On Slaw blog, there was a post today about some issues a few lawyers had when they ended up following an individual on Twitter. The post ends by effectively asking if people feel they should follow someone who follows them or not. I added my thoughts into the comments of that post, but thought that would be a good topic for a quick entry in my blog as I have pondered that question for a while. I’ve added a little more detail here as to my criteria than the comment. The process is not cast in stone, rather a general set of guidelines that I typically use to make a decision.
My goal with social media is to connect and meet other interesting people. As a general rule, I believe that when someone decides to follow you they are indicating they value your opinion and/or want to start some sort of on-line relationship with you. At least for a majority of people, I believe this to be true. Specifically in my areas of interest (security and networking), Twitter has been very valuable for me in building relationships, getting feedback, and keeping abreast of what is happening. I also feel that the point of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and other social media sites is to connect with others, build relationships and trust. Accomplishing that requires both parties to give, just like a relationship between two friends. If it is one sided, what is the point?
That being said, there are those that will use social media for ‘bad’. Bad by my definition in this context, is to attempt to tweet me to death with useless information, send marketing links about products constantly, or use it as an automated tweeting tool where no real person is on the other side.
When someone follows me I typically do the following:
Check their twitter profile
Are others following them? What is the ratio they have of followers to following? If not many are following them, then I check how long they have been tweeting. Maybe they are new. The ratio of followers to following is a indication to me of how active they are and how interested they are in others. A low follow rate may indicate they like to say things, but don’t like to hear opinions of others. Not 100%, but an indicator.
Scan their tweets
I scan their previous tweets. Are they informative and original or are they all just re-tweets. Do they appear to be all just trying to sell products? Do they appear to be auto-generated?
Internet presence
Do they have an Internet presence such as a website, blog, Facebook account, Linkedin account? If they have a website does it look legitimate? Does the website or blog have information that is useful? Are their opinions? Is their an ‘about me’ area where they tell the reader about them. This is extremely important to me. I like to know who I am building a relationship with. I don’t need big secrets about them, but a general concept of who you are, what you do, likes dislikes is helpful. If I am going to read your posts, references to articles, I’d like to know that you are real and have some background and/or experience with the information you post.
General Internet search
I will search Google. Do they post elsewhere? Do they have comments and opinions?
Based on the information I find and feedback, I make a decision to follow or not. This evaluation process is similar for blogs I add to my blog reader. Again, this is not cast in stone. There are a few that I follow that do not follow me back and that is fine. However, for me that is the exception as opposed to the rule.
Do you have a criteria for who you follow on Twitter or what blogs you subscribe to?
