The new rules of twitter follows

February 18, 2009
Posted by Kelly Rusk

The new rules of twitter follows

: Image via CrunchBase

Ok, so these aren’t necessarily new, nor are they actually a defined set of rules, but it made for a good headline so here we go!

Are you insulted when someone doesn’t follow you back? Or unfollows you? I suppose it’s human nature to feel a little slighted when you extend the virtual handshake and someone does not return it right away. However, although similar, Twitter is not necessarily all about relationships. It’s definitely a big part, but also you probably use it to seek out information. And if you’re strategic, you get a lot of value from Twitter.

Until recently, I’ve pretty much followed everyone who follows me. Now I’m hovering at following 1,400 people and I find it a tad overwhelming–I’m missing important tweets that I want to catch and if I wanted to read *every* tweet received, I’d be reading twitter all day and never getting any work done. When I get some time, I’m probably going to do a huge purge, particularly unfollowing people who I don’t recognize or haven’t interacted with. It’s nothing personal, and I’d rather not, but information overload is getting to me.

So on with the rules, right now my rules are:

1. Not obviously a spam account or account used to push blog posts only

2. Must have bio

3. Tweet content must be interesting to me

New rules will be all of the above plus a minute to ponder “Will following this person add value to my twitter experience?” It’s pretty vague so I’m not sure if it’ll work, I guess we’ll see.

What are your twitter follow/unfollow rules? How many people are you following? Am I crazy for getting to 1,400?!

UPDATE: Joe Thornley did a very similar post yesterday too, perhaps it’s a widespread problem…

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Posted Under random

http://blogcampaigning.com Parker

I think that when people first start out with Twitter, they can’t be picky – it makes sense to just follow everyone until you have a better idea of how the service works.

I’m only following around 400-500 right now, and even I find that a bit overwhelming. The point of Twitter is the conversation, and you can’t really have a conversation with many more people than that.

At this point, I don’t generally follow someone back unless I recently met them or unless they @ me with something relevant.

There are no hard and fast rules, and I don’t think anyone should take offense to not being followed on Twitter.
http://www.alifebe.com DSvT

Totally agreed on your ideas…
http://propr.ca/2009/deciding-who-to-follow-on-twitter/ ” » Deciding who to follow on Twitter” from Pro PR

[...] Kelly Rusk also had a post about what she looks for when deciding who to follow on Twitter. [...]
http://twitter.com/ChromeSushi ChromeSushi

Oh noes, now I need to fill out a bio.
http://www.web2dotwhat.com Kelly Rusk

@Parker I think your bang on–you start out following everyone and then get forced to be more selective.

@ChromeSushi hahah Actually I usually follow people from Ottawa regardless, so I suppose I should have said a bio OR relevant location. But a bio is a good idea.
http://www.SEO-writer.com David Leonhardt

I find it crazy following 250. Thank goodness a few of them are not all that active. I have unfollowed a couple people, including one who is widley respected, because she swears in her tweets many times each day. I don’t need that in my face all day long. I also don’t like following people whose tweets are mostly two-way conversations (personal, not informational) with a few select people. There are other places for them to speak than in my tweet-stream – such as through DMs.
http://www.askaround.ca Wendy

Ask Around is a local service so I only follow Ottawa tweets. This has become a fascinating window into a cross section of twitter users, particularly because I try my best to take notice of everyone. (I do occasionally unfollow tweeters with excess bad language or other stuff I don’t need in my office)

Don’t know how much longer I will be able to keep following this way; even with Tweetdeck following >350 can be hard work. Twitter is a great fit for askaround.ca so I am hoping that even better tools are in the pipeline to help me maintain >400 conversations.

Wendy

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