Let’s be clear, there are no rules for who you need to follow on twitter. You follow who you want, block you want, and talk to whomever you want to talk to. I’ve had several people tell me that I should follow them or that it’s twitter etiquette to follow everyone who follows you. I want to be very clear about who I follow and why I follow them.
I respect and value every twitter follower I have but I cannot follow 1,300 people because it is just too much for me. I can’t participate in 1,300 conversations and I can’t use twitter search to look for my name every single time it pops up, it’s just too much. If you can handle following 20,000 people like Robert Scoble does, then hey, more power to you, but I can’t, and why should I? If I’m interested in technology and you are a master underwater basket weaver, then thanks for following me, but I’m just not interested in under water basket weaving, and so I won’t follow you but if yous end me a message, I’ll gladly respond.
I’m very responsive to every DM and reply I get, that is how I participate in conversations that involve me, and that is how I feel that I can add the most value to my twitter followers. It’s not because I hate you and it’s not because I don’t think you’re an interesting person; it’s because I am trying to effectively manage my time while still being able to provide value and quality tweets! It’s like signing up for 50 different social networks, sure I’m on there and I have a presence, but there is no way I can manage that much information. I try to rotate who I’m following and discover new interesting people but please do not get upset or offended if I am not following you. Every person uses twitter differently, you have to do what makes sense for you!
You guys all rock and kick ass but for my own sanity and effectiveness I just cannot follow everyone! Again, if you ever want to get ahold of me all you have to do is send me a reply and I will immediately respond to you. If you need to send me a message longer than 140 characters, email me. I’m really very easy to get ahold of so don’t hesitate to do so.
Tweet on and thanks for reading!
Hi Jacob. Totally understand where you're coming from. Must say, I'm enjoying the groups feature of Tweetdeck though, because it's making it easier to follow more people back on Twitter and still hear the voices I really want to hear 🙂
Couldn't agree more, Jacob. With the number of conversations occuring simultaneously across Twitter, a certain degree of management is required to ensure that you benefit to the greatest extent from the conversations in which following causes you to be come involved. Whilst I will, on occasion, follow someone outside of my area of interest, I do so because that person looks like someone I can benefit in one way or another from following. It's nothing personal when I don't follow someone; it's simply a case of ensuring that the conversations that are being followed are relevant to me.
TLR
hey jasmin, im still using lil ol twhirl for all of my tweeting, perhaps I will check out tweetdeck one day but so far im content 🙂
thanks for the comment!
hey chris, havent heard from you in a little while. yep, it's really tough to follow and talk to everyone, it's just not efficient and practical. i try to follow folks outside my area of interest for the same reason.
thanks a lot for the comment and im still wanting and waiting to read that paper!
I wholeheartedly agree with you. It would be madness to follow everyone who follows you and then be able to pick out the relevant content among the 'noise'.
Twitter isn't about back scratching, it's about getting the interesting content you wish to receive and following 20,000 will render this virtually impossible. I sometimes take a look at the public timeline every now and again to see if there's anything interesting going on there that I am missing.
It will be interesting to see how it evolves when the general pubic starts using twitter: http://blog.iampaddy.com/2008/11/29/has-britney…
I am intrigued to find out more about underwater basket weaving though 😉
Well having to follow everyone that follows you will result in catastrophe for you on twitter.It's you they want to follow on as they(the readers usually don't have anything interesting to shout on…I guess there are other possible ways to engage with your readers like group discussion anyone?
hey paddy, i just prefer my sanity 🙂 there is no way that i can follow that many people. it's funny because people like scoble say they “hand pick” their followers and i dont believe that for a second. how do you hand pick 20,000+ people? everyone is just trying to follow everyone that follows them, not for me!
thanks for the comment and i too am intrigued to find out more about underwater basket weaving 🙂
group discussions, and proactively responding and replying to messages and and replies.
thanks for the comment!
I wholeheartedly agree with you. It would be madness to follow everyone who follows you and then be able to pick out the relevant content among the 'noise'.
Twitter isn't about back scratching, it's about getting the interesting content you wish to receive and following 20,000 will render this virtually impossible. I sometimes take a look at the public timeline every now and again to see if there's anything interesting going on there that I am missing.
It will be interesting to see how it evolves when the general pubic starts using twitter: http://blog.iampaddy.com/2008/11/29/has-britney…
I am intrigued to find out more about underwater basket weaving though 😉
Well having to follow everyone that follows you will result in catastrophe for you on twitter.It's you they want to follow on as they(the readers usually don't have anything interesting to shout on…I guess there are other possible ways to engage with your readers like group discussion anyone?
hey paddy, i just prefer my sanity 🙂 there is no way that i can follow that many people. it's funny because people like scoble say they “hand pick” their followers and i dont believe that for a second. how do you hand pick 20,000+ people? everyone is just trying to follow everyone that follows them, not for me!
thanks for the comment and i too am intrigued to find out more about underwater basket weaving 🙂
group discussions, and proactively responding and replying to messages and and replies.
thanks for the comment!