Do you follow Fox News on Twitter. Or perhaps any of the hundreds of Huffington Post threads? Well, you might be giving a signal to potential clients, employers, and others a bit more about your social and political DNA than you wish to reveal.

Discovery on Twitter is hard work. You are looking for valuable and related Twitter folks to follow. One very simple tactic for finding good tweeters is to look at a high-profile account in your focus industry and see who they follow. Um, you’re in for a surprise if you’ve never done this. You can tell the "followers at all cost" accounts from the focused and serious accounts.

Here are a few clues you might be unintentionally giving off by who you follow.

• It’s fine to follow Barack Obama, just as it’s fine to have Mitt Romney in your list. BUT would you leave a Mitt Romney bumper sticker on your car? (Some do, I know, but it’s a statement they are making. About their anger at the overwhelming loss.)
• Do you follow the spammers? (#teamfollowback, I’ll sell you twitter followers, hottie profile pics with zero bio information)
• Do you have pockets of interest followings that aren’t really in keeping with your brand. (Las Vegas wedding resorts, muscle-building promo accounts)
• And let’s talk about Fox News and all of it’s infinite accounts, personalities and shows. Yes I follow Jon Steward and Stephen Colbert. And yes, I’m kind of making a statement by following them. I’m okay with that
• Too much religion on your professional account might be a turnoff for the huge number of people who hold a different religious or spiritual belief

Once you start looking for good PEOPLE not COMPANIES to follow you’ll notice how many fake and crap accounts are on Twitter. It’s a problem. Don’t be sucked down into the race for followers by following all and everything you find. Pick you follows wisely. And if you’re just getting started, build a few lists. Then when you actually ADD someone on Twitter you can put them on one of your LISTS. Lists are the other goldmine for finding quality tweeters to follow.

If you get added to a list by someone else. Check out the list and see if it’s in your area of interest. If it is, follow’em all.

Twitter in many ways IS a numbers game, but it’s only the REAL numbers that count. Let me give you an example

If you have 500 followers on Twitter and every time you tweet a link you get an average of 5 new visitors. That’s not bad. 1% response. But if you have 5,000 followers and you get the same 5 new visitors after a tweet, you know your spam following is not really paying off.

Look for quality people to follow. And when quality people follow you, follow them back. And please, please, please BLOCK and REPORT the spam accounts. Twitter relies heavily on user-flagging of spam accounts. I check my followers daily to and I report all spammers and "sell you 10,000 twitter followers" accounts.

You need quality people to follow and learn from. You also need quality people to follow you. Watch what your "following" list says about you. Don’t fill it with spammers and political dogma. Keep your Twitter account focused on your business. If it’s personal, put it on a different Twitter account.

Trap the spammers, reward the winners.

John McElhenney

@jmacofearth (also seen on Google+: jmacofearth)

permalink: https://uber.la/2014/10/yosemite-review-hour-one/

Check out the Strategist’s Notebook page and these other posts about online marketing:

• Workin Facebook < all the Facebook Posts in one place
• Social Media University < 2 minute educational videos
• Social Business MBA < the reading list
• Becoming a Social Media Rockstar: The Quick Path < um… let’s discuss

Let me help you jumpstart your social marketing:

• FluentSocial (Social Media Marketing)
  
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