Comments on: Twitter Following Strategy Change

By: Rachel Levy

Rachel Levy — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:38:00 +0000

I’m never seen those hashtags before! But, I agree, for a business (i.e.
@WebinarListings) — especially with customer service issues, I autofollow.
For personal, I don’t.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:07:00 +0000

Keeping up with new followers is tough! It can get noisy sometimes. Probably the best argument for auto-following I’ve heard is that “it’s just polite to give my followers the option to DM me.” I don’t auto-follow for my personal account (my following is around the 2000 mark so it’s not at the OMG overwhelming point yet to keep up) but for the @oneforty account we do auto-follow. It’s a tough thing. It leads to us being followed by this huge group of people Tweeting under the #Teamfollowback and #teamautofollow hashtags that we have to sort through because they are just looking for follows and not relationships. However, following the community members back has worked out for us because we’ve been DM’d on issues and we able to resolve them personally via DM – and you have to be following each other to do that.

By: Joe Williams

Joe Williams — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:29:30 +0000

Hi Rachel – I agree with your new method: “if we interact, I follow you.” In recent days I've started reviewing my follower list and have been cleaning up based upon the above. Thanks for the tip on Topify.com – I'm going to check it out.

By: Rachel Levy

Rachel Levy — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:54:13 +0000

Thx for the comment Michelle! I obviously agree on not having the time! I
still worry about missing some good people, but sometimes you just can't do
it all!

By: michelletripp

michelletripp — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:49:38 +0000

Hi Rachel, I've been against auto following in the past, but lately it's starting to seem appealing again… because like you, sifting through new follows once a week takes so much time. Not that I don't appreciate it, but I carefully review every follower, and sometimes I just can't get to the in box for a week. And some weeks I don't have the hour or two to spare. Nothing against my followers, it just takes time to return a follow. I'd almost rather spend 20 minutes creating lists in hootsuite than two hours analyzing my topify emails.

Your new policy sounds pretty good, though. You're going to end up following only the people who genuinely want to connect which means you'll be able to focus and build much more valuable relationships. Curious how your experimental strategy pans out!

By: Rachel Levy

Rachel Levy — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:21:01 +0000

Try Topify.com... they do that, and it's MUCH easier. You can also reply to
follow back (works for DM's too!). Thx for the comment!

By: Tamara Gruber

Tamara Gruber — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:14:55 +0000

Hi Rachel, I think the new policy makes a lot of sense. I still review each new follower but the task can be daunting at times. I wish Twitter made it easier by including the bio, location, and last 10 tweets in the notification email so I would only need to click on the ones that looked interesting.

By: Rachel Levy

Rachel Levy — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:57:46 +0000

Thanks Jerry!

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By: Rachel Levy

Rachel Levy — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:55:25 +0000

Yes, it IS tough…. going to give this a shot for a while, but have a
feeling it will stick!

By: TheBetsy

TheBetsy — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:42:47 +0000

Rachel-
I've toggled back and forth from auto-follow to review to if you engage me. It is hard to find the right balance, one that works well.

Engagement and conversation is the point, but sometimes you find you're just speaking to yourself on Twitter.

Interested to hear your experience….