What to do when just anybody follows you on twitter?

[davepilgrimus]

I have a large number of unrelated people wanting to follow me on twitter. These are people that I do not know personally or do not think they will be interested in my niche. These followers requesting to follow me range from strip clubs to non-profit companies. So my question is: What do I do with these types of pending requests? Do I accept them because it will be greater exposure for my niche or should I hit decline? Thank you.

(I searched this question and couldn't find it on the forum. So I hope it hasn't been asked several times. Thank you for the time...cheers!)

[Elizabeth]

I personally don't care who follows me on Twitter. The more the merrier. All they can do is read and hopefully retweet your stuff. You never know how someone in a strip club or what ever may be interested in what you have to offer. Don't judge a book by it's cover! The more people reading about you the higher your profile and that fits in with the market leadership that Ed talks about. I would add however that I am more careful with Facebook because I have to be reasonably sure that I don't risk getting rubbish posted on my wall.

[Sandra]

Davepilgrimus,
You don't get to choose who follows you, on twitter. - You only get to choose who you follow, so I just ignore the spam followers. You can accept, report or ignore friend requests on facebook but twitter is more an open book.
Sandra

[akalafr]

You can actually block people on twitter so they can't follow you. Also you can set it up to have them send a request to follow you which you can approve or deny.

[Sandra]

Thank's for that Dana, I'll do a little more checking next time and at least I now know that I con block seriously un-attractive people (ugly spammers etc.)

OK Davepilgrimus, my answer is now much the same as Elizabeth's. It is good to remember that in any network you may have people related (mother, father, sister or brother etc) to the person that you have been wanting to meet for months. So Elizabeth is right "The more the merrier".

Sandra

[edempsey3]

I'm new at the blogging/internet marketing game but I've seen something like this out there. Some blog "training" tells you to go in and add hundreds to thousands of people everyday. The theory is that you "follow" someone and if they don't "follow" you back within two or three days, you "unfollow' them. If they do add you, then they have just picked up potential traffic to your website with very little effort at all. It's essentially spamming without the spam.

I've had a lot of people try this with my various twitter accounts. They follow me for a day or so and then drop me. More than likely they are using some twitter marketing software or plugin that adds hundreds of people per day for them and then unfollows them a few days later if they don't respond in kind. I know the names of a few programs but can't remember if it's against the rules to mention it here so I won't.

An easy way to tell if a person is doing something like this is if they are following 2957 people and only 1200 are following them. Those numbers are arbitrary, of course, but you get the point. The ethical issue I have with this is that people are just looking at other people as numbers or dollar signs and that is the wrong way to go about it. It may get you some traffic right off the bat and may even make you a ton of money short term but in the long term that kind of system will collapse and you will be right back where you started.

A better tactic for Challengers (and a more ethical one) is to find people in your niche to follow. There is nothing wrong with reaching out to groups or people who are like minded. More than likely, you will have something that can help them and likewise the other way around. This will create long-term, lasting relationships and customers that will trust what you have to say and whatever it is you sell.

"Cooperative competition helps everyone win"
-paraphrasing John Nash