Something to Think About

It seems to be inevitable. You’re in the midst of a group talking about best business practices in using Twitter, and someone asks “should I follow back everyone who follows me?”

While your core answers are naturally “yes” or “no,” the “why?” that supports each answer can vary as widely as the number of people you ask. (And that’s not even getting into the “sometimes, maybe, a percentage of them” options).

Following on Twitter

Early on in Twitter, the primary way to get followers was to follow someone first. Everyone was focused on what I’ll call the “Feed My Followers” phase. There was a higher level of conscience – you followed someone back simply because they followed you, in order to avoid the microscopic twinge of guilt that ensued if you didn’t.

And there wasn’t really a good way to monitor an account on an ongoing basis if you didn’t follow it – if you wanted to know what was going on, it was simpler to follow and have posts show up automatically in your feed, rather than manually search and bring the account up every time you wanted to know what was what.

But with the ballooning of Twitter we became less able to keep track of everyone we wanted to connect with in the Twitterverse, as our follows and followers became greater in number. You may have started just tweeting friends, and darned if you weren’t following a few hundred accounts before you knew it.

But then Twitter introduced lists in late 2009 – a way to categorize and surf entire groups of tweeters – without following a single one of them. A commitment-phobe’s dream, you can just set up a list. Heck, you can follow other’s lists. And this month, Mashable even launched a Twitter List Index where users can post their lists/list descriptions, so others can find and follow them with a click.

So stop and think a minute. One less reason to actively follow an individual account – one less reason to commit. Hold up!  For a brand, doesn’t this add even greater value to someone who is following you?

Chew on that thought for a bit, then read on for Part Two – Rationale for Following Back...

(Shaun Amanda Herrmann)