1. Do I know the person?
If I know the person, I’ll follow no matter what. Its always fun to read what someone you know thinks or likes, even if he’s only complaining about his mood.
2. What is the person’s following-to-follower ratio? How many updates were posted?
If its roughly one-by-one, they’re normally using some sort of script that let them leave guys who are not following them. This is not a good or a bad point. If they follow a very big number of tweeps but are followed by only very few, its likely that there’s a follower-builder script involved – look at their updates number or at their updates – if its too few or automated stuff, don’t follow these. If they have a lot of followers but few friends, they most likely tweet good stuff. If they have very few followers, look at the stuff they tweet – maybe they give value but are not on twitter too long.
3. Is the follower really there to engage or to pump up their number?There are a lot of follower-pumpers out there. I run one account with only six updates and a follower script running to see if that works … and yes it does. That account has more than 2200 followers. Many out there ar like this – filter out the automated and you’ll get more value.
4. Does the Tweep have the same interests?
Very important. If he’s interested in the same stuff, its most likly that he’s be of value to you, post interesting links or engage in communication about stuff that matters to you.
5. Are the Tweets of value?
Well thats the most important part anyways. If you gain anything from reading his tweets, then the tweep really offers something to you. And thats where Twitter has its purpose: if you read stuff you want to read, its useful. And believe me, there are a lot of tweeps out there who post interesting stuff.
6. Has the Tweeter engaged?
If there are @replies, the tweep does talk back and might even read my tweets. Thats good for communication of if you need to know somethng. If he also RTs stuff he likes, you’ll get even more info that gets redirected to you – if its good.
