A small business owner once asked me, “Should I follow back everyone who follows me on social media?” It depends. Let me explain.
Each Social Media Network is Different…
They each have their own culture. What’s fine to do in one may be a no-no in another. Here’s a rundown of the following best practices.
On Facebook, a business page can’t follow a person. Additionally, you cannot use a personal account primarily to promote a business. A page can thank a person for liking their page — especially if they’re trying to get the first 100 likes. You get added features at that benchmark. Like, insights on who your followers are.
Furthermore, it is crucial for a business, especially a local brick-and-mortar, to have a Facebook business set up correctly with its address so people can check in. Recently, I wanted to check into a local restaurant and discovered this very mistake. Not knowing any better, she had set up a personal profile for the business. I gently corrected her.
Personally, you can follow someone without being connected to them. Likewise, you can stop following someone and still be connected to them. For instance, I don’t care for the things a cousin posts, but I still want to be connected to her.
On LinkedIn, you connect with people who would be potential clients and/or referral sources, and you don’t have to accept every invitation to connect. If by chance you connect with someone and they become a pest — by messaging or emailing you too much — you can very easily disconnect them. They won’t get a notification. I usually connect with people who can become a referral source, potential clients, or colleagues. If they are not in the U.S., I ignore the invitation. Also, look to see who you have as a mutual connection. If it’s a close friend or colleague, then go ahead and connect with them.
Similar to Facebook, you can follow someone without being connected to them.
By the way, LinkedIn is a PROFESSIONAL network. Please refrain from posting personal posts. It’s a place to become known as an expert in your field.
X (formerly Twitter)
X is the only network with a culture where people expect to be thanked for following you, retweeting – sharing a post with their followers — or mentioning – aka a “shout out”. You don’t have to follow everyone back. Here’s how you can judge who to follow or who to ignore on X…
Are they in your industry or a related industry? Look to see how many posts they’ve made and how many followers they have. Are they sharing content that’s valuable to you or your target market? You also want to follow influencers and newsmakers in your industry — the folks with a lot of followers and who are actively posting. Don’t waste time following influencers who
Look at when they joined Twitter/X and when they last tweeted. They could be a newbie. If you like what they’re posting, by all means, follow them back. Basically, everyone starts as a newbie, following a lot of people to get noticed. Then, as you share good, quality content, you become a relationship builder with more or less an even follower-to-following ratio. And that’s the idea — you want to build relationships.
Related: 5 Types of X Users – Which one are you?
You eventually become a news-maker. OK, you might not get to the millions of followers like Forbes has, but you’ll have more followers than you are following. At this point, you can be choosier as to who you follow back.
Beware of the fake accounts. They usually are a blank head icon — they haven’t uploaded a picture or logo; they may have many followers, but a couple of tweets. You can just ignore these folks. There are also the ones that want to sell you something. You don’t need to thank these either or follow them back, unless you may be interested in what they’re selling.
You may encounter information gatherers. These folks follow a lot of people, but they don’t tweet much, and they don’t have nearly as many followers as the number of people they are following.
Basically, if they’re not posting regularly, they’re not worth following. This brings me to the point that, if you’re not posting regularly, you’re not worth following, either!
What about Instagram? Well, the same thing applies. Do you like what they’re posting? If so, then follow them back. On Instagram, you can only like or comment on a picture or a story that someone shared. On both X and Instagram, you can always easily unfollow someone if you don’t like what they’re posting.
Hey, and if you have a burning social media, SEO, or content marketing question, please schedule a free 15-minute Zoom Consult.
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