Twitter for tech companies: Lesson 4: Who to follow on Twitter

In lesson 1 I wrote about the types of companies Irish software companies should follow on Twitter. These include industry publications, competitors, analysts, partners, customers and of course, prospects. This lesson goes one step further. Here are 6 questions to ask yourself when deciding which accounts to follow on Twitter.

1. Are there any tweets? Sometimes companies just set up the account (which is good) but don’t actually have anybody to manage it (bad).
2. Is the account active? It’s all well and good to follow people willy nilly but if the account isn’t active, is there any point? Unless you are following the quantity strategy (as mentioned in lesson 2) then you really have nothing to gain. Perhaps the account was active in the beginning, but if there are no tweets in the last 3 months, I wouldn’t bother. But do keep an eye on them if their past topics seem interesting.
3. What do they tweet about? If it’s all links to their own company in the “sell, sell sell” tone, then that isn’t going to be very interesting. It is recommended that you have at least 4 tweets referring to other people/companies for every one that links your followers back to your website.
4. Do they use bad language or txt spk? This is one of my own pet-hates. Do you want your twitter stream filled up with profanities? I don’t.
5. Is a photo included? I find that the Twitter egg head image tends to be linked to non-active accounts.
6. Is a location mentioned? When setting up the account Twitter asks for your country. That means where you sit physically. People don’t sit in “Global”. That’s nonsense. Make sure you include where your company’s HQ is located.  And companies which list a map reference  just annoy me.

So that’s just a few of the questions I ask when deciding who to follow on Twitter.  I do support the local economy, so if an account follows me and is based in Ireland, then I tend to follow back.

Read more Twitter for tech companies posts

Lesson 1: 6 tips on who to follow on Twitter

Lesson 2: Which Twitter strategy should you chose?

Lesson 3: 12 Twitter tips for beginners

Lesson 4: Who to follow on Twitter

Lesson 5: 10 things you should do on Twitter but probably don’t

Lesson 6: Twitter lists

Lesson 7: Using Hootsuite

Lesson 8: Twitter mistakes to avoid

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