My Twitter Follow Policy

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A few folks have been talking about how following works for them on Twitter – do you follow back everyone who follows you (minus the spambots)? Do you selectively follow some people? How and why?

Here’s my rationale. As I said in a recent post, Twitter is my AP Newswire. As such, I look to Twitter to learn first and foremost – I watch Twitter and see not who’s interesting or attractive or fun or whatever. I look to see who has the information I need most in their Twitterstream and follow.

My day job at the Student Loan Network requires me to stay on top of current events, to keep an eye on markets, to have discussions with the smartest people I can on a regular basis to keep myself sharp. I look to Twitter for folks who work on the inside of firms like Merrill Lynch (ticker: MER), Citigroup (ticker: C), JP Morgan (ticker: JPM), and many others. I look to Twitter for folks as avid about economics and finance as I am. Twitter is my Bloomberg terminal.

My hobby job as PodCamp Co-Founder along with Chris Brogan requires me to stay on top of trends in new media, social media, marketing, PR, and much more. Twitter is the conference that never ends.

My focus on Twitter changes, too. Lately it’s been focused on macroeconomics, politics, marketing, and PR, but back in February it was heavily focused for a couple of weeks on object oriented classes in PHP, and I followed/unfollowed a lot of people when my focus changed.

Just as I have a choice between CNBC and Bloomberg on TV or the Boston Globe and BostonNOW, I have choices about who I follow on Twitter, based on what I need Twitter to teach me. If I don’t follow you, it’s not because I don’t like you or because you’re irrelevant. It’s that what you’re doing right now isn’t necessarily in my field of focus – but may be in the future.

I try to keep the number of people I follow between 300 and 400 – any more than that, and Twitter becomes unusable because I lose more information than I gather.

To keep balanced and make sure I don’t miss anything, I check my Replies tab religiously.

That, in a nutshell, is my follow policy. What’s yours?

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Comments

18 responses to “My Twitter Follow Policy”

April 10, 2008

Aithene / Chris Wilson

I wish I had one. At this point, I’m following most everybody. It would be different if I could ‘group’ followers, but right now I’m just kind of open. I recognize avatars, and there are some that I make sure to read when they pop up. Others, I skim thru.

Very seldom to I unfollow someone at this point. Generous use of foul language or being a jerk in general is a great way to get me to unfollow you.

Spam tweeters are never followed, or quickly unfollowed if I thought you were a real person by accident.

So, Chris, my question to you is this…

How do you personally FIND who you want to follow at any given moment? Do you search tweets using Terraminds or some such application? Or do you use someone’s bio? Or just your own personal knowledge of a follower?

Reply
April 10, 2008

Aithene

I wish I had one. At this point, I’m following most everybody. It would be different if I could ‘group’ followers, but right now I’m just kind of open. I recognize avatars, and there are some that I make sure to read when they pop up. Others, I skim thru.

Very seldom to I unfollow someone at this point. Generous use of foul language or being a jerk in general is a great way to get me to unfollow you.

Spam tweeters are never followed, or quickly unfollowed if I thought you were a real person by accident.

So, Chris, my question to you is this…

How do you personally FIND who you want to follow at any given moment? Do you search tweets using Terraminds or some such application? Or do you use someone’s bio? Or just your own personal knowledge of a follower?

Reply
April 10, 2008

newmediaMike

Christopher,

You hit the nail on the head with this post. I caught a tweet today from @Furrier about Yahoo running Google ads and posted a link to his story on my blog, hours later Techmeme and Techcrunch picked it up! For breaking news Twitter is my personal Canadian NewsWire as I follow only people I deem to be useful to help me with my blogging.

With Twitter the old axiom, “It’s not what you know, but who you know that counts” is so true. A while back my focus changed from social media to SEO, I found some SEO people on Twitter and started to follow them and my knowledge base of SEO improved.

I haven’t unfollowed anyone yet, but over the next few days I think I will be trimming down my followers list, I follow about 375 people and like you said the noise level can be a bit much.

So thanks for a timely post Christopher! And the next time you need a Digg don’t hesitate to ask!

Reply
April 10, 2008

newmediaMike

Christopher,

You hit the nail on the head with this post. I caught a tweet today from @Furrier about Yahoo running Google ads and posted a link to his story on my blog, hours later Techmeme and Techcrunch picked it up! For breaking news Twitter is my personal Canadian NewsWire as I follow only people I deem to be useful to help me with my blogging.

With Twitter the old axiom, “It’s not what you know, but who you know that counts” is so true. A while back my focus changed from social media to SEO, I found some SEO people on Twitter and started to follow them and my knowledge base of SEO improved.

I haven’t unfollowed anyone yet, but over the next few days I think I will be trimming down my followers list, I follow about 375 people and like you said the noise level can be a bit much.

So thanks for a timely post Christopher! And the next time you need a Digg don’t hesitate to ask!

Reply
April 10, 2008

Daniel Johnson, Jr.

My initial reaction when finding someone has followed me is to wait for them to initiate a conversation.

Other than that, I’m trying to connect with as many people locally as possible, so I’m using tools like Tweetscan and TwitterLocal to find mentions of and people in the Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio areas. I subscribe to RSS feeds mentioning my blog properties and Twitter usernames.

I keep Twhirl open during the day and dip in and out throughout the day. Like you, I religiously check the replies tab to make sure I’ve not missed anything.

I have also from time to time searched out updates of people talking about things related to my work as a programmer and have followed people talking about things I’m interested in from that perspective.

That’s my current style, and it seems to be working for me right now.

Reply
April 10, 2008

Daniel Johnson, Jr.

My initial reaction when finding someone has followed me is to wait for them to initiate a conversation.

Other than that, I’m trying to connect with as many people locally as possible, so I’m using tools like Tweetscan and TwitterLocal to find mentions of and people in the Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio areas. I subscribe to RSS feeds mentioning my blog properties and Twitter usernames.

I keep Twhirl open during the day and dip in and out throughout the day. Like you, I religiously check the replies tab to make sure I’ve not missed anything.

I have also from time to time searched out updates of people talking about things related to my work as a programmer and have followed people talking about things I’m interested in from that perspective.

That’s my current style, and it seems to be working for me right now.

Reply
April 11, 2008

Sean

I don’t have many followers and I don’t follow many people. That’s okay as I don’t want to become deluged with tweets. When I do see someone new following me, I look at their profile. I’m reluctant to follow anyone who appears they will try to sell me something or someone who doesn’t have a blog where I can read more about them.

Reply
April 11, 2008

Sean

I don’t have many followers and I don’t follow many people. That’s okay as I don’t want to become deluged with tweets. When I do see someone new following me, I look at their profile. I’m reluctant to follow anyone who appears they will try to sell me something or someone who doesn’t have a blog where I can read more about them.

Reply
April 12, 2008

Rachael Hampton

Hi Christopher,

Wow how do you mange it all. Twitter, blog, podcasting, updating a website etc….

Then after finding the time to really sit down and work.

Reply
April 12, 2008

Rachael Hampton

Hi Christopher,

Wow how do you mange it all. Twitter, blog, podcasting, updating a website etc….

Then after finding the time to really sit down and work.

Reply
April 13, 2008

rambn

My policy is that I addback, unless it’s a marketing thing or spam. What’s up with these people that follow 50 and are followed by 150? Seems like arrogance to me. dicks.

Reply
April 13, 2008

rambn

My policy is that I addback, unless it’s a marketing thing or spam. What’s up with these people that follow 50 and are followed by 150? Seems like arrogance to me. dicks.

Reply
July 4, 2008

Twitter has Pulver-ized me. Time to move to Plurk? by Christopher S. Penn’s Awaken Your Superhero

[…] those folks who view following back as important, I’m sorry to say that Twitter is now preventing that, at least for […]

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July 6, 2008

Len Edgerly

Chris, just curious: How come your “following” total on Twitter now totals 2,138 – a big jump from the 300-400 you mention as the target in this post, from just 3 months ago. Change in strategy? “Follow creep?”

Reply
July 6, 2008

Len Edgerly

Chris, just curious: How come your “following” total on Twitter now totals 2,138 – a big jump from the 300-400 you mention as the target in this post, from just 3 months ago. Change in strategy? “Follow creep?”

Reply
March 30, 2009

Rachelle King

I agree – I unfollow those who dont follow me usually within 3 -4 days i will remove those who do not follow me back. I also follow everyone who follows me unless they do way too much spam stuff. I also will NOT follow Twitter SNOBS! Thos people who are following like 50 but have like 5,000 followers forget em I am not gonna waste my time with snobies

Reply
March 30, 2009

Rachelle King

I agree – I unfollow those who dont follow me usually within 3 -4 days i will remove those who do not follow me back. I also follow everyone who follows me unless they do way too much spam stuff. I also will NOT follow Twitter SNOBS! Thos people who are following like 50 but have like 5,000 followers forget em I am not gonna waste my time with snobies

Reply
March 30, 2009

Rachelle King

I agree – I unfollow those who dont follow me usually within 3 -4 days i will remove those who do not follow me back. I also follow everyone who follows me unless they do way too much spam stuff. I also will NOT follow Twitter SNOBS! Thos people who are following like 50 but have like 5,000 followers forget em I am not gonna waste my time with snobies

Reply