Reasons I Follow People on Twitter – or Not. Plus My #FollowFriday Recommendations
Last Friday I explained why I don’t want to do #FollowFridays on Twitter anymore. I also shared some links to help newcomers understand exactly what #FollowFriday is supposed to be all about. So rather than repeat myself, please pop over to last Friday’s post and catch up. Plus, you will find a few of my favorite people I follow on Twitter and decide if you want to follow them too.
This week, before I give my second edition of weekly recommendations, I thought it might be helpful to explain some general guidelines I have for how I decide if I am going to follow – or not follow – someone. These are some tips I have picked up from other more experienced Twitter personalities as well as some that I have found work for me in the pursuit of my goals on Twitter (which you can read about HERE). Maybe you will find these guidelines useful, or maybe you have some of your own you would like to share. I would love to hear and learn from what helps in your decision-making process. Drop a comment and add to the conversation!
To understand some of these reasons, I think it’s important to know that I go through every single profile of people that follow me in order to determine if I want to follow them back. At this point I follow over 2200 people and seem to average about 50 new followers per day, so I don’t often actively go looking for new people to follow. However, when I first started on Twitter 3 months ago, I spent quite a bit of time researching and looking for people of similar interests to follow using various search tools such as these:
Now that I’ve built a substantial following and lengthened the list of those I follow, I spend 1 or 2 times throughout the week going through all new followers’ profiles one by one. Here are the things I look for:
Avatar – If you have not yet created a custom Twitter avatar – at least just a picture of yourself or your logo – I immediately move on. This may seem judgmental or harsh, but I have found that a high percentage of user accounts without a custom avatar are either spammers or not that serious about Twitter in the first place. Someone who has taken a few minutes to create an avatar – the primary representation of the account in the Twitter stream – usually is worth taking the next step to see what they’re about. Plus, if it’s a fun, interesting, humorous or well-designed avatar, it grabs my interest right off the bat.
Account Name – If your account name is a jumble of consonants or words I don’t understand, or something like “GetRichToday”, I am going to take a leap in the dark and assume you are either a spammer, porn, or someone trying to sell something. I’m not interested in any of these things. But if your account name is a person, or something related to my interests, then I want to know more.
Profile Background - For me, this is not a high priority in determining if I’m going to follow you. Plenty of wonderful people do not have the ability to create a fun or funky Twitter background. But if you have one that gives more insight into who you are, and it’s colorful or interesting in any way, I will definitely think more about following you. (Shameless plug: if you need a Twitter background professionally designed for you, I provide this service starting at only $50! Just let me know! Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.)
Bio - Your Twitter bio is the quickest insight into who you are and why you’re on Twitter. If you describe yourself as an expert in or guru of something, we’re done. I believe anyone that claims that title has determined they are no longer learning, and in my past I have learned from the mistake of believing I had more to teach than learn. I’m not interested in hanging out with people who are done learning (translated “know-it-all”). If your bio describes you as someone who can help me get rich with little or no effort, or you are into MLM programs or the Law of Attraction, or anything else like that, we’re done. Apologies if this offends you, but I don’t subscribe to any of those “belief systems”. And although it would be nice to never have to worry about money, I’m not interested in trying to get rich. I just want enough to provide for my family and have fun and freedom in my life. I’m doing okay with that so far.
But if your Twitter bio is funny, interesting or of similar interests to mine, I will probably follow you. I’ve followed some people that I have nothing in common with, simply because I thought their bio was clever and/or witty.
Follows To Follower Ratio - Very simple. If you have 5 people following you and you are following 500, there is a pretty good chance you’re using some kind of automated following tool. I’m just not that into automated following, so unless something else on the page can sway my decision, we’re done. Again, I realize people have to get started somehow, and trying to get people to follow you can become a bit of a desperation act, but I need to be able to determine some value in following you. This statistic alone will not end it for me, but it does impact my thought process.
Recent Tweets - the last thing I look at on the page is the list of your most recent tweets. This is really going to give me insight into what will be added to the tweets I’m reading each day. If you don’t have any tweets at all, we’re done. If you only have 1-5 since you opened the account 3 months ago, we’re done. If your tweets are littered with self-promotion, Twitter Traffic Machines or other scams, we’re done. But if your tweets show that you provide value, interesting links, humor and/or interact with others on Twitter, then I’m sold. It’s why I’m there! And I’ll be looking for your tweets from this point forward!
Most likely these guidelines are nothing new – they are not necessarily original to me. But they are a vital part of my process for streamlining and building my experience on Twitter. So far, so good!
Now on to this week’s recommendations. I hope you will explore these wonderful Twitter folks and find them as engaging and interesting as I do. If you feel that I have wrongly left you out, feel free to let me know. There will be a new list every week, so don’t worry! See you here soon, I hope!
I hope you enjoy this week’s recommendations and find them to be as wonderful as I do. If you ever decide you would like to recommend me to your followers or to anyone else, would you please take a second and use the great tool called Mr. Tweet? It is fast becoming a great resource for finding great people to follow on Twitter, and the more people recommend you the easier it is for others to find you. Thanks again!
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