LFR Twitter Policy
Hi and thanks for following us on Twitter. We have established the following policy so that you can clearly understand how and why we use Twitter, how and when we might start following you, and if we don't, why not.
LFR Twitter Goals
- To provide live news, updated daily, on the wide format print industry (browsing our website for a few minutes will hopefully make it perfectly clear who we are and what we do).
- To interact with others to whom this news is relevant
- To interact with others who can provide relevant commentary and input on this news
- To learn and grow professionally
- To make new friends and have fun
LFR Following Policy
- We tweet wide format print industy news, that is our primary aim, so we do not follow back automatically
- We will however follow anyone who engages us in meaningful conversation
- We will not follow you if you are abusive, or if you are trying to sell us something
- If you follow LFR, please introduce yourself with a @ mention as this increases the chances of us following you back (we don't always read DM's as they tend to contain a lot of auto-replies and unsolicited junk, thus the request for a @ mention).
- We use various tools to keep our Twitter stream as clean as possible; for example we generally unfollow accounts that have no profile picture, an empty bio, that use certain spammy keywords, or that have been inactive for more than 30 days.
- We maintain a whitelist to ensure our key contacts are not accidentally unfollowed.
- If you believe we have unfollowed you wrongly, tell us so with a @ mention and we will add you to our whitelist.
- We reserve the right to amend this policy without notice.
Please do not take offense if we either do not follow back, or if we unfollow - it is never personal. Our primary goal on Twitter is to find relevant industry news to bring to our readers, and that process is made easier by continually monitoring our incoming Twitter stream to keep it clean and streamlined. Thanks in advance for understanding.
Some tips you may find useful for managing your own Twitter account, or creating your own follow policy...
Who You Follow On Twitter Matters
To get the most business benefit from Twitter, you need to carefully consider who to include in your Twitter community. You have no control over who decides to follow you. But you do control who you follow.
The people you follow have the greatest impact on your Twitter experience. These people provide most of the tweets that you read, and give you the opportunities to jump into conversations.
If you don’t like your current Twitter experience, it’s time to change who you follow!
How To Decide Who To Follow On Twitter
The most important factor to consider in your Twitter follow policy is your Twitter goal. Why are you on Twitter in the first place? What audience do you want to reach? What is your message? If you can’t answer these questions, take a few minutes to figure out your Twitter goals before moving forward. It’s that important.
Your decisions about who to follow make up your follow policy. Everyone makes their own decisions about who to follow. Over time, your Twitter follow policy will change as your community grows, as you adjust your Twitter use, and as you redefine your Twitter goals.
When you start your account, it’s a good idea to find your existing customers on Twitter. You can also reach out to people in your business community and local neighborhood to find people to follow who can help you meet your Twitter goals. You should always follow the people who can help you reach your Twitter goals.
Your Twitter follow policy is one of the most important decisions you make about your Twitter community management. You can include your follow policy information on your Twitter landing page to communicate it with your potential followers.
Follow Backs
When someone you don’t know follows you, you have a choice to make. Do you want to follow back or not?
- Some people always follow back.
- Some people selectively follow back
Neither policy is right or wrong. It all depends on your Twitter goals.
Some people are selective about whom they follow back because they don’t have time to read and talk with everyone who follows them.
Other people follow everyone back, and selectively read the tweets in their timeline. Or they stop reading their timeline and only read the @replies and direct messages sent to them.
Whatever follow policy you choose, your emphasis should be on community engagement. Pick the follow policy and tools and strategy that allow you to best facilitate reaching your Twitter goals for community engagement.
Decide on your follow policy starting out, but be prepared to reassess your policy as you gain Twitter experience and as your Twitter following grows.
