Twitter is used by marketers, moms, bloggers, friends, families and all kinds of people from all over the place. They may not have a lot in common, but they do all have a following strategy put in place.
Most people probably don’t think about the strategy they use when they follow someone, but everyone has rules and standards for following other Twitter users. Let’s get into the strategies and see which one you use.
The MySpacer
The MySpacer’s goal is to follow anyone and everyone that is on Twitter. They believe that the true path to greatness is how many friends you have. The key to this strategy is the auto-follow. Many Twitter users will automatically follow anyone that follows them.
The MySpacer preys on this fact and adds people just for the auto-follow. If The MySpacer doesn’t get followed back, they will loop back around and unfollow anyone not following them. This keeps their ratio at a respectable level and makes sure that they don’t get marked as spam.
The Elitist
The Elitist’s goal is to only follow the people they deem important. They want their ratio to look as impressive as possible (or they just don’t like very many people on Twitter). It is near impossible to get these people to follow you unless you consistently RT their messages or tell them how great they are.
The Friend
The Friend will follow anyone that follows them. This means that they have no idea who half the people they follow are, which would be bad, but when you compare it to the fact that The MySpacer doesn’t know anyone they follow, it doesn’t seem so bad.
The NonStrategist
The NonStrategist (I think I just made up that word.) is usually the type of person that is just on Twitter to talk to their friends or follow famous people. The NonStrategist is usually someone that found out about Twitter from Oprah or CNN and just wants to see what all the fuss is about.
Conclusion
I have tried out all of the strategies above, but I now find myself somewhere between The Elitist and The Friend. What strategy do you use? Is it listed? If not, make sure to tell me all about it.
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June 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Sad to say, I started twitter life (I dunno, twife?) a MySpacer, going for sheer volume. I’ve since pared down the people I follow and focused my efforts a LOT more. Now I find myself somewhere between your Friend strategy and what I like to think of as Industry Insider. I’ve tracked down those in the advertising and design industries and I’m building relationships. To date, this strategy has been a trying and slow build but I am proud to say that a personal hero, Alex Bogusky, is following me… and 3,860 other people
June 6th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I went from The NonStrategist to The MySpacer to The Friend to The Elitist. I thought that I wanted a bunch of followers until I realized that I did not care anything about what the majority where tweeting. Eventually, I had to settle for Elitist because I realized that I like interacting with the people I am following.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I seem to be following Juscelino’s curve! I’m probably more Friend than anything else, and I’m continually watching the RTs to see what others that I’m not following are saying. [Some of which I wind up following, and they follow me sometimes too.] I can’t say I’ve been all too strategic with this approach, as I felt Twitter was much more organic in nature. Not sure I’ll go all Elitist on people; I seem to be managing the conversations pretty well so far. That said, I tend to follow the folks that follow me, but I will drop ‘em like a rock if they get annoying.
June 7th, 2009 at 7:19 am
My strategy has changed over the 2 years I’ve been on it. First it was to follow who follows me. Then I realized some of the people following me I wasn’t too interested in hearing from (non-spammers). Now I pretty much only follow people I know or am interested to hear what they may say — so it’s more about the potential of a connection. I’ve decided if someone follows me, I feel no obligation to follow them back unless they look interesting to me.
August 4th, 2009 at 1:40 am
I am an ‘elitist’. I will follow people if I feel they add value to my stream, but I don’t worry about how many people are following me. I do go in and check for porn or spambots, but otherwise I don’t block people who are following me, but I’m not likely to follow everyone back – especially if they are a MySpacer.
July 4th, 2010 at 10:06 am
I wasjust about to write the same article! Beat me to it…You did it better anyways :p