by Colleen Flood*
While looking at my Tweetdeck on HootSuite yesterday, I started singing the song “Follow” in my head by Genesis. This is a great song from the 80s that brings back a memory of my sister and brother-in-law dancing to their wedding song. Though, this time it wasn’t the memory of my sister’s first dance. I think the reason it came to me was the buzz lately regarding following and un-following on Twitter these days.
- Flickr Image: alasam
In addition, as my followers can attest, I was recently the victim of a spam attack which sent out “inappropriate” messages to all of my followers. Thankfully those who received the message quickly informed me of the issue. For many, this was the first time we had directly communicated with one another, however – not exactly the best first impression. But unfortunately, I am not the first person and probably won’t be the last to have their account hacked while using Twitter.
Both the headlines and my recent situation have inspired me to look more closely at the people who follow me and I in return follow back.
One example is a follow I received from @alatulip26268. While I’m flattered to have gained another follower, why are they following me? Is it because they are tied to public relations and possibly curious about the services BurrellesLuce can provide? Or, perhaps we share the same interests – such as a passion for skiing? Upon closer examination, it seems as though this profile amounts to little more than spam or at least that’s how it appears. So I did not follow @alatulip26268 back.
Another example is a recent follow I received from @worob. This follow I felt “privileged” to receive because @worob is in a similar industry as me and has quite an impressive bio: “Former reporter turned PR rock star, Publisher for PR at Sunrise, Creator of Big East PR Pros Networking Group on LinkedIn, SM enthusiast & aspiring guitarist!” I decided it could be very beneficial to follow this person back after reading some of his past tweets. Although I have not engaged with @worob yet, I hope to and anticipate @worob is following me for all the same reasons I’m following him.
There has also been some talk that many are using Twitter as merely a numbers game or a popularity contest to see how many followers one can accumulate. To gain more followers, many are only following someone to get a follow back.
Mikinzie Stuart (@mikinzie) recently wrote about this subject in a post on the Brazen Careerist blog entitled, “In Review: FriendorFollow.com.” FriendorFollow.com is a website that tells you who out of those you follow do not follow you back. Mikinzie, who I follow, wrote that when she first went on this site she was upset that many of those she follows, has engaged with, and even met in real life have un-followed her.
She goes on to say that at first it bothered her but now it does not one bit. She’s not on Twitter for the numbers or the popularity. I agree and will not be discouraged by my un-followers, which I did check out and was surprised by, and will as Mikinzie put it “continue to share in the mutually beneficial relationships derived from my Twitter community.”
Do you follow back every person who follows you? What are your guidelines for those you follow?
*Bio: Colleen Flood has been a sales consultant with BurrellesLuce for over 12 years and is eager to become a more integrated part of the social-public relations community. She primarily handles agency relations in the New York and New Jersey metro-area. She is not only passionate about work, but also about family, friends, and the Jersey Shore. Twitter: @cgflood LinkedIn: Colleen Flood Facebook: BurrellesLuce
Appreciate the kind words, Colleen! FYI – I’m a HUGE fan of Genesis (maybe I shouldn’t post this outloud?!).
Thanks again
You are welcome Andrew. I look forward to following your tweets and meeting you IRL on March 10 at the PRStudChat tweetup.
I enjoyed your post, Colleen. I used to have a strict rule for myself: I only followed people I knew and who worked in my geographic area. Plus news sources, like the Washington Post and the New York Times. But today, I am trying a little experiment. I am following back everyone who is following me. I’ll see how that works out!
Once I reached more than 200 followers (I have more than 300, but I know that is modest, compared to many people), I felt pretty overwhelmed with all the good information on my stream. I was afraid some of it was passing me by. So now, I try my best to ignore the ongoing stream (or I just connect with what is above the fold) and concentrate on my Twitter “lists.” Otherwise, I would never get anything done. I find Twitter so distracting in a good way that it can eat up a lot of my time.
I have a list for clients, one for journalists, one for PR agencies and indies. I have one for communications groups, and several for my various interests. That way, I can check in with my lists (I try to check in on my clients daily) and keep up with what they are tweeting, look for retweet opportunities, etc.
For me, for some reason, this works better for me than Tweet Deck. Lists just easier to me.
It’s still a lot of work and it’s time consuming trying to digest all the great info and news that gets tweeted on my stream, but I feel like I’m starting to get a handle on managing it all.
I will say that I hope people appreciate just how difficult it is to absorb all this information. That’s why I get especially irritated with four-square, live-tweeting, or customer service rants. I don’t learn anything or benefit from those tweets, and I don’t think it’s considerate to post information that isn’t useful or beneficial to your followers, just as you wouldn’t do that in an actual conversation.
Mary,
Thank you for your comments. I think you will find value in following those outside of your geographic area, I know I do. I hope your experiment goes well. Also, I find it interesting that you are using lists to keep up with what those you follow tweet. I’m always looking for ways to be organized and save time – your suggestion may help!
Colleen
Great Post Colleen:
If someone follows me, I usually will follow them if they have a custom background, have unique job , or talk about something that interesting. I might not reply to everyone on my twitter stream. But its cool seeing what things people are interested in ranging from politics, tv shows,pr, to sports.
Before this post I never even heard of Genesis. When you mention their song I youtubed said “Hey this song is actually pretty decent” and now its uploaded to my ipod.
Rob,
I’m glad you liked my post and that you are now listening to Genesis! I think you are so right about having variety in who you follow. It keeps things interesting!
Thank you,
Colleen