If you work in midtown Manhattan, you’re likely to know the food cart I’m talking about. It’s the one on 53rd and 6th with 30 people waiting in line. They’re waiting to eat middle eastern food sold from a cart the size of a mini-copper. And they wait at all hours. When I passed by at 10 pm at least 50 people were in line. When I asked them if the food was “that good” to merit the line, they responded, “well, I saw the line, so it must be.”

I believe the same psychology of lines applies to Twitter. So often people use following / follower ratio to determine who they want to follow before actually “trying the food.”

There are many ways to cause lines to form, yet far fewer to cook a great meal.

(The meaning of follow, by dhammza on Flickr)

When people follow you on Twitter how do you decide whether to follow them back?

Here are criteria I use:

• Your last three tweets made me laugh or think.
• I already know you, and/or read your blog.
• The link in your bio points somewhere interesting – not to a place I have to login to see
• I like your wallpaper, photo or your icon.
• You have sent me an @ reply with something interesting
• Following / follower ratio (no spammers thank you)
• Your bio is appealing
• Because I suddenly feel like it and will decide later if there’s a fit

I asked a few friends on Twitter the same question:

@bmanley:  For me, if they seem “techy” and don’t look “spamy”, I’ll follow.
@msjen:  I read their tweets if I don’t know them. If they are a good writer, funny & not shilling a product or service then I follow
@thehotiron:  I usually go ahead and follow, then see what I am following!
@JayNeely: @quiverandquill 1) Do I know them? 2) Do their tweets show we share interests? 3) Are they over-following? 4) Are they tweeting too much?
@BryanPerson: Check out that person’s profile/tweets and look for points in common: living area, tweet topics, profession, industry, etc.

How do you decide?

Social media creates both collaboration and exclusivity.

Collaboration with tools like tags, wikis, forums and comments.

And exclusivity with limited invites to new services and the attention we pay to those with great stats, and friends & followers.

Does collaboration and exclusivity apply differently to businesses online than to people?

I recently came across OGILVY’s profile on Twitter which prompted this question.

Ogilvy is one of the world’s most influential advertising and communication agencies, positioning themselves as 360 degree brand stewards.
I am surprised that more than 500 people follow them on Twitter, and they are following no one in return.

I am sure there are pros and cons to this.

On the pro side, they have a good amount of followers and the fact that they follow none of them may make them come across as exclusive (a core brand characteristic?).
They also don’t need to concern themselves with offending someone they don’t follow since they follow no one.

On the con side, their exclusive positioning may prevent them from meaningful collaborative opportunities—and may make people on Twitter perceive them negatively.

So, Ogilvy UK—what was your thought behind not following anyone?

I would ask you directly, but since you’re not following me, I can’t DM you.

If the subject of online exclusivity interests you, check out: A Small World &  RUE LA LA.

Should a brand build a single twitter account or ask each of its employees to build their own affiliated twitter accounts? It depends on the brand and why they are on twitter.

I will follow an employee’s affiliated twitter account if they have personality, or if they offer unique insight or access. Their actions do reflect on their company and impact my perceptions of it. In some situations, I have no interest in following an individual’s account. Take the online deal site Woot for example. I don’t care what their product manager had for lunch, I just want a good deal now.

I like Perkett PR’s approach to twitter. Their brand’s account features the picture of everyone who contributes to it. Each one also has individual accounts.

There are other more complicated considerations involved in creating employee-affiliated twitter accounts. Who owns the account? What happens to the goodwill and equity the employee created for your brand when she leaves the company?

In an ideal world, a brand would carefully select, train and celebrate its twitter brand evangelists. While their training would cover a code of conduct and key speaking points, it would also empower twitter brand evangelists to express their unique personality and willingness to help.

Until a brand can be sure that every person tweeting on its behalf exemplifies these qualities, I would stick with a single brand account.

I reviewed 10 brands using Twitter and found most of them are using the service to publish alerts and special deals. Occasionally, they will infuse their personality into their tweet stream but with much less frequency than imagined. I continue to read how brands and their agencies invest in influencer models to determine who is important. I think there is an even greater opportunity to focus on the content that these brands are sharing on Twitter. Now that a brand has a forum in which to talk, what will it say?

An influential blog post recently suggested that brands should skip blogging in order to microblog. I think that’s a bad suggestion for many reasons. Having a blog provides a brand with context inside of social media. Whereas a microblog provides the opportunity to share short thoughts, what happens if a potential customer is interested in exploring those ideas in more depth? Should they click on a corporate website? No. They should be able to visit the brand’s blog, a place where ideas are shared between brand and customer and the conversation that began on social media can continue.

I was surprised by the lack of brands whose Twitter bio linked to a blog or a personalized landing page. For the most part, the Twitter bios linked directly to the brand’s homepage such as with JetBlue. This is a huge, missed opportunity. At the very least, a brand can create a custom headline: “Welcome twitter friend,” as my friend Steve has done with his blog. In the best-case scenario, the brand can celebrate its Twitter fans on a custom-landing page, flex some blog bling, like its Twitter Grader rank report or a Tweet Cloud.

When a brand’s bio sends someone from a Twitter account to their homepage it’s the equivalent of having a quiet, personal conversation with someone at a restaurant and walking into their house to have them yell at you. Dear Brand, don’t yell at me.

Carolina Fowler contributed to this research.

If you would like to download the study, please click here.