Note 193 – Twitter isn’t a race – 6 rules and best practices for following

Since my post on 3 November (Note 187: How Writers Can Get More Followers on Twitter) I have managed to get an handful of additional followers.  Although there is probably nothing wrong with adding 80 or so people that I hadn’t chosen to follow individually, I felt a little uncomfortable with the process, so (being a goody goody) I decided to look up the Twitter’s rules on automatic following and share a few tips with you:

1. Following limit – The maximum number of accounts that Twitter allows you to follow is 2000 (although there appear to be separate rules about going over this number – this is to do with the ratio of followers to those you are following).
2. Agressive behaviour is monitored – In a single day don’t follow or unfollow hundreds of people – Twitter monitor accounts for agressive behaviour (followers and following).  They don’t like you to follow vast amounts of accounts and then unfollow them – this is called agressive churn.
3. Automatically unfollowing accounts – Auto unfollowing is not allowed.
4. Unfollowing accounts individually – If you decide that you don’t want to follow someone anymore, it’s fine to tick unfollow on their profile page.
5. Automatically following back – Auto follow back is the only type of automation allowed (this is where you automatically follow back the person that followed you).  There are websites that offer this service which I will look into and post about another day.
6. Signing up to third party applications – Take care when authorising your Twitter account to third party applications; make sure you thoroughly research them first (as some may not be genuine).  If you have already done this and you want to revoke it, go to the applications tab on the settings page in Twitter.

As Twitter Help Centre says on their Following rules and best practices page:

“Remember, Twitter isn’t a race to get the most followers. If you follow users that you’re interested in, it’s more likely that legitimate users will find you and read your updates.”

Good luck!

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Until tomorrow…

Sandra
Freelance writer
Please visit www.sandramadeira.com for more information on my services as a freelance writer.

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