So why should I follow you?

As many of you know, I'm a big Twitter fan and manage three profiles: @tracyplayle @picklejar and @hecomms. Each serve a very different purpose for me. @tracyplayle is where I post my more personal tweets – the kind of daily ramblings that really only my mates would probably want to hear (though it seems many others also want to listen in – that's fine, but I don't understand why!). Then there's @picklejar: this is the account I use to tweet about anything business-related or relevant to social media, PR and communications. I try to retain a 'human' voice in this and keep my personality coming through, but its primary function for me is professionally-orientated. Finally @hecomms looks after itself by provided updates direct from the RSS feed from www.he-comms.co.uk – the social network that I run for communicators and marketers working in the UK HE sector.

Work has been somewhat crazy recently so while I've continued to tweet away I've noticed a consistent stream of new followers whom I just haven't had the time to check out and follow back. This morning, I decided to have a run through my inbox and start checking out all the new followers and determine who I might like to start following in return.

I generally work on the following principles:

• If you're following me it's probably because we have something in common and therefore I may wish to follow you back
  
• If you are taking the time to read my ramblings, then you deserve the courtesy of me at least taking a look to see if I would like to read yours
  
• Twitter is one of my key sources of new information regarding social media, and therefore you might be tweeting about stuff of interest and relevance to me.
  

So with those in mind, I have spent a couple of hours this morning checking new followers of @picklejar out. Not all of you made the cut and received a return follow, so I thought it might make an interesting blog post to show my thought process when deciding whether to follow someone back or not.

• If you're an education organisation's account I will probably follow you back without thinking twice as my key clientele is the education sector so it's important that I monitor how the sector is using Twitter
  
• If your twitter name is the same name as someone I know, I will be more likely to follow you back without further thought
  
• If your twitter name is unfamiliar to me, then I'm more likely to be interested in you if you are set up as a human being in your profile and not just a company name (for example, I am @picklejar, but my profile tells you that I am Tracy Playle – one of the earliest lessons I learned on Twitter was to be myself and not try to be a 'corporate voice' as it just doesn't work)
  
• Likewise, if your @name (and worse still if your profile name) is full of random letters and numbers, I will not follow you back – some of them I won't even check out in the first place
  
• If you pass the @name and profile test, then I delve a little deeper into what else you say about yourself in your profile. If it includes something that is of direct interest to my professional interests, then you pass the next test
  
• The next step is then to look at your previous tweets. Even if say you work in social media marketing or communications, but your tweets are all just personal stuff – what you made for breakfast etc – and nothing else that helps me in my professional life, then I tend not to follow back.
  

So, in summary, I tend to follow-back people I know and have an existing relationship with and people who are 'above board' and provide interesting and useful information through their tweets. Above all, though, I place emphasis on the fact that I prefer following people, and not organisations (there are one or two in there, but most don't make the cut).