My Twitter Rules of Engagement
2009 April 14
If you follow me on Twitter, I will without exception follow you back if:
- I have met you before in real life.
I will also without exception follow you back if all of the below are true:
- You are representing an actual live individual person instead of a company, product, or group. Whether or not you are a person is determined solely at my discretion.
- You tweet primarily – at least 90% of the time – in a language I can read and understand (currently restricted to English, Chinese, and Japanese).
- You have at least 100 updates, or you don’t follow more people than 10 times the number of updates you have.
- You do not have the same URL (shortened or otherwise) posted more than twice on your Twitter profile page (that is no more than twice in your last 20 updates).
- Your updates are not protected.
If you are not an an actual live individual person but represent a company, product, or group, I will still follow you if any of the following are true:
- I am interested in the company, product, or group you represent.
- You interact with other Tweeters enough to make me think that you are more of an individual than a mindless pitchman for the company, product, or group which you represent. Obviously, this is again determined solely at my discretion.
If I follow you on Twitter (whether organically or because you followed me first):
- I do not expect you to follow me back.
- I do hope that you would follow me back, so we can both expand our networks just a little bit more instead of making our Twitter interactions strictly one-directional.
If I follow you on Twitter because you followed me first, I will without exception unfollow you if:
- You subsequently unfollowed me.
If I followed you organically, I may subsequently unfollow you if:
- After a period of time (solely at my discretion), you do not follow me back and I’m not interested in what you have to say anymore.
These are my Twitter Rules of Engagement (TRoE) and they go in effect starting from today.
What is your TRoE?
What others have to say about Twitter and Rules
- Cheryl’s first rule of Twitter
- SheGeeks’ Twitter 101 for Newbies
- The 90-10 Rule for Successful Twitter Networking
- FOLLOW FAIL: The Top 10 Reasons I Will Not Follow You in Return on Twitter
- Andrew Chen’s analysis on Friends vs. Followers
Related Posts:
2 Responses
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Thanks for the linkback to SheGeeks.net
You’ve provided some really good rules that I can add to my own personal list. I’ve been having an organic follow problem these days that’s forcing me to unfollow a lot of people. Things change over time.
Thanks for dropping by, Corvida. I’ve been a fan of SheGeeks for a while already.
You are certainly right about how things change over time on Twitter. Abandoned accounts, too much noise, etc.
Ultimately, rules or no rules, it’s whatever works for each individual. Ultimately, I think the aim is to limit the amount of noise coming in, but yet maintaining enough relationships with people to have meaningful conversations and interactions.