EZ Brandsite

Don’t know how many of you Twitter. And I’d be the first to admit that I don’t know all the protocol of Twittering. But when I look for Twitter users to follow, I generally use either Twitter’s own search, or a neat one called Topsy.com. What do I look for? Two things. Someone who is in the same general job area as me. That would be marketers, people interested in branding, search engine optimization and marketing, and social media. Those are broad topics of interest to me and my career. Then I dig a little deeper to look for potential people to network with who might be interested in what my company does. You can call them potential customers, but I rarely if ever use Twitter to directly promote what I sell. And I find people who do that to be (1) annoying, and (2) missing the point of social media.

The other thing that I admit I consider is the number of people they are following vs. the number of people following them. In my opinion, there are three potential warning flags in those numbers.

First is the kind of person who doesn’t follow any one back. I don’t get that. To me, the idea of Twitter and other Social Media is networking. It’s two-way communication. So if they don’t follow, they don’t want to have a conversation, I don’t want to follow them.

The second warning I look for is someone who is following or being followed by a large number of people, 25,000 to 50,000 people. Come on. Really? You are going to have meaningful conversations with that many people? I’m out.

The third warning sign, and this one is a bit selfish I admit, is someone who is following a lot more people than are following them. They reek a bit of desperation. Casting a wide net but not catching much. Maybe they are not that interesting. I don’t know and I don’t want to spend the time to find out.

It is with all of these warning signs in mind, but particularly the 3rd one, that I occasionally vet my Twitter following list. Because I am like number 3, I just don’t want people to know it. I spread a net (but always a relevant one), and see who wants to network. If you don’t scrape the non-followers off your list, like gum off a shoe with a Popsicle stick, well it can get pretty messy after a while.

I work hard at keeping the appearance of my popularity up. (It might be easier to Tweet better content but…) I tediously go through the list of people I am following and say goodbye to those who didn’t have the courtesy to follow me back. It’s not really a courtesy. It’s a personal decision on their part. Some say proper Twitter etiquette is to follow back automatically. But if you don’t see the value, I can’t blame you for saying no.

So I found myself saying goodbye to people that I had been following for a while, felt a kinship with, only to see their name on my blackball list. I am not going to lie. It hurt to say goodbye. But I guess I barely knew them after all. Tomorrow I’ll throw another net and meet a new batch of friends. Maybe this time I’ll try not to get so attached so fast.