Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Top 10 Signs You ARE Worth Following On Twitter

August 18, 2009 | Feature, Social Media

It was suggested by a few of my readers that I do a counterpart to my post on the Top 10 Signs You’re Not Worth Following on Twitter. It seems it is only fair. After all, I’ve done enough complaining. :)

So, without further ado, why would I follow you on Twitter?

  1. You’re interesting. If you talk about things I’m interested in, I’m going to follow you. Seems pretty simple? It is.
  2. You have a picture. I like following PEOPLE, not crap-colored avatars. A picture of yourself on Twitter means you’re real.
  3. You’re an opinion leader. If people trust you in your market and what you say is useful and important, I’ll follow you.
  4. You are retweeted. If people I know and respect are often retweeting you, I consider you important to follow.
  5. I know you or we’ve met. If I have met you in person at a conference or somewhere else, I’m pretty much guaranteed to follow you.
  6. You talk back. If I send out a tweet and you reply back fairly routinely, I’ll make sure to follow you because that means we’re engaged in a real conversation.
  7. You don’t spam. I’m OK with you occasionally promoting your business or your blog posts, but if I see things like how to get more followers or any of the other classic spam, I’m guaranteed to not follow you.
  8. You make news. I follow @mashable because I like to follow their latest posts. Same with @Techcrunch.
  9. You follow interesting people. If I see that you follow people I would follow, then I know we have similar interests.
  10. You interact with others. A parallel to #6, I prefer to follow people who realize that Twitter is a two-way flow. I like to see tweets which are replied to others and otherwise. People who talk and listen.

I still follow some people who don’t fit these criteria. These are people who are still there from the days of auto-following. I’m working on it. :)

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

  1. Top 10 Signs You’re Not Worth Following on Twitter
  2. 10 Tips For Getting New Twitter Followers
  3. I Follow Pornstars On Twitter? [Stop Auto-Follow]
  4. Which Is More Important on Twitter: Who You Follow or Being Followed?
  5. Twitter Marketing: Insider Tip

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  • Twitter is another of the great internet time wasters. Quite frankly I cannot become interested in constantly checking to discover that you have just had lunch.

    I think that calling those who love Twitter, Twits is highly appropriate.

    The bullk of the Tweets are pointless chirping.

    Get a life folks.
  • hmmmm....that's my following criteria
  • Great signs...
  • Excellent 10 points. Also, just read your Six Figure Blogger Blueprint -- very honest and realistic. I am also associated with Coach Deb -- great stuff. Mark
  • Hi David

    Interesting list here. After I just recently came back from vacation, I have been working on a new approach that I think will fit my blog much better. And your list here most definitive guided me in the right direction.

    I have one Twitter account that is fairly new where I can start with approach more or less from scratch, and one account that I have used for a while where I can change my approach towards this.

    Will be interesting to see how this effects my blog.

    Cheers.. Are
  • Damn good looking blog my friend! Love the new look! FYI it's good to know I'm on track with my Twittering ;-) See you soon!
  • Pretty accurate list. Like the new look too.
  • kilankoseun
    This is quite helpful. I'll take note of it. You've got a great blog with awesome post. Keep up the good work!
  • davidmo
    Good stuff Dave. You almost have me at the point of wanting to try Twitter. All I have heard are the negative things. It seems that if done right, like you just described, Twitter can be a useful thing. I could see describing the oceanographic research that I do from the boat I captain. It would probably be of interest to very few people, but that's all I would want anyway.

    David M
  • I've got some catching up to do on reading you blog as having studiously followed it for a few weeks some holiday has taken me away from it all! I noticed this one and the counter-post on twitter which I will read with interest. As I have commented before, Twitter is still somewhat of a mystery to me and is seemingly ever more taken over by spammers so it will be interesting to see how you think it should be used - some of the comments are also interesting. Your suggestions in this article are in the 'common sense' category in my mind, I just wish more people would return to useful, interesting content - be it on blogs or in their Tweets.
  • I'm only following about 50 people at the moment and I'm having trouble to keep up since I'm only checking Twitter a few times each day. I'm following the same rules, with my focus on if the user spam.
  • Those all simple and smart reasons to follow someone. I think we fit most of them, and we will be from now on for sure... if you would like to follow us @MMODOTCOM :)

    To be honest we are really just learning to Tweet, but we are going to try and do it right from the beginning. We just downloaded Tweetdeck... but someone told me there is something better out there now. Do you know what its is?
  • larissaglueck
    I agree with you, it is all about interacting with each other. There are so many twitter tools to grow your list and they just make it complicated. The newest are all the advertisements leading to an error page.

    A good picture and bio are helpful to find out if I want to interact with a person.
  • Important tips about relationship marketing. More sage advice about Twitter. Thank you.
  • Very true, Mike. All these "systems" to get followers are being created and used by flakes who don't understand the true power of Twitter. It is about relationships, and if you think about money, it is relationship marketing. Having a big follower count is completely USELESS if they're not listening to you.
  • Funny how people make this so complicated eh? They think they have to have this amazingly advanced system of getting followers and all that nonsense. What matters is how you interact and engage with the followers you do have and how they interact and engage with you.

    Great tips for fellow Twitterers to follow by!

    -Mike
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