Blake Bowyer
Media Program Analyst

On Twitter, your followers say a lot about you – literally and symbolically. However, who you’re following speaks even louder. Do the Twitter users you’re following have pictures of bikini-clad models or stacks of cash? You might be following the wrong people. And, guess what? It reflects on you. He or she who dies with the most toys still dies. The same can be said for Twitter, replacing “toys” with “followers”.

It’s neither a sprint nor a marathon, it’s a relay and every user in your network is a leg of that race. To make sure you’re getting the baton from – and passing it on to – the right tweeters, here are seven tips to help build a valuable Twitter network:

1. Don’t automatically follow users who follow you. Use professional discretion. Would you be willing to bring these people to a meeting with your biggest clients or customers?
2. Read biographies and a few past tweets to get an idea what you’ll be getting from that user. Do you want 70 tweets about cats filling up your page and drowning potential pearls of wisdom?
3. Is a user in your industry? If so, he, she, or it might share useful info.
4. Follow your customers. They took the time to follow you and you should reciprocate. Not to mention, one of Twitter’s greatest strengths is the ability to start and maintain a dialogue and the exchange you have with a customer pays off a lot more than the one with @crazy_cat_lady.
5. Follow related industries. For example, @eyetraffic - as an interactive and online media consultancy – will follow users in fields such as technology and popular culture to get up-to-the-second information and news that could affect our industry.
6. Follow the big birds. Users like @wholefoods, @delloutlet, and @zappos will provide shining examples of how businesses use Twitter effectively.
7. Follow competitors. What are yours doing on Twitter? How are they using it? You differentiate the other aspects of your marketing, why not social media and Twitter? A unique voice can do a lot in the crowded skies of the Twitterverse.

That’s the list of tips for now.  But I’m sure it will continue to grow like your Twitter network – responsibly.  Treat your Twitter account like you would any other piece of marketing, that way @crazy_cat_lady doesn’t gobble up your origination’s bird.