To Follow or Not to Follow? That is the Twitter Question

**Brian Linton** · 02-13-2009 02:01 PM

Hey all,

So I started using twitter a few weeks ago and I have not really put much effort into getting followers, but one of the things I notice people doing when they set up a new twitter account is they follow as many people as possible in a hope that a good portion of them will follow them back.

What are your thoughts on that? Do you blindly follow someone back if you don't know them?

How do you recommend building a base of followers on twitter --- and how do you get followers who are the type of people that you want to interact with?

I'm new to Twitter and anybody that is on this forum is obviously the type of people I would want to interact with.

Feel free to follow me @brianlinton -- I'll follow you back! Just make sure you mention you met me on YE.com

Cheers,
Brian

For more entrepreneurial insights and advice please visit:
Nothing to Lose - Entrepreneurial Lessons and Adventures - by Brian Linton

**Gene** · 02-13-2009 02:09 PM

I really just follow whoever. Sometimes I'll look up specific people though. For example, I'm following Tom Ziglar, son of Zig Ziglar. His updates are very interesting most of the time, btw.

A little over half of the people you follow will follow you back. At least, that's how it's been in my experiences.

Anyway, I'm following you now. Feel free to follow back!

**Encrypted** · 02-13-2009 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by Brian Linton

[SIZE="2"]Hey all,

So I started using twitter a few weeks ago and I have not really put much effort into getting followers, but one of the things I notice people doing when they set up a new twitter account is they follow as many people as possible in a hope that a good portion of them will follow them back.

What are your thoughts on that? Do you blindly follow someone back if you don't know them?

I don't go on mass following spree's but I do try to follow everyone that follows me.

**mthomas** · 02-13-2009 05:07 PM

When I first started off setting up my twitter account, I went on JustTweetIt and searched for other tweeters interested in entrepreneurship. I followed a total of about 25 different tweeters and decided that before I start actively following others, I would try to deepen the relationships with these 25 or so tweeters first.

I maintained a policy where I would follow back anyone who follows me, but i decided to wait before activly seeking out others to follow since I think its probably best to deepen your network with a smaller amount of followers first, and allow your follower count to grow naturally by tweeting as opposed to following a large amount of people at a time.

I'm still learning the ropes a bit, so I'm definitely not not even close to an expert, but so far I think my efforts have been working well as I am slowly getting to know those in my network more and more.

Anyone can feel free to follow me (and I will follow you back) at @entrepropel (brian, I think you and I are already following each other).

**Brian Linton** · 02-13-2009 06:57 PM

Sam, Yusio, and Matt -- thanks for the insights!

Sam and Matt - I'm following you.

Yusio, what is your twitter ID?

What are other people's thoughts on this twitterific subject??

-Brian

Twitter ID @brianlinton
For entrepreneurial insights please visit:
Nothing to Lose - Entrepreneurial Lessons and Adventures - by Brian Linton

**DarioMontesdeOca** · 02-25-2009 08:14 AM

Hey Brian, pleasure meeting you.

I was checking out your post and was wondering what kind of people do you want to network with on Twitter? I've been on there for a while now and I have mostly network marketers and entrepreneur spirits that I follow. And also there are... teenagers, geeks, stay-at-home-moms, random weird people and tons of fake profiles on there as well... lol

Some top heavy hitters are @Mike_Dillard, @EbenPagan and @PerryBelcher

These guys all have great people in their network that are worth following.

Many of the people you'll probably want to network with are already following these three guys (I'm assuming because you posted this topic on this forum

**paul2145r** · 02-25-2009 08:51 AM

Thanks for the info guys! I've added you to my followings (still working on the lingo, lol).

Any of you use Twitter on your Blackberry? I downloaded Twibble for my Bold, but it seems a bit gimmicky. Any other suggestions?

BTW- my Twitter ID is @Imperia

**mxer210** · 02-25-2009 09:11 AM

I'm @ryanglasgow and I followed you guys who posted your twitter links.

**Usman Sheikh** · 02-25-2009 02:40 PM

Good question Brian. I have been keeping a relatively stricter policy on following people back. Sometimes I feel a lot of people just want to follow you so that you may follow you back. Unfortunately a lot of internet marketers have courses dedicated to this.

Its basically follow atleast 250 people a day and approx 30%-40% follow you back. Following this strategy along with some other standard tools they show you how you can get a following of over 10k followers in a matter of weeks.

I guess it depends what you want to achieve with your twitter profile. The current debate about the auto following back is heating up on twitter and it is interesting to see robert scoble defend his claim that you should follow everyone back.

I want to build deeper relationships and actually learn from my feed without always depending on tools such as tweetdeck. Therefore I have limited my follow backs.

**Ariel** · 02-25-2009 07:01 PM

Hey guys
Twitter is really hot right now.
Click my signature, Hummingbird was just released by a brilliant coder.
It does what they claim and it'll make you good money.
Check it out.

**yasir12ka4** · 01-31-2012 05:16 PM

You can always display examples of people using widgets on your site. You do not need to ask their permission technically to embed their video on your site, but it is always a good practice if you are looking to foster positive customer feedback.