This seems to be a pretty important step in making sure that you can weed through the noise in the space. Some people follow too many people too quickly and become overwhelmed, while others take it slow and easy their way into Twitter, which I highly recommend.
Let me tell you what I do, and see if it is also what you do.
I seem to pick up a couple of followers. I go into Twitter’s website, rather than use Tweetdeck for this, and see who has most recently followed me. There are a few things that I key on when I click on their profile to see who they are:
Where are they located?
While being able to located current and accurate information concerning my profession on Twitter, as well as with former colleagues, I also like to keep up with people who live in my area, so I tend to follow them as well
What does their Bio say?
No bio, no follow, it is pretty cut and dry. If you can’t give me additional information about yourself, then how and why do you expect me to follow you? Come on, seriously?
How many followers do they have?
I am not talking about focusing on the numbers. If someone follows me, I tend to take a look at who they are pretty quick, within 24 hours I would say, unless it is the weekend. I tend to look at the box of avatars. There are 36 avatars within that area. If I am located within that area, odds are that you are not a spammer and are not just trying to friend anyone and everyone.
Maybe the last one is just me, but I feel that if you are following 36 people within a 24 hour period then you are just trying to get friends and not really caring who they are?
Too harsh? Thoughts? What do you look at?
14 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 11, 2010 at 11:28 am
Aaron
I think I do a mixture of what you do. I start with their profile, and see what they think they are about.
If you are a ‘marketing specialist in CO’ sorry no follow.
If you are a chef in CA, maybe.
I check their posts, what are they talking about, is it only links to their blogs, is it info I care about? (food, cycling, New england sports, locavore stuff?)
I do check to see who they are following / follow count. Not so much to see if they are popular, but to see if they are following _everyone_.
If I happen to follow them, and I get DM spammed, it’s a good way for me to immediately unfollow them.
I’m in it for the conversation, knowledge sharing, and info. I’m not here to be your advertising segment. Bring something to the conversation, and I’ll follow / listen.
May 3, 2011 at 1:40 am
Happy
It was dark when I woke. This is a ray of snuhisne.
May 3, 2011 at 10:25 pm
fjfgkver
hiG5HO zrnpixdwhahv
June 11, 2010 at 11:35 am
Mike Wilton
In the beginning I started following brands and people I knew. I knew then and there that I would be interested in what they had to say. From there I asked peers who they followed that would be of some value to me personally or professionally and started following them. Since then, I have not done a single bit of research into who to follow. Any new people I have followed came through interaction, being followed by someone, or discovering a twitter account via a website or blog. In my 2-3 years or so using Twitter I have come to follow 1,134 people all of whom still provide something of value on a daily basis.
That being said, I don’t follow everyone that follows me. I use some of the same signals as you. Do they have a bio? Do they have an avatar? I also look at the number of tweets and the number of followers. I also skim through the first page or so of tweets to see if they talk about anything relevant to me or my industry. Are they providing any sort of value that would matter to me?
I think it’s best to start with what you know and who you know and build from there. This seemed to create a natural growth progression for me and allowed me to discover more users that were of value to me over time.
June 11, 2010 at 11:43 am
Josh
I started out following people I had read about/recognized in the industry. Then gradually found some lists that were recommended to follow, but I didn’t really start getting nit-picky about who I followed until I grasped the concept of ‘interacting’ on Twitter. For the longest time I just watched, and RT blog posts. Never trying to interact. But now, that I’m actually interacting and building relationships I try to follow those I’ll either interact with frequently, who will interact with me back (if they start following me first), and who I’ll possibly learn something from. I’ve also got a small set of those I get a bit of comedy relief from to take a break from the work day.
June 11, 2010 at 11:44 am
mikepascucci
Aaron, Mike,
Thanks for the comments. Good to hear that we are pretty much following the same paths, and thanks for your additional thoughts. I just hope that “newbies” do not become overwhelmed with Twitter and also hope that people do their research.
Mike
May 3, 2011 at 8:18 am
Philinda
Thank God! Someone with brains seapks!
May 5, 2011 at 9:33 am
qvcytcuzxnh
resMK9 wntloeanqraa
June 11, 2010 at 11:52 am
mikepascucci
Josh,
Thanks
I am in your boat as well, generally following people that I have met in person, or from others that have made recommendations, or following those that I do not know, but have followed me 1st – after I have done my research listed above.
Mike
June 11, 2010 at 11:54 am
Tweets that mention How do you choose to follow people? « Social Media Strategy, Moderation & Management Musings -- Topsy.com
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mike Wilton, Mike Pascucci and Mike Pascucci, Joshua Titsworth. Joshua Titsworth said: RT @mikepascucci: How do you choose to follow people on Twitter, please read and comment http://bit.ly/cugSwc (blog post) […]
June 16, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Aaron
Second thoughts.
As I reviewed my list of followers, I reconsidered who I follow.
I’ll be frank, I don’t typically tweet for purposes other than self interest. I will respond to inquiries / problems with my companies product which I support, but that is few and far between.
So, I found I looked at the following.
Location
If they were local, greater pepperell area, they got an imediate tweet review to check if they had anything interesting to say.
Description
If they were a person, and do something cool, or listed making soemthing cool, I checked em out. IF I saw they had tweets worth reading, I added em.
I’d love to say I added 50 new tweeters, but In reality I unfollowed as many as I added. I’m just not that interested in ad feeds, in non interaction.
Mike W made an interesting point about overlapping following, but I personally am too quirky in my tastes for that to be of long tail value, and for the broader group, I’m not sure it speaks much about what the person tweets about, as it does who they listen to. So I may be more interested in seeing who they follow, that I don’t than following them.
AO
June 17, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Heather Strout
I like the tip of looking in their recently followed avatar box. That’s a great one!
I have a few more to add to the list. I always look at the ratio of number of tweets to number they’re following. If they’re following 4,000 and have 200 tweets, (even if their follow #s are around 4,000) I don’t generally follow them. I also look at their following/follower ratio to make sure that’s pretty even as well but that does not seem to be as good a test as it once was.
I also look in their stream to see if there’s dialogue. If they’re not having conversations with people, I usually don’t follow them back.
And like Aaron, I generally unfollow people who auto DM me a welcome.
Thanks for the post.
Heather | @heatherjstrout
June 17, 2010 at 12:43 pm
mikepascucci
Aaron,
Thanks for the follow up.
Heather,
Thanks for the comment.
I understand the “unfollow” after you receive a “Thank you for following” auto DM, but am torn. If the DM seems to be genuine, I will continue to follwo that person. Obvioulsy if they are askng me if I want to learn how to add thousands of followers, I will unfollow, but there is a fine line. A tough decision in some cases, but an easy one in most.
Mike
November 15, 2010 at 2:56 am
dreambox 800s
Retweet good. You have to be involved in something. If you are just passing thoughts of other people, I can just as easily keep track of them and skip the party.