As Twitter continues to grow, I’m getting more and more people who are, for some reason, following me on Twitter. Perhaps they’re looking for me to follow back. I’ve decided, prompted by a post by Shel Israel, to build my own Twitter Follow Policy.

I do not automatically follow people who follow me.

I first want to know a little about you before I will follow you. If your Twitter profile does not have a location and does not point to a public profile, I probably will not follow you.

With very few exceptions, I do not follow non-humans (candidates, brands, causes, or company names).

If you are a real person with some kind of a public presence, I need to see what you are talking about before I will follow you. I’m not interested in politics, religion, or sex. I don’t like profanity and won’t follow people who speak in foul four-letter words. I am interested in trivial things (like what you are doing), technology things, and local interest items.

If the majority of your Twittering is ‘@’ replies where I am seeing only one side of a conversation, I probably won’t follow you or may well unfollow. Some ‘@’ replies are fine. But if that’s all you’re doing, you’re using Twitter as a one-to-one communication vehicle for which Twitter was not intended.

I usually don’t follow people who seem to have “Twitter Diahrrea Of the Fingers”. Too much Twittering and I’ll probably unfollow. What is “too much”? More than two or three times per hour, but again that is subjective.

Finally, I don’t follow disagreeable or insulting people.

I love Twitter and generally feel it is important to follow more people than are following me. I don’t think I have much of interest to say, but I’ve discovered many people who do. If you fall into my abstract definition of “interesting”, then I will probably follow you.

Thanks!
Roland