My criteria for following people on Twitter.

Here's my flow-chart and criteria for following people on Twitter. It starts with a DM from a new follower of mine on Twitter. That arrives as an email.

I first look for:

* Recognizable Username.

Your username sounds like a real person or a clever person or those two together with a recognized brand. Ok.

Who I don't follow:

• Usernames with a gobbledygook of letters and numbers
• Usernames totally different than the name of the user. Often I get a DM of a new follower saying ...Dave's following you. And they're username is xl204yyy. No. I don't follow you.

Then, I look at:

* Your Tweets.

I look at someone's Tweets more than their profile or bio or landing page.

Why?

• That's what I'll see in my feeds if  I follow you.
• That's what you give to the community.
• That's the value we add as members of Twitter. Our Tweets.

I scan through their list of Tweets and see if there's anything of interest, useful, amusing, insightful, from a different perspective.

* Your Bio.

It's interesting. It should have useful information.

But, if you have a beautiful bio and your tweets are...useless? No. I don't follow you.

* Followers.

Never. I don't really care. I'm 30+ years out of high school. I'm too old for cliques.

* Your Landing Page.

It's customized. Cool.

And, that shows you either have coding/design skills or can buy them. Cool, again. But I've never seen anyone's landing page that was so compelling I wanted to revisit daily, weekly...even more than once.

Yeah. It ...adds value. But, only for that first moment.

And after that I want to see what you have to say and how often, what you're reading and talking about and adding to the community with your tweets.

If not, that's cool.

If objectionable offensive, I turn my head away...No. I don't follow you.

* Locked Profile?

No. I don't follow you.

You've followed me because I allow anyone to follow me.

But, your stuff is so outstanding that I have to ask permission first...to see who you are? What you're about?

That's like being introduced at a party and then holding up a business card telling me I need to ask your security guard or attorney for permission to speak with you.

No. I don't follow you.

Not only that, I block you.

That's my criteria. It works. I always regret it when I don't honor this list.

Comments

[Sandra Sims]

Great list. I am surprised at how many professionals will use something other than their name as a username. Many times I will find interesting people via their tweets (using searches on tweetdeck) that I probably would not have found via their username or bio.

[Heather Greaves]

I like the list. I've certainly turned away though I haven't actually blocked anyone. Good point about blocking.

[Shawn Kirsch]

Nice list, I have some other criteria I use as well, http://www.thattalldude.com/main/2009/02/early-spring-cleaning-part-2.html

When I started thinking about 'Personal Branding,' I wanted a name that was uniquely mine. Also, there were some other Shawn Kirsch's who ranked higher in Google than me. That's all changed now, but I maintain that professionals are sometimes better served with a different username than their actual name.

~Shawn K (@thattalldude)