Before I go any further on the subject of becoming a Serious Tweep, a couple of side notes.
You can use Twitter any way you want to use it. I don't care. I may not follow you, but you may find others who will.
All of this, and everything else on this website is opinion. There are very few hard and unbreakable rules. What I write and post is simply from my own experience and observations. Oh, and my opinion will change from time to time. I'm flexible like that.
The concept of a Serious Tweep is not a humorless person. Quite the contrary. The Serious Tweep lets their personality shine through.
The Serious Tweep is a person who wants to get serious about using Twitter.
Instead of dipping their toe in once in awhile, the Serious Tweep is ready to jump in and needs a few tips and hints.
Everyone of us has our own motivations for using Twitter, writing a blog, connecting on Facebook and these individual reasons are different for each of us.
Yesterday Allison Carter wrote about this on Roundpeg.biz:
I Ain’t No Follow Back Girl
Recently, my coworker Taylor asked me how I decide whether or not to follow someone back on Twitter. While this process might seem simple, for many, it can be a confusing process. While everyone’s different, here are the steps I use to determine whether or not I want to spend quality time with someone in the Twitterverse:
1. Check the picture: It’s true, they’re worth a thousand words. If someone has the default Twitter avatar picture of the egg, beware. It’s possible they’re new to the service, but at the same time, it takes approximately ten seconds to upload a photo. If they do have a photo, ask yourself if it looks like a real person, or a model. Unbelievably pretty people or the scantily clad are usually good tip-offs that they’re spam bots.
2. Check the bio: Is their bio devoted entirely to telling you how you can make money fast working from home, or does it actually talk about their job, their family, their hobbies, or something else remotely of interest? Did they even bother to take the time to fill out the 160 character bio? If they’re too lazy to do that, they’re probably too lazy to tweet anything of interest.
3. Check their location: Twitter is wonderful because it’s a global community, but at the same time, if someone is always tweeting about restaurants or events in St. Louis, it’s not of much use to me here in Indy. So I do discriminate based on location: being from Indiana significantly increases your chances of getting a followback from me. That’s not to say that I don’t follow people from Australia, England, Hong Kong, and all over the US, but keeping it local helps me keep Twitter manageable.
4. Check their stream: This is, undoubtedly, the most important step. There are many people with real pictures, real bios, and in my geographical location who just don’t interest me. Maybe they only broadcast messages without ever interacting with anyone. Maybe they only tweet about something that I’m just not interested in, like sports or inspirational quotes. Whatever the case, I can usually tell within 5-10 tweets if it’s a good match or not.
The most important thing is to never feel obligated to follow someone just because they followed you. You’ll wind up cluttering your stream with items that don’t interest you, and just being generally irritating.
How about you? How do you decide who to follow?
A few more Twitter Tips are coming next week, starting Monday at noon.
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