How to decide who to follow on Twitter
We’ve already established that how you act on Twitter is paramount in determining your success when using this microblogging platform. What you say, how you engage others, how you act towards them, all these matter in positioning you as either an ideal Twitter user to follow or a nuisance.
The following question is how to effectively choose people to follow on Twitter. There are literally millions of options to choose from and in most cases you know nothing of that user prior to seeing their Twitter profile page. What should you look for, what criteria are there to be used to decide if clicking the follow button is a good choice?
Again, this does not necessarily apply to people you know or whose work you follow. If your favorite bloggers are tweeting, of course you will follow them. You will probably also follow some friends and relatives for diversity. But these are people you already trust or look up to and the value of their tweets needs no further proofs.
1. Check out the numbers
How many people do they follow? How many follow them back? How many tweets have they posted already? If for example the person you want to follow has been tweeting for a week, has 3 tweets, follows 1500 people and only 5 follow them back, of which 3 are bots, that user is not someone you should follow.
If on the other hand they follow 10 people and tens of thousands follow them back, they won’t be a valuable Twitter connection. The most common scenario is that you’ll follow them, they won’t follow back, you will never engage in a meaningful conversation with them.
2. Check out their content
Is what they tweet interesting to you or your own followers? If the content they post is not in any way related to the fields or activities you’re interested in, following them makes no sense. Some people you follow for the great information they post, relevant to your job or line of business, some you follow because they cover your hobbies or passions, some you just follow because their tweets are a great way to relax. Of course, the reason you follow them might be the same for which other people follow you and retweeting their messages might be valuable to you. But if what they post is something you may as well leave without, the logical decision is to continue to ignore them.
3. Check out their conversations
Do they retweet other people’s stuff? How many people to they exchange replies with? If you’re on Twitter, you’re there to exchange ideas with other people, share tips and offer advice and be introduced to fresh content to users you might not be introduced to otherwise. If the only thing you get from following someone is fresh news from a field, there are dozens of other services that broadcast constantly.
4. Check out tweet frequency
If a certain user has not posted an update to their Twitter account in over three months, they probably won’t use that account again. They might come back later, but following them just to add a number to your counter has little value of any kind.
If they post on a regular basis, also check out how many tweets they post each day. Some people are power users that post a few updates every 5 minutes. If that does not bother you, then follow ahead. If you cringe at the thought of too many messages flooding your stream, step away from their profile
What do you check before deciding who to follow on Twitter? Which are the best criteria you’ve used up to now?
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Hey Alex,
For me I divide whether I follow via the follow button or follow via adding them to one of my 20 lists that puts them into a category related to what they are tweeting about.
I put someone on a list just as any reason you mentioned above. But, I follow someone when I feel connecting them and making sure I see their tweets will benefit me and whatever I’m doing.
That’s what I like about Twitter. It’s a tool that you can use to fit your needs. But, seeing that they have conversations with people and seeing their frequency being high are the key things that attract me to be of interest to adding them to my list or following them.
Best,
Derek
You’re definately going to follow those tweeters those who engage you with their content. If what you’re reading is interesting and relates to you in some way, then follow that person. Sure, we all could follow Ashley K. (like the other sheeple), but where’s the depth or value in that?
Good post.
Well, as for myself, I mainly follow those who have relevant content like what the #2 mentioned above. I don’t necessarily follow those who have a large list of followers such as a celebrity for example.
I follow people whose tweets interests me, whose tweets inform and even entertain. I follow those whose tweets can fill a need I have.
I just want to add that, follow those who are verified too.
I agree with Tinh, you should make sure they really are who they say they are. There are a lot of impersonators out there. I sifted through them and have a list of some of the best people to follow in my post at: http://bloggerlisted.blogspot......itter.html . Great tips on this post too, you touched all the bases.
i follow 70 people and 6 follow me but only 1 of my 70 follow me back