When I first started on Twitter, I used to auto follow everyone that followed me. It seemed logical and polite to simply follow back people that had decided to follow you.  However over the last few months, I have changed my mind, and have not been auto following people for some time. Here are my reasons…. 

Following people back for no other reason than they followed you, is really rather silly. I want people to follow me, because they find my posts useful, informative, educational, engaging, and something that they don’t want to miss out on. I don’t see why, If someone likes that, that I should simply follow them back.

All they or anyone needs to do is message me and I will answer them and start a conversation, and then follow them back, if I like what they are up to. 

I have found myself on way too many spammers list of followers, which gets you more spammers and so on, as you keep following them all back and so the cycle continues. 

Although I use Tweetdeck to filter and group people, so that I don’t miss out on people that I am really interested in, It has now got to a point, where my stream of tweets, is 70% selling, porn stars, get rich quick merchants, people who clearly do not have a clue as to how to use Twitter. So I am culling thousands from my list.. So that I get to see more of the stuff I want to.. 

I liken Twitter to being at a party. The first thing you may do at a party, is go over to people and say Hi.. That is the start of a conversation, and that is where the relationship may begin. Once talking to each other, then you both may decide to develop a stronger relationship over time. 

So people message me and say Hi.. and lets get a chat going. However, It is worth noting, that I am very unlikely to follow anyone that does not have a suitable photo or logo, a good bio, their website details, and a range of updates that are not all about selling, buying, getting rich quick, body enhancements, and how to get 10,000 new followers by doing nothing. 

What are your thoughts on auto following people back – I would love to hear them..