Posted on September 22, 2011 by @mqtodd

I am writing this to clear up your Twitter following policy once and for all.

Like all social networking Twitter is essentially a game. You are in the game to make connections and build relationships and to be entertained and informed. From there you want to share those thoughts and information and also your own. From there you want to get that shared. As with all games it CAN be fun!

There has been considerable debate recently (and it has been going on forever) about whether you should follow people back. I have strong opinions about this and they are getting stronger. This is a new age of communication and of marketing. What may have been good say a month or two ago is no longer necessarily relevant.

Reason 1

O. R. S

The key in September 2011 is to be open, to be random and to supportive (ORS). Not to be controlling, closed and selective. The online world is becoming more open and you must be seen as a sharer and someone that people can communicate with. The default is now social. Refusing connections is not social.

We are in this together.

Reason 2.

Empathy.

Please place yourself in the position of a Twitter newbie or someone who really likes you and/ or your content. How will they feel if you do not follow them back? In this age of connection allied with brilliant tools to manage your connections there is so little reason not to follow back.

You never know which amazing connection you may be preventing by not following back. The balance surely goes towards the connection. Twitter cannot always be a one to one conversation and as your ” @ mentions ” increase you will not be able to reply to or thank absolutely everyone. You have to become a master of the “one to a thousand conversation”. I do believe though that you should at least try and be seen to be trying to be communicative. It just supports the general Twitter community and is the way I feel things are headed.

Reason 3.

Leadership.

In this new age of connection and sharing you can easily become a connector of connectors and these people are growing in influence together with content creators.

To be seen as a connector of connector you need to have visible connections, especially in your niche. Twitter allows you the power to do this. This is a very public space and people have a lot of choices as to who they really get behind and promote. To be that person you need to be seen as a leader. Leaders do not shut people off.

So how does this work in practice? What tools and strategies do you need to employ?

I follow around 46,000 people. An argument against following so many is that I will be spammed. In actual case that does not happen. I subscribe to @optmeout which removes practically all auto-DMs (Direct messages). I get around 10-15 a week if that.

How do I watch my stream? I watch my stream to be random, but I do not watch it all the time. It gives me a great guage of what is happening on Twitter and how a wide and various range of people are using Twitter. People who I have drawn to me in the past 30 months. Some are “spammers” or “broadcasters” yes. But if we are to be truly open and random  then we must watch and understand these people and how they are using Twitter too. If they approach us we should consider replying occasionally. Do not close yourself off to anyone.

The majority of the time I watch my lists on Hootsuite and I am constantly refining these lists so that I get news and views from people I really want it from. Yes I will miss some great stuff when it first goes by but I have total faith that if I stay totally random then I will see that content again as it will be shared and reshared and eventually find its way to me. You will find that there are several other reasons to build and maintain lists but this is a good enough one for starters. Of course if people do not follow me back I can still watch their timelines in my lists.

It is also incredibly easy to simply follow back. I use Tweetadder for this. It just saves so much time! My settings are adjusted to unfollow people who have not tweeted for a month and people who have not followed me back within two weeks. This has led to a 57,000 -46,000 ratio after 30 months.

My “Twitter time” flows beautifully and easily. Yours can too.

Let’s get together and feel allright

Michael

Posted by @mqtodd

Hi I am Michael. Why am I excited about Social Media? Everyone of us, by using the latest tools and strategies, can make a difference.Thank you for reading and sharing my posts