Twitter Tip: The List vs. The Follow

Follows vs. followers: a twitter tip

About a year ago I started a new pop culture/entertainment blog called Old Ain’t Dead. I started a new Twitter account for it as well @OldAintDead.

In the service of my new topic, I wanted to follow the tweets of many people and sources who write about entertainment and the stars making the pop culture news.

I also wanted to get people to follow my new Twitter account. A much harder proposition. It’s a slower process to get followers than it is to find people to follow.

I didn’t want the numbers to be out of proportion when potential new followers looked at my twitter profile. My regular Twitter account, where I tweet about web design topics, is @vdebolt. There I have more followers than people I follow.

twitter profile for @vdebolt
Having more followers than accounts I follow looks okay.

It’s great to have lots of followers in proportion to the number you are following. Makes you look interesting.

But what about the @OldAintDead Twitter account. If I were following 2000 entertainment accounts and only 412 people were following me, it would look as if over 1500 people decided not to follow me back. Someone seeing my profile would think I’m not worth following.

Screen grab of my Twitter Profile
The proportion of following to followers is fairly equal because I put public figures in a list.

My numbers are about equal now. That’s okay with me. So how did I manage to keep track of people I want to follow without actually following them?

I used a list. I took all those people and organizations I wanted to read like @Variety and @ShondaRhimes – people who would never follow me back – and I put them in a list. I called the list #mediawelike. I put actors, shows, media sites, networks, and those kinds of accounts in the list.

For my @OldAintDead Twitter feed, I follow real people who follow back, people who sometimes read my blog and people who are willing to engage in a conversation about something on Twitter.

I use Tweetdeck for watching Twitter in a browser. On my phone, I use Hootsuite. (Hootsuite doesn’t have an option for viewing lists.) Here’s what I see in my Old Ain’t Dead Twitter feed in Tweetdeck.

A screen grab from Tweetdeck
The Old Ain’t Dead Twitter feed

You see my Home feed, which is where I see the accounts I follow. I also keep open a notifications column. You also see the column for tweets coming in to the #mediawelike list. By using the list, I can keep the number of people I follow in a reasonable ratio compared to the number who follow me.

Creating a list is simple. In a browser, go to the Lists tab on your profile page. The create a new list option can be found there.

The new list button
The new list button

Makin’ a list and checkin’ it twice. Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice. No, wait. Wrong song.

Just go make a list.

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