Twitter: Why You Shouldn’t Follow Back
Don’t listen to the conventional wisdom: you shouldn’t follow-back on Twitter. Or, more precisely, you shouldn’t follow everyone back on Twitter.
Many web marketers argue that mutual follows are the best way to quickly grow your follower count. And if you Google “Twitter follow back” you can find lists of thousands of accounts to follow that will follow you back. True, this is a quick way to boost your follower count, but following back isn’t the way you should be getting followers. Here’s why:
Spammers
Like every tech communication channel, Twitter is full of Spammers. These may be “internet marketers” trying to push their e-books on you, or fake accounts trying to draw you into their adult websites, or any of a myriad of online schemes. Unfortunately, there’s just no avoiding it.
There’s nothing you can do about Spam accounts following you, but you definitely hurt your own reputation by following them back. Any reputable Twitter account would have to second guess following an account that follows obvious spammers—so if you want high-quality followers, don’t follow low-quality accounts.
Ratios
Another factor that helps define you as a high-quality Twitter account is your ratio of followers to following. You want to grow your follower count organically by distributing high quality content, not by following thousands and thousands of accounts in the hope for a follow-back.
For example, popular tech blog Techcrunch (@techcrunch) only follows 825 accounts but has over 2.7 million followers (as of this writing). That kind of follower/following ratio is a clear sign of high quality content—people follow them because they want to hear what they have to say, not because they expect a follow-back.
Irrelevant Tweeters
If you’re using Twitter for business (and presumably if you’re reading this article, you are) you want to be following accounts that are relevant to your field or industry. If a furniture store, for example, is following every ESPN Twitter account (there are dozens) it might seem whoever runs their account is more interested in keeping up with sports than with the furniture industry.
Twitter is a place to engage with your clients and your industry. If your business account is following too many non-business-related accounts you come off as frivolous and unprofessional. So don’t follow irrelevant accounts—and if any irrelevant accounts follow you, don’t follow them back.
Who Should You Follow?
So, who should you follow? The answer is: high-quality accounts! If they’re sharing good, useful information that’s relevant to you and your business, go ahead and follow. And make sure to be doing the same. Plus, if you only follow high-quality accounts it will be easier to filter out the “noise” and pick out the really useful content from your Twitter feed to share with your own followers.
It may be cliché, but only because it’s true: content is king. So come up with great, original, relevant content. And share other people’s high-quality content.
The right way to gain Twitter followers is to become an authority and there’s no quick, easy way to do that. Put in the time and the effort and your follower count will grow along with your reputation.
Featured images:
- License: Image author owned
Dan Rapoport is the Digital Media Strategist for DotcomWeavers, an NJ-based web and eCommerce development company. On Twitter at @DotcomWeavers
I don’t follow celebrities because I know they will not follow back. I try to keep my ratio of following to followed idea. (You don’t want to follow 100k people but only 25 are following you.) I look at competitors and go over their follow list to get an idea of who to potentially follow.
Hi Carl, for a business twitter account I’d only follow celebrities if they’re relevant to your business or industry (without worrying if they’ll follow you back or not). Again, it goes back to content–follow people with quality content that adds value to you and/or your followers.