Dear Amy: Following Back on Twitter

For the second installment of Dear Amy: Social Media Etiquette for the Rest of Us, I look at the etiquette of Twitter. While Facebook is the place where we tend to be connected to those we know (for good or bad), on Twitter, we're much more likely to be connected to people we don't know.It's not unusual to not know most of your followers on Twitter. So what's the proper etiquette in following people back?And don't forget! Submit your questions! Dear Flummoxed:There is no "supposed to follow" on Twitter. Some might tell you there is, but there isn't.The only reason to follow someone is if you're interested in what he or she has to say. That goes for companies and brands, too - for exmaple, if it's a brand you like, and you want to stay up-to-date on company news, deals, specials or other goodies, then follow.If someone follows you, you are under no obligation to follow that person back. It is not rude to not click "follow."That said, you might find all sorts of interesting new people if you check out your new followers. One way to follow their feeds without directly following them right at the start is to create a list of new followers. Add your new followers to that list. Monitor the list, decide who you're actually interested in following back and move them from the list to your main feed (or another list feed, if you like to keep your Twitter organized by category). The folks you're not interested in, remove from the "New Followers" list after you've seen enough of their tweets to know you're not going to follow back.Doing this enables you to discover new people you only became aware of because they followed you without being rude - what would be rude would be if you followed someone just to follow back, and then unfollowed a day or so later because you weren't interested. Though I personally don't find Twitter unfollows rude, I often feel I'm in the minority on that, and many people get upset when they're unfollowed.So, to sum up: Follow who you want. Don't follow someone just because they followed you. And if they unfollow you because you didn't follow back? Well, then, you're not missing much, are you?