Friday, July 22, 2011

How To Successfully Gain Me As A Follower


I'm noticing an annoying trend on twitter. Maybe it's new, or maybe I've just now noticed it.

New followers who are spectacularly failing to receive my follow back.

This isn't going to be a rant. Think of it as a handy set of guidelines to tweet by. :)

I use Hootsuite to tweet with. On the profile page for a tweeter it gives me the option to look back through the last several tweets you've sent. After your initial profile in 200 characters or less, this is one of the major decision criteria I use for follow/no follow decisions.

It's not hard people. Seriously.

Do:
  • Be interesting - If all you tweet about is the ducks you fed at the pond, I'm probably not the follower you want. Ducks can be interesting (And sometimes even tasty!), but if you're just ducks 24/7/365, I'm going to go load my blocking gun. As I'm writing this, @JStevenYork just shared a fascinating youtube video with his followers about the design of the lunar rover, and how it fit into an empty 5ft tall x 5ft wide x 5ft deep wedge-shaped storage space on the lunar lander. THAT is being interesting, folks.
  • Be relevant to me - Okay, this one you CAN'T control, but it's really not too hard. I have lots of interests, you'll probably fit in one of them if you try. Just look at my log line for the blog for inspiration.
  • Interact with your followers - Put the SOCIAL in Social media. If you aren't talking to people, you're not being interesting to me, and probably less relevant.

Don't:
  • Be a spammer - You're just asking to get blocked and reported.
  • Be a link whore - You links might be interesting, maybe even useful, but I'm not going to follow you.
  • Fill your tweets with quotes of famous people - If all your tweets consist of these, you're not going to have me following you.
See? Simple dos and don'ts. Follow them, and I'm more than likely going to follow you back.

Any tips for separating the wheat from the chaff? Feel free to share them!
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9 comments:

  1. A great list of tips, particularly for a blogging/tweeting newbie like me. :) Thanks for the follow!

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  2. Great list! I hate when I follow someone and then get the auto DM telling me to check out their other pages. I don't mind auto-dms, but not ones that ask me to do more.

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  3. Hi Stacy!
    I *knew* I forgot something. The auto-DM. UGH. Hate those. That will have to go into a revised list.

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  4. Okay. Now way I can live up to all of that. Best of luck to you!

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  5. Great post and I agree with most of them. I personally like quotes, but only if I can use them in a sarcastic manner. That's the dry in me, I guess. lol.I get a big kick when someone RTs the quote I post when I was really meaning it as a snub to someone... :) Makes me laugh every time. *runs away with evil laughter sailing behind her*

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  6. Hi Rachel!
    I agree with you, some quotes are fine, but not to obsessively tweet 10 or 15 in a row.
    Thanks for stopping by! :)

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  7. I am laughing now! Hahaha! So true. I know the link whores although I am known to blog whore, but I am not exclusive to that. I am not really sure why some use Twitter..Great post!

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  8. LOL. Love this post. Darn...I really wanted to start tweeting about ducks, ducks, ducks. :D

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  9. LOL. Love this post. Darn...I really wanted to start tweeting about ducks, ducks, ducks. :D

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