Posted By Cynthia Hartwig on August 27, 2012

© 2012 Cynthia Hartwig

Yeah, yeah, I know that most Twitter mavens tout “follower grubbing” as if it’s the Holy Grail. To the mavens, deleting people who follow you is anathema.

I say, bunk.

Following people just because they follow you is at best stupid, and at worst boring. You’ll enjoy Twitter more by curating a tweet stream based on quality, not quantity.

I keep people in my Twitter stream based on how interesting they are, how interested in me they are, and often both. People who tweet “buy this, buy that,” write poorly, swear too much, tweet porn, or otherwise show they’re boorish get dumped.

Meet at least One of These Criteria, and You can be my ‘Tweep.

1. You are a student of mine, and thus are demonstrating on Twitter how you’re putting my social-media writing lessons into practice (something I care deeply about).
2. You are a wit and a word player, and thus a person who rewards me on a regular basis for reading your writing.
3. You are a thought leader in one of my areas of interest, such as social media, business communication, writing, photography, or presenting.
4. You make me laugh.

To get Twitter followers, Broaden Your Perspective.

According to @erictpeterson of Twitalyzer, http://www.slideshare.net/eefsafe/twitalyzer-the-average-twitter-user the average “active” user (someone who tweets about ten times a week; about 10 percent of Twitter users fall into this category) has 403 followers and follows 398 people. (This is in contrast to “Truly Exceptional” Twitterites, “who have an average of 46,000 followers and follow 8,600 people.”)

After a year of active tweeting, my stats are consistent with the average: I follow about 1200 people and have about 1100 people following me. As Spencer Tracey liked to say about Katherie Hepburn: “Small, but cherce.”

Every day, my select band rewards me with news, information, wit, and wonder. I know most of my tweeps—either in the old-fashioned way, i.e., I’ve met them in real life, or in the virtual way, i.e., I’ve come to know them because they tweet regularly and I enjoy their points of view.