is not
a gift. Focus on becoming a great follower
and add value to your audience, and then the mentions will start to flow your
way.
- RTing someone else’s list – create your own list and tell us why
you are recommending those accounts.
- Multiple posts of lists in S/O or FF – we all love to receive the
recognition of others, but once is enough. Countless SO or FF mentions devalues
the thought.
- Any post that includes the following: F4F (follow for follow),
follow back or any of the team follow. Following back is a
choice not an obligation. And as mentioned above, begging is a major
turn off.
- Any RTs that includes your own name – often people will RT those
messages that include their name. I guess it is a way of self-promotion. Posting
lists that are not your own provides no value to your
audience.
- Adding your link, any link to my messages are an automatic block and
reported as spam – no questions. Build your own reputation, and
never try to steal a ride on someone else’s Twitter Jet
Stream.
- Self-promo in your auto DM or thank you messages – pushing your
links will produce little if any positive results, and it’s
spammy.
- Invites to Face Book pages – take time to build a relationship with us here
on Twitter first before inviting us to learn more about you on other
sites.
- Thanking me for RT’s & FF mentions I did not
make.
- Provoking an argument.
- Taking a minor exception to an author of a quote I shared – attempting to
devalue the message.
- Telling us way too much or everything that is going on in your life. Move
your personal conversations to direct messages. One of the things many people
look at when they visit your Twitter profile is your tweets to
follower’s ratio. If you have 20,000 tweets, and only
a
couple hundred followers, it creates a picture that you are talking for the sake
of talking regardless if anyone is responding.
- Not providing any value.
- Not enough posts or abandoned accounts.
- Sarcasm.
- Tru Tweet Validation – you followed me, and then ask me to prove I am human.
Spend time connecting and learning about the people in your Twitterverse, and
you will attract quality . . . real followers.
What are your follow rules?