I recently created a twitter account for my news page. I placed a little “Follow Us” link, and people begin to follow me on twitter. Now the question is, should I follow them back?
I understand if I had a personal blog, and people would follow me, it would be nice to follow them back since it would show that we both have interests in each other’s writing. However, my website is a news page, and I meant to use twitter just so that other people would be alerted when there are new things, sort of an twitter-based RSS thing.
So, to be honest, I don’t really care what other people following me tweet about. But, should I still follow them back? Will people get upset/unfollow me if I don’t follow them back? When do you think you should refollow someone if they follow you?
First you have to know if the person who is following you is authentic. Other accounts are automated or a bot, so make sure they are truly active on twitter. Other factor also includes your interest, both ways should have the same interest so you could be able to share ideas and tweets.
I generally tend to think that a person is more authoritative (as in a news service) if they follow few people instead of more. If you’re just starting out however and want to get more followers through twitter, the best thing I think is to follow everyone that follows you (unless of course you can tell they’re spammers). I follow pretty much anyone that follows me, but if their tweets start taking over my feed, then I “unfollow” them.
I also think it’s really nice if people put a link to their twitter in their forum signature, that way I can follow them if I like what they’re saying. I know they are potential abuses, but just throwing the idea out there.
I didn’t even ask the question, but thanks to everyone who answered. I was wondering the same thing. There are pros and cons to following someone on Twitter because they started following you so I was unsure which approach to take.
I don’t think you should follow them back. Yes, they know that you Twit them for the news and the ones interested in its will follow you no matter if you follow them or not. The ones that won’t follow you anymore because you don’t follow them, they are an unstable public for your sites and they will not visit your website if they’re not interested. So, in this wat you’ll create a devoted group of people who will be interested in what you publish. Isn’t this the purpose? to create a niche?
I’m with mizwizzy here. I think following back when it’s appropriate. And yes, you will get some people upset and they will unfollow you if you don’t follow back.
Something to also think about though is that Twitter IS a social networking site and it’s not only a great way to market your business but build relationships.
If possible, if you can incorporate the social interaction aspect of it, you may find it useful in creating a stronger following then if you did not. You may be missing out on one of the most powerful aspects of this tool.
I have always been shocked by the number of people who subscribe to my twitter account even though I have never used it to post a single tweet. Either my popularity has skyrocketed by not tweeting (logically impossible) or there are a fair amount of spam Twitter accounts (I am guessing the latter is what is happening). I have seen news websites where Twitter accounts of celebrities are featured. It makes interesting reading.
I only follow those whom I have an active interest in regularly reading their content (particularly if they have a site which I frequent), for me it’s all about being an existing visitor rather than following on the basis of friendship or anything else. Twitter isn’t like Facebook and it’s not all about the number of followers, it’s about keeping in touch with those who make a difference in your life. At least that’s the way I look at it!
You shouldn’t feel obligated to follow all people back, even if you worry they’ll think it’s rude of you, our experts say. Instead, you should follow people who share your interests or whose tweets you find meaningful or compelling.
That sounds like the sort of situation where it would be completely inappropriate to follow them back.
There are a lot of different uses for Twitter, some where it is appropriate to follow everyone who follows you, some where it is inappropriate to follow anyone, and most that flall somewhere in between.
