Recently while at a conference, I was asked if I follow back everyone that follows me on Twitter. I'll be honest, I completely avoided the question like the plague because I knew that no matter WHAT I said, I was going to be the recipient of a lecture about how their "philosophy" was far more effective blah, blah, blah...(You know, the "typical" conference behavior)
BUT, after a couple of weeks of thinking about it, I have decided to answer.Here's the deal...NO, I don't automatically follow back everyone that follows me. Yes, I admitted it. I don't. Why you may ask?
It's simple, really:I choose to follow people that actually engage WITH me. I don't think that is mean, or incorrect, it is just my preference. I have no problems if someone doesn't WANT to engage, and would rather just be a silent onlooker, but if that is the case, don't get all butt hurt if I don't follow you back. I am sure some of you reading this disagree with me right about now, but before you do, let me tell you all that I absolutely DO look at every single profile that follows me. If at a first glance I don't automatically recognize or know the person IRL, then I don't click follow right away. The way I see it, if a person follows me it is probably for one of the reasons:1.) They are just adding a TON of people in the hopes of growing their own following.
2.) We recently met at a social media event.
3.) They enjoyed one of the back and forth Twitter conversations they saw me involved in.
4.) They read one my blogs and decided to check out my tweets.
5.) OR they are just simply curious what I am all about. All of the above reasons are totally fine by me, but unless I have recently met you IRL or at an event, I am NOT going to click follow right away.*NOTE* I said right away...not never.
I actually just wait.
For what?To see WHO actually interacts with me. IMHO, if you interact with me (genuinely and not spamishly), I will not only follow you back, but I will most likely add you to a list as well. (Oftentimes several different lists) And you know what? I don't think I am mean for operating in this manner, and I personally think it's totally fair. If someone is purely adding, adding, adding to gain new followers, I could care LESS if they drop me because I don't follow them back. To be honest, they are not the kind of audience I choose to cultivate anyways. I am not on Twitter trying to win a popularity contest, and I honestly don't care about my numbers. For me, it's all about the quality of my reach versus the quantity. And if for some reason I was to one day reach a gazillion followers, I would know that my numbers slowly accumulated due to the fact that I have a very qualified and genuine audience.
Now THAT would make me happy.=)(Photo courtesy of: http://polygeek.com/)
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