How to Follow on Twitter (thoughts)

Taken from NikkiPilkington https://twitter.com/NikkiPilkington

Why don’t you follow as many people as follow you Nikki?”

“I’m following you, why aren’t you following me, Nikki?”

“I stopped following you because you’re not following me Nikki”

Just 3 of the messages I’ve received recently talking about who I do and don’t follow on Twitter.
You may have already read my post ‘How I use Twitter’, and this is in a similar vein, but here are my thoughts on following and followers.

As of right now (time of writing), I follow 412 people, and have 1128 people following me. So obviously I don’t have an ‘autofollow’ mentality, following everyone who follows me. I also don’t go around randomly following people in the hope that they follow me.

I’m not saying that my way of doing things is the right way, I’m just saying it’s how I do it, and it means that twitter works for me in the way I want it to.

So first up, who DO I follow?
People I know and like from Ecademy, LinkedIn, Xing, UK Business Labs, BT Tradespace and WeCanDoBiz - I’ve known some of these people for many years, and know that I will be interested in their Tweets.

People who have written articles that I like, and put their Twitter details at the end - I know that they may Tweet about other articles they write, and it’s an easy way to keep up with them.

People who are respected in my industry - they will Tweet SEO news, and links to articles I may not pick up on my own.

People who other people I follow have recommended - you could call it ‘networking’

People who retweet my articles and blog posts - if they’re retweeting me, they may be doing the same for other epople I should be aware of.

People who I find during random searches - I have alerts for various keyphrases and sometimes they throw up intersting people.

People who write apps / have sites I like / use - so that I can keep up with their news and developments.

People who have sent me an @ message - if you’ve taken the time to message me, I’ll check you out and probably follow you.

And who DON’T I follow and why?
People who have just one Tweet, usually promoting a website - your twitter stream doesn’t tell me enough about you to know whether or not I want to follow you.

People who have nothing in their Twitter profile - unless your Tweets are particularly interesting, if i know nothing about you, I won’t follow you.

People who Tweet constantly about themselves and their business - if you do this and share nothing else of interest, I’ll unfollow you.

People who don’t reply to @ messages - Twitter is a two way thing and if I can see people have messaged you but you’ve not replied, then I probably won’t follow you. Similarly, if I @ you and you don’t respond on more than a couple of occasions, I’ll probably unfollow you.

People who send me constant DMs promoting their business - I know what you do, I’m following you - don’t try and sell to me via DM.

People who only ever auto tweet - so their tweets are all automatically set up and they never actually post anything themselves. I get to see all the things they comment on, their latest blog posts, and in some cases their retweeted DMs yet they never actually Twitter themselves.

People who Tweet in a language other than English or French all the time. Although I do have a basic understanding of German and Flemish/Dutch, it is VERY basic, and I don’t have the time to look up translations for languages I don’t understand, sorry.

People who have twitter names such as MLM_1234 - I prefer people with real names, although I’m not anal about this - if you fulfil the criteria in the first list your name doesn’t matter.

So there you have it, some of the reasons I do and don’t follow people. If you’re following me and I haven’t followed you back, don’t take it personally - I just don’t know you yet. Send me an @ message to say hi, and I’ll probably follow you if you fit into the first list.

As an extra to this, most people who follow me will get a message saying “Thanks for the follow - check out http://tinyurl.com/5d2jg8 to see how I use Twitter! Send me an @ to say Hi!” - this isn’t automated, although it is a cut and paste message. I check out most people who follow me, and send them that message so that they know what to expect.
You can follow me on Twitter here - let me know what you think of this post, and please feel free to retweet it so others can read it.

And of course, please feel free to comment below!

Larson note: Here are my twitter thoughts on following

As of right now (time of writing), I follow 169 people, and have 164 people following me. MY following an d followrs goes back and forth and I really pay little attention to it.

Who do I follow and why?
Before I add anyone, I do look at their site we what they are tweeting and how often they tweet. If this meets with my personal satisfaction I add them.

People who have written articles that I like, and put their Twitter details at the end - I know that they may Tweet about other articles they write, and it’s an easy way to keep up with them.

People who are respected in my industry - they will Tweet SEO news, and links to articles I may not pick up on my own.

People who other people I follow have recommended - you could call it ‘networking’

People who retweet my articles and blog posts - if they’re retweeting me, they may be doing the same for other epople I should be aware of.

People who I find during random searches - I have alerts for various keyphrases and sometimes they throw up intersting people.

People who write apps / have sites I like / use - so that I can keep up with their news and developments.

People who have sent me an @ message - if you’ve taken the time to message me, I’ll check you out and probably follow you.

People who have an interesting business I want to know about and have a greater synergy with.
People who I consider a prospect.

And who DON’T I follow and why?
People who have just one Tweet, usually promoting a website - your twitter stream doesn’t tell me enough about you to know whether or not I want to follow you.

People who have nothing in their Twitter profile - unless your Tweets are particularly interesting, if i know nothing about you, I won’t follow you.

People who Tweet constantly about themselves and their business - if you do this and share nothing else of interest, I’ll unfollow you.

People who don’t reply to @ messages - Twitter is a two way thing and if I can see people have messaged you but you’ve not replied, then I probably won’t follow you. Similarly, if I @ you and you don’t respond on more than a couple of occasions, I’ll probably unfollow you.

People who only ever auto tweet - so their tweets are all automatically set up and they never actually post anything themselves. I get to see all the things they comment on, their latest blog posts, and in some cases their retweeted DMs (yes @thomaspower I’m talking about you) yet they never actually Twitter themselves.

People who Tweet in a language other than English all the time. Although I do have some understanding of French, Norwegian and Swedish, it is VERY basic, and I don’t have the time to look get out the old dictionary, sorry.

The big taboo (for me) People who tweet 10 to 12 times an hour. Hate my screen being filled up with 1 person.

Yes they are almost the same as Nikki’s but then why add or change something that doesn’t need it?


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
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*Source: Nikki Pilkington https://twitter.com/NikkiPilkington http://businessontwitter.co.uk/twitter/2009/01/who-i-follow-and-who-i-dont-and-why-on-twitter/