My Twitter Response Philosophy

Written by: Jennifer // September 3rd, 2009 // How do I..., Social Media

It seems like ages ago, but I posted my very first tweet on Twitter in 2007 when social media enthusiasts like me commenced gravitating to the medium. Since then I have developed and redeveloped my philosophy about using Twitter from the way in which I follow people to how I respond to my followers who talk to me.

Today my Twitter philosophy is quite simple: I follow everyone who follows me unless they are spam, peddling porn, clearly marketing to me, I can’t tell who is behind the account, or I can’t figure out why they want to follow me. And when anyone talks to me on Twitter, I do my level best to always respond.

I know personal Twitter philosophies are vast and varied, but for me, when someone talks to me on Twitter, I believe it is common courtesy to talk back. The only exception to my rule of engagement is when someone is baiting me to talk to them about something spammy or when someone is simply re-tweeting something I’ve posted. Other than that, though, I honestly cannot imagine not responding to someone who took the time out of their busy day to talk to me. I liken it to someone coming up to me in person. I wouldn’t ignore someone face-to-face and so I make a concerted effort to respond to every single person who talks to me on Twitter.

I know you’re probably wondering who has time to respond to everyone who @s them? I etch out time each day (except when I travel) to respond to everyone who tweets me because I believe online relationships are just as important as in-person ones and through Twitter I can cultivate these relationships easier than anywhere else on the Net. Plus, I keep my Twitterstream manageable. I only tweet when something I have to say is relevant (at least to me) otherwise keeping up with those who tweet me would be essentially impossible.

Even though I realize my Twitter response rate isn’t 100%, I do know it is fairly high. I place a priority on reaching out to people who reach out to me. I think it’s not only the right thing to do from a social media best practices perspective, but the courteous thing to do as well.

What is your Twitter response philosophy?