Tweetdeck - my preferred way of viewing Twitter

I really enjoy Twitter. I don’t have thousands of followers, just 286,  nor do I follow thousands of people, only 197.  That’s the way I like it. I don’t want to be the recipient of loads of spam tweets, constant plugs for websites, get rich quick schemes or messages concerned about my spiritual well being which I feel is my business not some stranger’s.

When I get an email telling me somebody has started to follow me, I check out their profile. If their tweets are protected then I definitely won’t follow them – that’s like buying a pig in a poke. Who knows how boring or spammy they are, if you can’t see their tweets?

If they have no tweets, I probably still won’t follow them unless I already know them. I know this is hard on newbies to Twitter but that’s life.

When I see somebody is following 2000+ people but only has a few followers, I smell a rat. Does this person use a Twitter tool to follow people? If the opposite is true, somebody has thousands of followers but only follows a few people, then I wonder why, especially if I’ve never heard of them. If it’s somebody famous, I can understand the reason.

At this point I check their tweets. If they are interesting or amusing, then I will happily follow that person. I won’t even mind if they have the occasional link to their own blogs or web pages as long as those tweets aren’t in the majority.

I like people who interact with others on Twitter. I like to see them replying to tweets. These are the people who use Twitter as a social network.