In Six Ways, I talked about ways to influence and persuade.

Chief among them: reciprocity. You do something for someone else, they do something for you.

So when someone starts to follow me on Twitter, I feel somewhat obligated to reciprocate. Not following follow them back says one of two things:

- I don’t find your content worth reading.

- I can see why you would follow me. I’m important. I have lots to say.

Neither are very flattering.

And yet, I’m enjoying Twitter less the more people I follow. With so many entries from so many virtual strangers, it’s difficult to catch the updates from the people I genuinely *want* to follow.

Here’s an exchange I had today with an online acquaintance today:

I wrote, “I saw you stopped following me on Twitter. I’m interested to know [Read more...]