How many tweeps should I follow?
It took me some time before I delved into Twitter. So — although I’m fairly active in the Twitter community, I still consider myself a newbie.
One of the first and ongoing quandaries we’re faced with on Twitter is who to follow, and who not to follow. Or possibly more poignantly – how many to follow. I’ve struggled with this, but have fine tuned my philosophy.
Following too many people for certain lowers your capacity to interact. But frankly, I find it rather elitist when someone is following just a few people – especially when they are being followed by thousands. It’s a symbol of status to be sure — but it’s also a symbol to me of how much you value other people. Seriously – of all the thousands of people following you, you can find just a handful that are of any interest to you to interact with? It just seems pompous.
Personally I find it difficult to not follow people who follow me. That’s because so many people seem so darn cool. But following many has it’s drawbacks… your Twitter stream quickly can become overwhelming. Which is why I love to make use of Twitter Lists.
By utilizing Twitter lists I can check in on certain types of people that I’m following at any given time depending on my mood and interests that day. Some examples of lists that I keep:
PR-Pros – My work as an SEO who focuses on ORM (Online Reputation Management) makes me very curious about the Public Relations community and in particular how traditional PR is changing in the age of Social Media. So I check on this list quite often!
I also obviously love my SEO and Fresh Social Media lists!
SAHM-WAHM – I love keeping in touch with the Work at Home Mom community, it keeps me sane!
And I have many more… you can even follow lists that other people have made.
I don’t check on these people every day. But I value them enough to follow them, and love to network with them from time to time.
I’m a lover of coincidences and so most often I just open up TweetDeck and check in with whoever is currently in my stream. It’s fun! I love to engage with a variety of people that are of interest to me in one way or another. I love to help them out when I can. Whether it’s an RT for someone who has something of value to say but not many followers (yet!) or a technical problem on wordpress that I happen to know the answer to — or simply to add to conversation someone tries to drum up. It’s all good.
I know many people will argue that I’m diluting my followers too much to really build a strong community. That might be so to some degree. But I’ve made so many excellent social and professional connections on Twitter that I know this way works for me… most importantly it works for me ethically!
What are your thoughts on WHO and HOW MANY to follow on Twitter?
