You could say that this is a follow-up to the post I wrote a few months ago about how I want to follow you on Twitter. To me, the microblogging platform is a great way to connect with people around the world in a highly informal manner, crowd-sourcing information and input as needed. As such, I generally adhere to the philosophy that if you follow me on Twitter, I will follow you back.
However, this is not hard and fast rule. While I could certainly gain (and retain) a lot more followers if I blindly and automatically followed any account that followed me, I am not going to do that. As a general rule of thumb, I do not follow scripts and bots. I also will not follow people who are clearly using Twitter as little more than a spamming tool. If you have followed me recently and I didn’t follow back, one of the reasons listed below could explain why.
Your Updates Are Protected
I have Twitter set up so that I receive a notification email each time I get a new follower. This way, I have an opportunity to follow this person back. If I click through to view your Twitter page and see that your updates are protected, I will not follow you back. You are not being forthcoming enough with what you do on Twitter, who are you, and why I should follow you back. The exception to this would be if I already know you outside of Twitter or if you properly introduce yourself in some way before I receive the notification email message.
You Only Link to Yourself
Yes, I completely understand that many companies and individuals want to use Twitter as a promotional tool. Speaking for myself, I send out a tweet each time I have a new post on Beyond the Rhetoric. That’s fine. However, if your Twitter feed is filled with nothing but links back to your own website (or filled with nothing but affiliate links), I will not follow you back. Using Twitter solely as a hardcore promotional tool is poor Twitter etiquette. You can do some promoting, but you need to be a real, interactive person as well. Which leads me to…
You Have No @ Mentions in Your Stream
Twitter is a social networking tool. One of the biggest reasons why you would use Twitter in the first place is so that you can interact with other Twitter users. It is through Twitter that I had a heated debate about the current state of education, learn new things, and participate in interesting conversations. That’s where the @ replies/mentions come into play. You should be interacting with your followers and with the Twitter community.
I understand that Twitter has a slightly egocentric slant to it, because it asks what you are doing. That does not mean, however, that it should only be about you. It’s about me too. And him. And her. And everyone else.
Your Following-Follower Ratio is Way Off
This goes back to people who use Twitter as a spamming tool. As I explained in my glossary of Twitter terminology, the following-follower ratio is an important indicator of social proof. If you are following thousands of accounts and are only being followed back by five, there’s a good chance that you’re a spammer, a hacker, or a bot. I don’t follow any of those.
You Have No Updates
You don’t have to be the most fascinating person in the world for me to follow you back on Twitter. You just have to be real, social, and reasonably communicative. If I see that a brand new account is following me on Twitter, I want to see that this person has at least made the attempt to send out his or her first tweet.
Introduce yourself, discuss who you are, and talk about your initial experience with Twitter. With no updates, I don’t know who you are. You have to understand that I am rarely motivated enough to click on your bio URL to view your website. Your Twitter feed is everything.
Do you want me to follow you on Twitter? Follow me first, then introduce yourself. Just make sure that you don’t fall into any of the five situations described above.
Amen to that! I rarely follow anyone back because they never say anything to me. I will almost always follow someone if that person has contributed something to my knowledge base via an @reply or retweet.
I follow the John Chow method of following, auto follow with Tweet Later. I am also in the userlist on Twitter Follower.
I then pick who I add to my Seesmic Desktop based on their tweets and my interest. The rest are in the main feed list, so if anything catches my eye I can reply to it.
Or if you have 14,000 followers but you’re only following 20 people. Why should I even try?
Also, this is just personal, I usually don’t follow people that use a lot of bad language in their tweets, probably because I see Twitter as almost a professional platform. Maybe that’s just me because those are the kind of people I follow – professionals.
I agree with the 14,000 followers, I have 957 and follow 959. But I really only watch 100 in specific userlists at any one time.
Like I said, I do have my main feed with everyone open, so if something scrolls by that I want to respond to I can. Of course when you auto follow you get those who spam with 10 tweets in the course of a few minutes, which at that point I unfollow. That is not what I use Twitter for. That type of tweeting is like junk mail.
For a user that has 14,000 followers but is only following 20, you have to ask yourself why you are following this person in the first place. If you find them interesting (like @aplusk, for example), then you’ll follow them out of interest rather than with the hope of a reciprocal follow-back.
Very good pointers there Michael. Basically the same thing that I look out for when following.
My reasons for not following someone on Twitter match up pretty closely — but I have a new pet peeve. There are tons of Twitter accounts that seem to be nothing but quotes from famous folk. I don’t mind the occasional quote, but if I’m going to follow someone on Twitter, I want to hear what they have to say — not what Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill said.
Speaking of updates, what happen to your QOTD?
Did you stop posing questions, or did I miss them due to the time difference?
No real reason in particular. I should start doing those again.