Lately I’ve been getting a lot of twitter followers which is great, but I’m not always going to follow you back. I have my own personal guidelines and preferences for following people back. This got me thinking – What do other people do when they’re deciding to follow people on twitter?

So what do you do when someone starts following you?

• Do you auto-follow people?
• Do you have email notifications when someone adds you to twitter turned on or off?
• Do you immediately engage with the person that adds you on twitter or just add them?
• Do you have an Auto DM message set up when someone adds you?
• What are your personal reasons why you would add someone?

My following guidelines/preferences

I get emails of people when they add me to twitter. I check out the twitter page of EVERY person that adds me. To be followed back I will make sure they’re a real person on twitter and not an automated machine just posting links with no interaction with others what so ever. If they have a picture of themselves and link to a blog and are conversing on twitter – then you’ll be added.

The perfect combination is:

1. You’re into blogging and/or have a blog
2. You interact with others and don’t just pop out links which obviously seems like it’s an automated account.
3. Personal unique image and background – Not one of those premade twitter ones. Personalise it.

That’s my approach when I see new people following me on twitter. What are yours?

Enjoyed this post? Here are some more you may like:

1. How I Got 1000 TARGETED Twitter Followers In 30 Days
2. Top 5 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Following Without Begging For One
3. Twitter TweetDeck and some Tips