Does It Matter Who Is Following You On Twitter?
No. And yes.
No, it doesn’t matter because following a person on Twitter gives you exactly the same amount of privilege as not following a person. The only difference is seeing those tweets in your stream. You don’t gain any kind of insider’s pass – anyone can send a reply to anyone else whether they’re following each other or not. It’s just a plus one.
And no, it doesn’t matter if even the worst kind of people follow you – spammers, bots, mass marketers and Jonas Brothers’ fans – because you can block them with the simple click of a button.
But: if enough of these people are following you and you don’t do anything about it, then yes, it matters. Because anytime anybody checks out your network all they’re going to see is a mounting pile of crud. And that can be a very influential part in their decision process about whether you’re somebody they want to connect with. Or not.
Less importantly, you’ll also risk being marked down by the various online influence raters and verifiers. This doesn’t matter as much, but it can affect your exposure.
Keep it clean, and guess what? You’ll start to see more of the right kind of people tagging along on your journey.
(As always, right is a relative term; right is what’s right for you.)
Keeping your Twitter network optimised works both ways, so pay attention to who you follow and who is following you. Your overall network tells us a lot about who you are as a person – don’t just bring anyone along for the ride.
