This is definitely one of the big questions Twitter users are faced with all the time. Most users tend to follow people they already know first. Eventually their follower list is a good mix of everyone else: celebs, businesses and media outlets. One may start to notice that they are getting random followers and are ultimately posed with the question, “Should I Follow Everyone Back?”

This may seem easy at first, but things get a lot more complicated when one has to decide between good social etiquette or sticking with one’s personal motives. On the one hand, if someone follows you and you return the favor by following them back, then great! Seems perfectly fair right? . . . Well what if that person was a spammer or someone who you weren’t really interested in following? I have heard plenty of stories where people got very bitter and angry that their gesture was not reciprocated.

“Britney Spears Has Most Blocked Twitter”  

[http://www.popeater.com/music/article/best-celebrity-twitters-you-may-have/458369]

One of my girl friends,(not Britney) is a very well known entertainer who was involved in a nasty case of Twitter drama because people were following her, but she did not have time to follow them back. These people retaliated by blocking her account and prank calling her talent agency. Strangely, all of these haters had one thing in common:  thousands of updates and low follower counts. I guess they just couldn’t get over the fact that even after being on Twitter 24/7, they were still less popular than someone who didn’t try at all. I can’t imagine how someone could get jealous over a complete stranger, just because she was popular? I don’t know if this is some sort of backlash against the younger Myspace generation, but it goes to show there are plenty of jealous haters out there. 

As someone with over 250,000 friends on Myspace, my personal take on this topic may or may not be similar to everyone elses. For me, whether or not you know someone really doesn’t matter. The point is if you want to get your word out, have a greater presence, a greater voice in this very big world—you’ll need an audience. Say you want to promote something like your business, music, invite people to your party/club, have a great blog or poem to share, would you rather have 10 friends or 1000?

I mean sure, I may only know about 1,000 of my 250,000 friends personally, but that doesn’t stop me from accepting friend adds. I take it as if someone makes a friend request, its flattering and common courtesy to accept it. No one ever said a friend add means you will have to know or meet anyone in person. It simply means, great you are now part of my network. Feel free to checkout my page, my music and photos.  . .
Plus, if you ever met me before, you would never forget!

The information technology age has allowed us to reach and connect with people from around the world with a click of the mouse, something unimagineable 20 years ago, is now a reality. Why not take advantage of this powerful technology? I take this same attitude over to Twitter. If you follow me, I will definitely follow you back. If I happen to forget, please let me know!

Now I do understand, there are those out there who’s main objective is to only follow people they know personally or business associates. This is perfectly fine and I don’t see anything wrong with it. My only suggestion would be that it might be a good idea to have 2 Twitter accounts: 1 for public use and another for personal use.

One thing is for sure: Twitter is the fastest growing social networking site in the world; increasing at a rate of over 1000% annually. Although, the decision to follow someone back is a personal choice, the potential benefits of having a large social network is worth considering.—

XOXO,

Viktoria Foxx (twitter.com/ViktoriaFoxx)

2.  Do not leave your status update blank. Even if you aren’t planning on using your account yet, no updates = no followers.

3.  Post personal/interesting updates. Most people are nosy and DO want to know what you are doing!

4.  Avoid using your updates as a chatroom. Twitter is a live mini-blog about yourself. Most users will get annoyed and remove chatters.