There is no rule, written or unwritten, that requires me to follow, friend or otherwise connect with you in social media just because you connected with me. Even though it takes a bit of time each week I choose to curate my social media networks. I know some folks who do follow everyone back and that’s fine too. It’s just not the strategy I’ve chosen.
Why not just follow everyone back?
If you follow everyone who follows you, then you’ve given up the highest level and most effective method of filtering the messages you see in social media. Sure, on Twitter you can create lists to filter which messages you see but everyone you’ve followed can send you direct messages. I’m following almost 3,000 people on Twitter and, because I’ve been selective in who I follow, my direct message feed is still relevant and valuable. The volume of direct messages I get is still manageable and almost none of them are pure spam.
So by being selective about who I follow back, I feel the network I have created is more useful to me and those I’m following. Look at it this way: Would you be willing give your cell phone number to every person who asks for it? Maybe some of you would, but I wouldn’t. I want to have some control over who can interrupt my day. I also don’t want to have to wade through meaningless and useless direct or private messages to find the one that matters.
How I decide who to follow back depends upon the network
The rules are different in different social media channels. I view social media like an onion. On the outer layers of the onion (Twitter and Google+), it’s fairly easy to get my attention and be followed back. If your profile convinces me you are a real person and your stream contains a minimum of spam, I’ll add you to my network.
As we move in toward the center of the onion, I become more selective. On LinkedIn, I need to believe we have some current or future business connection. This would primarily relate to my business ColorMetrix but now includes the She Said, He Said project as well. You get the idea. Below are my basic rules on following back for each of of the major social media tools I utilize.
Twitter – There are two main ways I’ll follow you. If you show up in my mention feed, I’ll take a look at your profile. If you seem to be a real person (an avatar that is a picture of you helps tremendously here) and your stream is not full of spam, I’ll give you a shot. If I get an automated and/or spam filled direct message from you at that point, I’ll immediately unfollow. If you follow me first, I’ll do the same basic assessment of your profile and stream.
Google+ – For the first couple weeks, Google+ was easy. If you circled me, I circled you. Sadly, in the last couple weeks the spammers and popularity contest crowd has come out. Your profile needs to have a picture and at least an attempt to complete the basic sections. Then, your stream needs to include at least a few posts. If you’re just trying to collect circles, I’d rather not be a part of your crowd.
Linkedin – I connect with less than half of the people who send me invites. If you’re a recruiter and I don’t personally know you, we will probably never connect. If your profile has no picture and I don’t know you personally, we will probably never connect. If you’re a competitor and I don’t trust you, we will never connect. I’m not about to give you access to my contacts and I’m not going to block that feature. To simplify, we need to either be doing business together or at least have a prospect of doing business together.
Facebook – I used to reserve Facebook for close personal friends. Then, I started letting close friends I’d made in social media in. The same general rules as the other networks apply: You need a picture and at least a basic profile so that I can determine how well I know you. These days, however, I’m just about done with Facebook. I’m utilizing that time over on Google+. It may not replace Facebook, but it sure has been more useful from a business perspective so far.
And now it’s your turn. What are your follow back rules?
And if you would like to follow me in social media land, here’s the information:
On Twitter: @raffel
On Google+: Jim Raffel
On Linkedin: Jim Raffel
My filter is almost exactly the same. On twitter, as a conversationalist, when deciding on a follow back, my #1 criteria is an active, reply-filled stream. Furthermore, I use @hashable:twitter to get even tighter with my connections. It’s pretty tough to get into my Inner Circle.
Brian, I’ve been trying to understand and justify Hasable as part of my mix. Your comment about the inner circle may have just convinced me to give it another try.
Loved this post…thank you!. When I first got involved in social media, I followed just about everyone because I really didn’t have a “plan”. I just thought more must be good. Then, I started figuring things out. Reading, understanding engagement, understanding communities and how to build and nurture them. And I started to do some weeding. Now, I have a rather happy medium in my social media communities. I find value in my FB community for specific reasons, I find value in my Twitter communities for specific reasons and I find new value in my Google+ community for specific reasons. Thank you for sharing some great thoughts Jim!
Claudia
Just curious of the specific needs of the different networks overlap? Or, is FB primarily friends/family and Twitter is mostly professional? If so, where doe that leave G+?
Just curious.
Jim…it took me awhile to figure out a somewhat organized structuring of my social media strategy. Twitter is mostly about professional engagement although, I have made so many great friends on Twitter, that my Tweets are not always related to my profession…that being said, I try to make sure that they are always professional, if that makes sense. Facebook is a combination of friends and family for my personal profile and then I have three Facebook Pages that are strictly professional. I can then use my personal page to “promote” my business Pages and hopefully increase visibility. I have always said, though, that Facebook Pages are only as good as the number of friends you have (unless, of course, you are a big well known brand) Trying to get people to “Like” your FB Page is not easy. And Google+…at first I thought that this platform was going to be a lot like Facebook but I was wrong. It took me awhile to figure out the best way to organize and label my Circles and then, it just sort of came to me. I use Google+ for my “passions”. I love photography so I have an awesome photography circle that just is flooded with information, tips and beautiful photography. I love reading blogs so I have a fabulous blogger circle that contains people who write the most awesome blogs, etc. I find Google+ to be clean and neat and easy to navigate. That being said, I do post my blog posts on Google+ so I do a little bit of over lapping with my professional side.
Hope this makes sense 😉
Claudia
Claudia, Thanks for taking the time to come back and answer. You’ve given me some thoughts for how I might want to change my Google+ strategy a bit.