All of us have our own methods and philosophy for choosing who we follow on Twitter.  I know many who will return any follow, as long as it’s not from a spammer.  I know people who only follow others who share their professional interests. Still others, on a continuous quest for more business, will only follow those who fit their customer profile.

There’s a lot to be said for widening your horizons and Twitter offers tremendous opportunities in this area. Remember that one of the greatest ways to promote your brand is by building a legion of brand ambassadors; friends who want to help promote you. Twitter is the ultimate tool for this. 

So don’t write off someone who tweets mostly about organic gardening just because you create software for big corporations. If treated well, she could turn out to be a great supporter who will go to bat for you with potential clients who would otherwise be inaccessible to you. You also just might be exposed to some information that will enrich your life.

I don’t, however, recommend following everyone who follows you, unless your main goal on Twitter is to have a big number next to the word “followers” on your profile.  If you are selective, and follow only those people who #EIR, engage, inform and retweet, you will have a targeted group of people who will help educate you, are much more likely to be converted into brand ambassadors and could even become good friends.

How can you tell if they #EIR? Well, it’s really not hard. First don’t judge a tweep by their background. Yes, it does help me to take you more seriously as a tweeter if you have something besides the standard Twitter background and bird avatar. A good profile and link to a website will definitely add to your credibility. And if you have a lot of followers and are listed frequently, that makes me think you aren’t just dabbling.

But the most important information when deciding whether or not to follow someone, is in the person’s tweets. To assess whether someone on Twitter has potential for becoming a brand ambassador, apply the #EIR test here.

Some examples:

The quoter - Tweets nothing but quotes – no engagement, some information, no retweets – NO

The informer – Tweets lots of links, no engagement, no retweets – NO

The chatterbox - Lots of conversing, not much retweeting, no informative links – NO

The spammer – Tweets lots of information about their product, no retweets, no links to outside sources – NO!

I look for a good mix of tweets that offer links to useful info; look like part of a conversation; include the “RT” for retweet; and recommendations including the hashtags “#FF” “#Follow or #EIR. Sometimes, when I’m in a hurry, I just look for those hashtags and the “RT”, because they immediately tell me that this person appreciates and promotes her friends on Twitter.

Take other things into consideration. If  you’re looking at the profile of someone who tweets mostly quotes that you find inspiring, but only occasionally has a conversation or retweets, you might consider following anyway, especially if they haven’t been on Twitter long. They may improve their Twitter habits as they become familiar with it.

I humbly offer this information as a guideline. Using this method has really helped me to gain a wonderful following of fascinating people who continue to teach me everyday on Twitter.  Some of them have become good friends and are wonderful about retweeting my blog posts and links, giving me lots of moral support and actively looking for ways to help me in my business.

One final note; don’t forget the Golden Rule.  I could have the greatest group of people who #EIR following me and it would do me absolutely no good unless I was engaging them in conversations, informing them of links that are useful to them and retweeting their tweets. Twitter is the perfect example of Instant Karma.

That’s my take.  What’s yours? I’d love to hear your experiences and tips on building a vibrant, beneficial Twitter following!