a peek inside the fishbowl

1 | Giulia Doyle

January 10th, 2013 at 2:46 pm

I will also follow someone on Twitter who has made thoughtful comments on my blog post, and/or interacted with me on the blog or by email.

2 | Randy Little

January 10th, 2013 at 3:53 pm

I follow nearly anyone who lives in and around Ottawa (save for chronic complainers and link posters) and only allow the same to follow me. I block everyone else without emotion :)

3 | Mary Lynn

January 10th, 2013 at 4:01 pm

I use very similar criteria, except that I follow quite a few people outside my hometown. I quite enjoy hearing what’s going on in other parts of the country (or outside Canada).

I rarely follow people who list their businesses first in their profiles, but I do follow a few because when I looked at their actual tweets I found that they talked about a lot more than just work. In addition to the businesses you listed, I’m wary of marketing and promotions types, but I’ve made exceptions in a few cases.

4 | Theresa

January 10th, 2013 at 4:09 pm

I usually follow people that I find interesting, informative, or share a common interest with. I think one thing to remember is that what we may find exceptionally interesting, others may find annoying. My twitter is a reflection of who I am and what I think, and if anyone finds my tweets boring or annoying, they are welcomed to unfollow me, it won’t hurt my feelings. I try to keep this in mind when reading my twitter feed. Maybe someone goes on ad nauseum about their new job, new home, cat, supper, tattoo… It’s important to them, they are excited about it. They are not tweeting solely for my benefit, I am choosing to follow them and their thoughts and opinions.

That said, if all someone ever tweets is how much they bench pressed, how many kms they ran, how annoying their coworker is (those tweets can be pretty funny, by the way) I simply unfollow. I don’t expect them to tweet to please me any more than I tweet to please anyone else. If I feel inspired to tweet a Gandhi quote, I’m doing it. I don’t give a second thought if anyone might find it annoying.

Like you, I won’t follow anyone without a photo and some sort of a bio.

5 | andrea

January 10th, 2013 at 4:41 pm

Theresa, you bring up a great point about one’s “interestingness.” It’s entirely subjective, especially as it relates to notable quotes. I am only speaking for myself here in terms of what I find interesting. I think it’s safe to say that on Twitter we should try to remain true to our authentic selves, but it is still good practice to be mindful of what we put out there into the world. After all, we don’t know who’s reading, right?

6 | Femi

January 10th, 2013 at 5:57 pm

When I first got on Twitter, I only followed a list of the top people in my field (Public Relations). I expanded out to follow people in my interests (sports, technology, investing). Now I am looking to whittle it down between those who actually tweet, share interesting content aligned to my interests, don’t spam a lot, and are humorous.

7 | lacoop

January 10th, 2013 at 7:00 pm

It took me a bit of time to understand the value of Twitter…now I get it…it is my source of news at all levels. Sadly, newspapers and broadcast news just don’t do much for me anymore…too often they just report to “inflame” and get attention…other times they have not done much of a job checking the facts. On Twitter, if I follow the right people, I can get the latest news on so many things I am interested in following. So, I look for “local” sources of news (like you Andrea), and I look for big picture news stories, and I follow satellites (yes, actual satellites in orbit), and I follow cooks, and athletes and so forth…because those are things I am interested in (and more). In order to select them, I check a lot of the same parameters you described above, especially checking their latest tweets to see how interesting they are…and I do tend to check how many followers they have as a simple measure of popularity (not a deciding factor, but it does grab my eye).

8 | Tanya

January 10th, 2013 at 8:38 pm

After listening to my husband constantly talking about Twitter, I decided to give it a try. At first I was lost but am getting the hang of it, sort of. I use it to follow news, weather, funny people and locals, especially other moms. I am currently at home on mat leave so I am living vicariously through others, twitter and blogs, for the time being.

9 | Chris

January 10th, 2013 at 9:20 pm

I use twitter as a source for my industry news primarily. I have similar guidelines for who I follow and who I let follow me. That being said I do allow eggs and logos from known sources as many in my industry haven’t figured out Twitter yet. It makes for some interesting “discoveries” from my industry when they don’t realize the implications of tweeting sensitive information.
For outside my industry if I get a follower or I’m looking to follow I read what they’ve posted to get a sense of what they broadcast. I allow anyone regardless of industry follow me as long as they are a real person and tweet nothing too outrageous. I won’t usually follow them back but if they want to hear what I say it doesn’t hurt.
I will/do follow people of all stripes politically from my local/Provincial/Federal levels to hear what’s being said (even the ones I severely dislike).
My two cents, or nickel as it will be going forward.

10 | peter goold

January 11th, 2013 at 9:12 am

I like what you say about twitter being a conversation. I follow anyone that I find interesting. That seems to be parents and especially self employed parents. Originally I had set up to follow my industry (insurance – sorry) but found the messages more like advertising and generally not informative. I did follow policticians especially those with views contrary to mine. May as well keep an open mind. The problem is that their tweets also often seem canned. So if I am following someone they are likely to be original and informative. Humor is always welcome! If you are all that I don’t mind the odd pitch coming my way! @SFAgentPeterG

11 | andrea

January 11th, 2013 at 10:09 am

Ha. Peter. Sorry for the dig at insurance people. But you get where I’m coming from, right?

Sales people (of all kinds!) who are looking to build a client list should start by building relationships with people instead. And this takes time. I’m only suggesting they focus on the other things they bring to the table, such as a love for hockey or knitting. Whatever! The relationships build organically and the business stuff will come later.

A great way of sorting followers (especially by industry) is by using Twitter lists. I find Hootsuite to be a great way of organizing lists into streams. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your varied followers try dividing them by topic and accessing them that way. For example you can have a local news feed, a recipes feed, etc. And you only read the list you feel like at that moment.

12 | Javamom

January 11th, 2013 at 11:07 am

I am relatively new to twitter and use it in association with my conversational blog. Having said that, to me, Twitter is not a competition of ‘hey look at how many people follow me, or I have collected’ kind of thing. I am very selective on who I follow, many of whom also have a blog, so that I can actually interact in some way some of the time with those people. I don’t even have a 100 followers, nor am I following 100 tweeps. It’s not about the volume, for me.

I do like variety though. I live in Toronto but follow people in other parts of Canada, and world wide. That is the whole thing for me – variety. How cool to hear about someone buried in a snowstorm in Saskatchewan, or another person excited about a local event in Ottawa…or the US somewhere…

Sometimes I unfollow someone, not because they aren’t nice people, or spamming me, but simply because I no longer require to see their tweets about things. Maybe that person is in the midst of toddlerhood and preoccupied about toilet training, and that’s all fine and dandy, I have BEEN there, but I no longer want to read about it. I may still visit her/him on their blog here and there, but I just don’t need or want that feed in my Twitter anymore.

13 | Heather

January 11th, 2013 at 5:05 pm

I am still a newbie at Twitter so I have to admit that I tend to follow the people that make sense to me! Sometimes, with all the links and hashtags, I feel like I am reading a different language.

I like following local Ottawa people and those who do the same type of work I do, but I just unfollowed someone who seemed to be advertising products in just about every tweet.

And hey, it was a Twitter feed that told me whether my kid was going to school today!

Now to figure out how I can eliminate some characters and get the word “Ottawa” in my bio….

14 | Mike Tiger

January 19th, 2013 at 9:46 am

Hello. Your views on following are similiar to mine. It has taken me a year (this month) to grasp the subtle technique required to communicate effectively. I do follow radio from across this land.They seem to be an amazing source of information, insipration,and humour.My tweets are basic (often sarcastic) My advice? Pick a”cause” one that would be suiting your morals.Eg. No Bullies or Melting Polar Cap, something like that is a feel good use of twitter.

15 | http://www.highstreettv.ie

May 14th, 2013 at 6:17 pm

If you are not ready to fight with yourself, to say
“NO” to things you liked to do or which were just
a habit to you then nothing on Earth will help you
to get rid of those excess pounds. These tablets are frequently over the a
hundred and fifty mark but offer you a considerably broader and longer lasting expertise.
Being a computer and laptop manufacturer, the company jumped in tablet PC market soon after they came into market.

16 | real estate new york ny

May 31st, 2013 at 4:35 am

Some people known as Nikon one V1 a conveyable
DSLR the place you are able to just slip correct by way of your pocket but its shooting strength
is identical as that of a DSLR. Some people will rely on transferring
data between flash drives and their home computers, or sending what they wish to have printed to a proxy, such as Fed – Ex.
The sale for Samsung Galaxy S has reached 10 millionth mark, thus making it the most successful Android smartphone so far.