Why should anyone follow you on Twitter?

I don’t have a huge following on Twitter. I’m only just starting to devote some energy to building up a following, as most of my time is spent producing articles and videos for my blog (that’s my excuse anyway). Nevertheless a steady trickle of notifications come into my e-mail box, telling me that so and so is following me on Twitter.

Should I follow back?

When someone follows me, I don’t automatically follow them back. Let me share with you the thought process I go through when I decide whether to follow or not to follow you back. I do this not because I have any Twitter success to share, but because if I’m going through this thought process, then probably other potential Twitter followers are too. And if you want to build up your followers, you need to know what will make someone want to follow you. This is what I look at;

Are they tweeting in my Niche?

First I look at my new Twitter follower’s page. Instantly I work out what their niche is – probably either Travel or Internet Marketing in my case. If the Tweets are not on my area of interest I probably won’t follow.

Do the tweets add value?

Then I look at the quality of the Tweets – are they adding lots of value? Do they pique my interest? Does this person have some personality and a sense of humour? I might click on a few links to see if their interests co-incide with mine. Tweets along the lines of ‘Just got up and having a cup of coffee’ are a big turn off – I have enough mundane stuff going on in my life already.

Is there a nice friendly photo?

I like to follow people, not websites. I like to see a photo that shows a bit of personality, a friendly face, a nice smile (note to self, change photo to one with more smile) . I’m a bit suspicious of airbrushed perfection, but that’s the Brit in me, I suppose. If you live in LA and have perfect teeth you’ll love that sort of thing.

Is there meat behind the tweet?

Then I look at their website address. If there isn’t one, chances are I won’t follow – there’s just not enough meat behind the tweet. If the web address is a sales page I DEFINITELY won’t follow. Folks – you need to understand the concept of the free line. If you don’t have a lot of great stuff on the free side of the free line there are plenty of other places I can go instead. I don’t give my e-mail address to just anyone, so they can bombard me with sales letters you know! If there’s an interesting blog or website in my niche then chances are I’ll follow.

Do I know this person?

If the person is someone I already know through my blogging, who has e-mailed me, commented on my blog, I’ll almost certainly follow. Otherwise it would be like a friend asking you to their party and turning them down because you were staying in to wash your hair – lame excuse.

What’s the ratio of Following vs Followers?

Next I look at the person’s ratio of followers to following. Here’s how I look at it;

Low following, high followers – this person is a thought leader. They’re probably already successful in their niche with a lot of people trying to get their attention. They feel confident enough in their leadership that they don’t need to follow just everyone. If they want to follow me, that’s flattering because they obviously feel I have something worthwhile to say (or am I kidding myself?). I’ll definitely follow.

Low following, low followers – this person is just starting out with Twitter, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t got some interesting content on their blog or elsewhere. So I’ll use the other criteria, to decide whether they’re worth following.

High following, High followers – Especially if we’re talking over the 10K mark, this person is using Twitter as an active marketing strategy. They’re probably an internet marketeer, who recommends that you follow lots of new people in order to increase your own followers who you can then sell something to. I’m not particularly impressed by people with a huge following and I don’t have much to sell myself, so I don’t currently use this strategy. But if they are also leaders in their niche, have a great blog and other content I will follow. There’s a lot of mileage in tweeting or retweeting these people, as your tweet will be seen by all their followers.

High following, low followers – this is an unusual profile because most people have roughly equal numbers of followers and following. Either they’re spamming people or people don’t rate what they’ve got to say or their content is dubious – yes I’ve had a few of those Porn followers too ( Instant Block!). Anyway chances are I won’t be following.

The verdict

So I guess the theme is, that if you are witty, entertaining, beautiful, have something useful to say and have a great blog then you’ll attract heaps of twitter followers. Obvious really isn’t it?

So what makes you follow someone? Why would you follow me? (that’s a rhetorical question)

P.S. Did you guess who they are?

P.P.S Of course I’d love you to follow me, but only if you think I’m worth it. I’m @Heathercowper

By TwitterButtons.com

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