subject: Using Twitter - Should You Always Follow People When They Follow You? [print this page] Using Twitter - Should You Always Follow People When They Follow You?
The answer to that question is very important in determining whether you want to follow people back.
There are situations where it would be the only right thing to do, especially in the beginning stages of using Twitter, but later you will find that a user with a spammy name such as carol04729 or some other generic term with 0 followers and only 3 tweets saying the same thing, usually with an affiliate link going to some obscure place, probably isn't worth following.
The number of followers you have helps Twitter determine whether you are a valid user. Spammers count on auto-follow systems to generate lots of follow-backs, and that may work in some cases. In other cases, users are aware of this spam tactic, and therefore don't follow back.
Likewise, when a user has porn or other forms of bad content in their timelines, you should also stay away from following back. Maybe you will even want to report the user since that is not part of proper behavior on Twitter.
All social media have specific Terms of Service, and even users that don't directly infringe any of these would still be bad publicity for you. Remember, that other users might take a peek at who you follow. Your followers tell them something about who you are, and what interests you have. That is all part of social media - participating and sharing your experiences with one another.
Therefore, the best answer to all of this is to beware of who you choose to follow. Don't give spammers any chances to leech on your positive profile - and don't ever destroy your credibility online by following them back just because you might feel it was the right thing to do. Auto-follow systems are very bad for Twitter because very often users only find out what has happened much later - and once online credibility is lost, it's gone forever.
However, when you do find users worth following, you should follow them back. Chances are you might even benefit from following users with whom you don't always agree since discussions are visible in their timelines when they give you a reply. You get a whole new audience for your tweets, and that is highly useful for getting more real followers and creating a lot more buzz on Twitter.
I thank you for reading this article. You will benefit from checking out my blog on earning money online over at http://www.blunck.dk/earning-money-online which also deals with blogging, writing and numerous other topics relating to living from good use of your pen. Furthermore, you can find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/henrikblunck
