First, key things they mention:
- You have to wait and gain more followers before you can follow additional people
- You can unfollow some to follow others
- Don't unfollow and follow too many people aggressively as that behavior can be a violation of the rules
The final bit is sometimes referred to as Twitter Churn, and TweetSmarter has a great blog post about it.
So, all that being said, here are two additional tips I would add.
The first would be to use Friend or Follow, particularly to see whom you are following but are not following you back, and vice versa. I say take note of this because if you want to be able to follow more than your limit, I and others believe Twitter truly becomes about reciprocity and you are at a point where you need to actively engage the Twittersphere in conversation and content, if you are not already.
Granted, there is no limit to the number of people that follow you and celebrities certainly don't have to reciprocate. However, for me, there's a chance that if someone is interested enough to follow me, then that sentiment is shared.
So using Friend or Follow, you can do with that info as you like, and here are just a couple of suggestions from me, some of which are covered in this post on the Top 10 Reasons You Need to Use Twitter Lists Now on Business 2 Community. One is that a list allows you to still curate and track content by an account that you might be interested in at times, but not all the time in your main feed and it won't add to your follow limit.
One list I've created is one for DMV (DC, MD, VA) Tweeps. While I follow some of them, others (like some government related ones), I don't, but would still be interested in keeping track of. Again, it's just another way to curate and follow tweets indirectly, without adding to your follow number.
Another way to use FoF would be to see tweeps you're following who aren't following you, but you want to keep following (whether or not they're also on a list). I would recommend trying to either engage them in conversation, RT their content, or mention them in a #FF tweet, as well as anything else you can think of.
Anyway, that's all I really have for now.
Also, some argue that there's really no need to follow more than 2,000 tweeps, and that's certainly true. The question is do you want to, and if so, why?
Personally, I'm not looking to follow as many people as I can, but do want to follow those who seem to share interests I do and whose lives are relevant to my own. And I'm pretty sure there's more than 2,000 people like that. But that's just me.
Would be interested in seeing what's worked for others. Have you not reached the limit? Are you well beyond yours? How do you curate tweeps you follow? How do you use lists?
And do you have any other tips, or thoughts on the ones I've given?
Looking forward to seeing what y'all have to say,
JR
2 comments:
I realize this is an old post, but I just stumbled across it today while searching for information on Twitter limits. It appears Twitter is misbehaving this week, claiming I've reached a follow limit when the math isn't adding up to the 10% ratio they publish.
I love your idea about using lists to curate twitter accounts that you're not following. In fact, I didn't realize until reading your post that it was possible to place an account on a list that you're not actually following. This is great news, as I am interested in some popular accounts who will never follow me back. I'm going to start using this trick immediately to free up follow slots!
Out of my follower/following group of approximately 6000 people, there are really only about 15 accounts of people I would consider Twitter "friends": These are people that I interact with enough to not want to miss anything they say. I group these people onto a single list, and this becomes my "Timeline".
My full "Timeline" of 6k people I hit sporadically. I'll hop over to my full timeline when my closer friends are being quiet, or when I'm looking for fresh content (ideas for blogging, new and interesting people that I want to follow with greater attention, etc).
What's interesting to me about Twitter is it's focus on what's happening *now*. This gives me the freedom to view my timeline in small snippets and not worry that I've missed anything.
Anyway, thanks for the great post and the tips on how to curate information!
Hey Nat, thanks for the comment!!
Sorry to hear that Twitter's been wonky for you lately, but glad you found this helpful.
Yeah, I think one of Twitter's best-kept secrets are their lists and that you can add people you don't follow.
I feel like more people would take advantage of it, if they knew about it.
I love what you said at the end, as Twitter definitely isn't for anyone who's afraid they might miss something, because there's no way to see everything all the time.
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