Friends of a Feather | What WILL Make Me Follow Someone on Twitter

Last week I broke down some of the reasons why I might not follow someone on Twitter (if you missed it, follow this link to catch up).

This week is the other half of the story, the reasons I might be inclined to follow someone on the social media platform.

Write of Way

Right off the bat, I’m typically more inclined to follow writers than anyone else.

I do follow a handful of political figures and celebrities like musicians, actors, and YouTubers, but for the most part I follow writers and others who play a role in that realm including agents and editors. Whether or not you’re published is immaterial to me, just as long as a dedication and passion for the craft comes through.

Shared Interests

Another point in the Follow Column for me is being a writer of the same genre. Think of it like making friends in real life; shared interests go a long way.

Don’t worry, I do follow writers in other genres. It’s just that writers in my own genre typically post information that is not necessarily more valid but instead more relevant to the content I am looking for (such as mentioning agents or publishers in my specific genre or links to research materials in my specific time period).

Tweets Speak Louder Than Follows

Similar to the aforementioned points, another factor I consider when following someone is what they’re tweeting. If their posts are writing-related or just something I find funny, that makes me more likely to follow compared to profiles that just contain retweets of their own advertisements or hateful language. Another thing that will make me follow is a general awareness of what might be going on in the writing industry, like if you’re sharing factual information or well-founded opinions about a controversy.

Don’t just spout words for the sake of having a presence. Be meaningful in how you use your allotted 280 characters.

Interactions Get A Reaction

I’ve talked about this in a few different articles, but the thing that really makes me want to follow you on Twitter is interaction and engagement.

As I said last week, I won’t follow trolls or bots, or users that demonstrate a clear priority of marketing and making sales rather than making connections. Most often evidenced by automatic messaging which I wrote an opinion piece on a while back, these are the users whose only interactions with you are links to their websites and where to buy their books or “special deals” on editing services they provide and the like.

I prefer to follow people I have genuine interactions with. It’s called the #WritingCommunity for a reason! Naive as it might be, I actually am more focused on making writer friends and have conversations with.

Commenting on my posts or responding to those I leave on yours, liking and retweeting, or tagging games that aren’t randomly generated ones are definitely one way to have me following you (even if you’re not a writer!).

As was the case last week, this list is only a small handful of factors that will have me want to follow someone on Twitter. In most cases, it is a combination of things in this post and the prior that will determine whether or not I will go on ahead and follow a user on Twitter, as well as others that have not been included. On the whole, when I do follow you, know that you’ve got someone genuine on board.

That said, if you want to check out my Twitter profile, you can find that here!