Anyway… our little company has gotten quite a bit of news coverage in the past three weeks. First, we were recognized by CNN Money and Fortune as being among the top 17 small coffee companies in the nation. Then, in a bit of pretzel logic, we were suddenly discovered by the local media, even though we had shared a backyard for going on five years. Slightly different versions of our story made it to The Cary News, The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer (Raleigh), and even some I’ve not listed because I never heard of them before (so we’re even, I guess).
This notoriety has led to an uptick in our social media followers, some of whom have expressed a desire for reciprocity. As a company that cut its teeth in 2006, we have been on the leading edge of social media – we’re heavy users, and it’s worked quite well for us. We’ve built an active and engaged follower base, and that doesn’t happen by accident. Or by simple reciprocity. So I thought this would be a good time to share our social media return following strategy, so as to save the bungee followers some trouble (if you want to follow me because you like our posts and don’t expect reciprocity, that’s totally cool, but I’m finding this new group of followers aren’t those people). Recognizing that Twitter and Facebook are different animals, I’ve broken them out, and I’ll mention the “others” category toward the end of this post.
Twitter can either be like speed dating (“Hi! Do you like sushi? Gotta go!”), or like a bunch of short yet valued notes from like-minded people who know each other (“FYI, thought you’d find this interesting. J.”) Which one do you want more of? Yeah, us too.
So how do I decide whether to return your unsolicited follow?
1. I read your bio. It should be at least mildly amusing, or if it’s dead serious, it had better be about a topic I care about (hint: I don’t care about real estate, SEO or MLM). If you wonder whether your tweet stream is one that would interest me, read my tweets, just a few dozen of them at least.
2. I look at your location. If you’re local, I’ll probably return the follow. At least for a while.
3. I look to see if you tweet. If you don’t, I don’t follow – you have nothing to share.
4. I look to see if your tweets are protected. If they are, I don’t follow. Protected tweets defeat the purpose of social networking, in my opinion. If I follow you and you have protected tweets, that means I added you a long time ago when I was still trying to figure this stuff out.
5. I read your tweet stream, at least the last couple dozen. If you make me smile, include a link I click, or generally seem interesting and contain some original material, I’ll follow.
6. I look at the frequency of your tweets. If it’s not too much, and you meet criteria #5, I’ll follow. If you blast 20 tweets a minute, I won’t follow, because you’ll fill up my screen. That’s the digital equivalent of invading my personal space.
7. I look at how much you retweet. If it’s some, that’s great. If it’s none, or all, that’s unacceptable. You have to have a mix of original material and shared material. That’s the way the system works.
8. I look to see if you’re a business partner of some sort. If you are, you’re in. If you’re not, that means you have to meet the other criteria to get a return follow.
Facebook is for a different audience, one that’s more engaged. It’s a place for slightly longer discussions and slightly more information sharing. So how do we decide to “Like” your business page (we can’t “Friend” or “Like” individuals, that’s not the way Facebook works)?
9. If you’re a business partner of some sort, we’ll Like you. We stretch the definition of “business partner” pretty far.
10. If you promote us, we’ll Like you. So I guess maybe we are a little tit for tat after all, at least on Facebook.
Other
There are numerous other social media players, both existing and emerging. We try to keep up with what’s out there, and what’s up and coming. Here’s where we stand on some of the others:
LinkedIn: Like watching paint dry. I’ve never seen a more boring forum. Can’t go there without falling asleep.
Location based services (FourSquare, Gowalla, FB Checkin): still trying to figure out the utility of these. I’ve been an active user of all of them for the past 6 months. Honestly, I still don’t really get it, but I get the sense that there’s something there, it just has to reach some kind of critical mass.
Google+: Tried it. Don’t get it. Nobody I know seems to be there. Don’t have the energy to bear with it. Could change, in which case I’ll revisit it.
So that’s it in a nutshell. We’re trying to use a logical, principled return follow strategy, and it seems to be working for us. What do you do on this topic at your business?
http://www.muddydogcoffee.com
http://www.twitter.com/muddydogcoffee
http://www.facebook.com/muddydogcoffee
This has got to be the best social media summarization I’ve read. I thought I was the only on who felt Linkedin was a fail.
I do the same for Twitter. But there’s one more to add to the list, the Social Sabotager, the one who sends out endless tweets just to be seen. I drop and block those. Go for quality instead of quantity.
Nice overview, good luck to you!
I like your strategy. I’m still figuring mine out having initially followed back too many people who flooded my timeline -nobody’s message is important enough to me that it needs to be tweeted 2-5 minutes apart 24-7.
Dupe content from a user w/ multiple accounts is a pet peeve. Really, I heard it the first time.
Affliliate link marketing is another.
And #3 is tweeps who constantly retweet. No original content.
For me Twitter is about quality over quantity. I’m not out to amass a couple hundred thousand followers for the sheer sake of having that many.
Thanks for sharing what you’ve found works for you. Very interesting!