For What’s It’s Worth, I Am a Twitter Snob

A couple days ago, Mark Schaefer (@markwschaefer), and Mitch Joel (@mitchjoel) had a conversation on Twitter followers. Do you follow everybody, or is it better to be a bit of a snob and be more choosy? In case you haven’t been following the conversation between these two guys, it’s always very interesting. They are self described arch-nemeses, and they have a great interaction that makes for great listening.

First off, if you haven’t heard this podcast yet, you can find it here. Second, I just want to take a second to weigh in.

I am a Twitter snob. I’ll explain. I am a snob on Twitter in that I do not follow everybody back who follows me. My follow count raises and lowers by 20 to 45 tweeps per day and it’s kinda hard to keep up with all that. People follow me for many different reasons and I follow people for just as many varied reasons. I understand that some out there get a bit chuffed if you don’t reply in kind and follow them after they follow you, but I’m not one of those. I follow various tweeps because I find them interesting, because I find some kind of value is what you have to say. I assume that those who follow me are doing so for much the same reasons.

Why I don’t follow back: If you are a self proclaimed Guru, I will not follow you back. If you only tweet links to this and that, and never actually interact with others, I will not follow you back.  If you are an extremist/militant anything (Christian, Atheist, Conservative, Liberal, etc…), I will not follow you back. If I haven’t followed you back, you may fall into one of these categories, I may not have seen you yet, we haven’t interacted, or maybe I just haven’t felt a connection. It’s nothing personal, it’s just Twitter.

Why I do follow back: I find you interesting and would like to create some form of interaction, be that on a business level or on a personal level.

So there you have it, my two-cents-worth. Follow, and be followed. Unfollow, and be unfollowed. It’s the great circle of Twitter. Above all, enjoy and find what you are looking for. Better yet, just enjoy.

–Mark Schaefer writes in his blog {grow} and Mitch Joel writes on Six Pixels of Separation