Twitter Panic: Should I follow back?
When I first jumped on Twitter it was to follow people I met at events, conferences or folks I was already connected to on other social networks.
Then to my surprise people started following me who I didn’t know at all. I admit I panicked, I knew the ‘follow back’ was an important part of Twitter culture but I wasn’t sure how to navigate these waters.
Here are a few simple rules I’ve used to help beat Twitter Panic:
- Reflect on Goals. I’m on Twitter to build a personal learning network that will advance my career and add value to my work. I want to give as well as receive. With that in mind it’s easier to decide who to follow back. If I get a follow from someone who doesn’t fit these goals I usually thank them for the follow with a mention and explain why I’m not following back.
- Local or Personal Connection? If I get a follow request from someone in my local area, or who is connected to many of my friends it’s usually worth a follow back. This recent follow from Larry Graykin is a likely follow back due to his local connection.
- Friend / Followers Ratio. I’m wary of folks with a big difference in the number of people following them, and the number they follow. A big imbalance usually indicates a Twitter user with different goals from mine. Here Graykin has a reasonable ratio, another sign a follow back is a good idea.
- #’s / @’s, Links. When I check out a person’s tweets I’m looking for evidence of interaction. Just posting links every tweet doesn’t add much value to my network. #’s, @’s and a few links indicates a user who wants to engage in dialog. This tweet says, “I want to interact with folks who are talking about New Hampshire and I talk with the people I follow.”
- Spam? There have only been a couple of follow backs that I’ve regretted – folks who tweeted so frequently that my feed became a big running column of their posts. These folks I kindly DM’ed and let them know it wasn’t anything personal but they were posting too frequently for me and I would be unfollowing them.
- Block ‘em. The few obvious spam follows are the only folks I’ve blocked, they are obvious and earn a quick block!
Using these guidelines, and a desktop app like TweetDeck, I’ve found Twitter to be a highly useful tool to engage with a very generous learning community.
By the way, not only was I able to avoid Twitter Panic when deciding if I should follow @artspider back but he was also kind enough to let me use his tweets and profile for this post. That’s a ‘follow back’ for sure – and our shared interest in education, schools and the intersection of art and tech will be sure to make for interesting dialog.
What guidelines do you use for assessing follows? Do you follow everyone back? If you are tweeting for your organization how do you follow people back? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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Thanks for using me as an example in your article. I started on Twitter to help share word about the ArtSpider project, and was rather clueless about how to use it. After a while, Twitter’s pros and cons become known, but for many users, I think there’s a tough early phase: Who to follow? What’s the point? (Apparently the statistics indicate that many drop using it at this point; many accounts are opened and then lie dormant.)
For me, following back is anything but automatic. When someone follows me, I look to see: First, are they local? ArtSpider’s all about NH, and my tweets likely won’t be too interesting or useful to someone not connected to this state. Second, are they creative? ArtSpider is about connecting NH folks to all forms of art, so I bend the “local” rule for awesome artists who may speak to others, and RT them on rare occasion. Finally, if not local or arts-oriented, are they interesting? I happen to have an odd sense of humor, so I tend to follow folks like @weirdralph – that’s a choice made on a personal level, but I think allowing yourself to shine through is essential.
In other words, what I’ve come to believe is this: For follow-backs to work for me, I have to know what I want to receive for information or entertainment. Once I figured that out, it got easier.
I had never considered responding to folks that I choose “not” to follow back. Thanks for giving me something to ponder and think through how I might integrate that into my use of twitter.
I personally don’t think that a follow is quite as personal as a phone call. To me, it can be interpreted as more of a “subscription” to your Tweets. I don’t think Lance Armstrong is on a personal basis with a million people. And I don’t think unfollowing needs a world of explanation. Just a click. Afterall, you can’t blame someone for over-tweeting. YOU decided to follow them, and it’s THEIR account.
Just my two cents. Only an opinion.
Following back people is like giving someone a gift!
And when they follow without it being reciprocated, they loose the chance to follow someone else as you can only follow a set amount per people that follow you!
That’s one of the reasons I follow back!
So follow me today at:
http://twitter.com/PrayMaddyMcCann
And get followed back in just a few hours!