r/socmemarketing•11 yr. ago

To Follow or Not to Follow? 5 Tips for Making the Right Bets on Social Media

In this world of LIONs, and Ninjas and Gurus, it can be hard to know who is worthwhile to network with, and who is just out to SPAM you.

Here are 5 strategies for following back, connecting, and deciding to make new 'friends' on social media.

Set It and Forget It – If you don’t really care, and let’s face it, a lot of people don’t, then go ahead and follow back everyone. But you have to know what kind of personal brand you have, and mine is all about marketing and technology, so I want to make sure I get as many of those kinds of connections as I can, while avoiding SPAM, because…

SPAM Friends Suck – As a rule, don’t connect with obvious spammers. And the best way to know a spammer is to read their latest comments or posts. If they are all “5,000 followers for $5!” then you know it’s a SPAMbot. But I also try to avoid connecting with people that don’t seem to have anything to benefit from me — if I get an offer to connect with a profile that seems only to care about steakhouses in Idaho, and I live in Georgia, then how are I going to be of any service to this person (or them to me)? This is where the work comes in, because I think you have to read a bit to know if a connection is going to be worthwhile for you. I try to only follow people who are in my industry or interested in it, but even I fall prey to people who look like they may be relevant, but all they want is to sell me sunglasses or cutting boards.

Lopsided Follow/Follower Ratio – If they have 20K followers, but only follow 90 people, then I have news for you. They are only going to follow you for about a minute after you follow them back. These people are gunning for massive follower counts, but don’t believe in keeping in touch with their followers, just broadcasting to them. Although you may have a chance with one of these every now and then, I’d keep an eye on them. They seem to me to be gaming the system in order to look important.

Relevance is the New Black – Speaking of reading their posts, if they are writing and commenting on issues that involve you, then definitely follow them back. As a matter of fact, if you find someone who really has their finger on the pulse of your industry or topics that you care about, then I would recommend looking at who else they are following — you might find a treasure trove of great thinkers and influencers to learn from. And maybe some of them might decide to follow you back, too!

Track and Reassess – I use tools like WhoUnfollowedMe? to track when people follow and unfollow me on Twitter. I believe in karma to a point, so it just makes sense to me that if I’m trying to make a connection with someone and then I tun around a delete that connection, then maybe it wasn’t such a good idea in the first place.

Deciding to connect with a new friend or colleague on social media can be a crapshoot. Be sure that you’ve got the odds stacked in your favor with strategies that keep you on a winning streak!