Internet marketing: What’s the Strategy for Following Back on Twitter?

Reprinted from a blog post of Phyllis Zimbler Miller as a National Internet Business Examiner.

People follow you on Twitter; they don’t friend you as on Facebook. And people can follow you without your “permission” as required for someone to become your Facebook friend.

When you are using Twitter for your brand, book or business, you want to have an effective Twitter marketing strategy. One of the most important areas of this strategy is your own “follow back” policy.

Some people automatically follow back anyone who follows them. This is not a policy that I personally recommend. I check out every person who follows me to see if I want to follow back that person.

I evaluate based on several criteria, including:

• Does the person have a headshot photo or at least an interesting logo icon? If the person is using the Twitter default photo place-holder, I probably won’t follow back this person because I want to see the visual image of who I’m following.

• Does the person include his/her real name besides the Twitter username? Again, I want to know with whom I’m engaging.

• Does the person’s brief Twitter bio sound interesting? Might I learn from this person? Or might I share info with this person?

• Do the person’s recent tweets seem interesting or are they filled with inane comments about what he/she ate for dinner?

You’ll have to decide on your own evaluation criteria. But do put some thought into who you follow back on Twitter.

The quality of the people you follow can directly impact the effectiveness of your Twitter marketing strategy.