As I was looking at Twitter today, I realized that I have some rules that I follow.  This post is more an exercise for me to articulate them rather than to have you follow them.  I’d be interested though in the rules that you follow for Twitter.  If you’re not on Twitter, this post won’t make any sense to you – you should read these other posts about Twitter: The Wisdom on Twitter, Everyone is a Source of Something, Behavior Translated into Tweets, Jesus Would Have Tweeted.

Now the Rules:

1. I don’t just follow anyone.  If I can’t learn from you, I’m not following you.  I’ll give everyone a chance though, but once your tweets become noise – unfollow.

2. If you’re not one of the first 25 million people to sign up for Twitter, I’m probably not going to follow you – unless you’re a great friend or you add incredible value to my mind.

3. If you claim to be a leadership or HR coach or any other kind of other coach, I’m not following you.  Coach = you’re bossy.  Don’t need that.

4. If you try to sell something to me – unfollow.

5. I will probably be more likely to follow someone with a blog.

6. Profiles without pictures – I won’t even look at.  If you can’t even put a picture up, what makes me think that you’re going to add great content.  Unless you’re a friend that I absolutely love like @vogie5. Update 3.15.12: he’s put a picture since this post was written.

7. Anyone that takes the time to dm or @reply I will probably follow.

8. If your tweets don’t make me think or laugh = unfollow.

That’s about it.  I’m sure I’ll come up with other rules.  Follow me on Twitter – then unfollow me if I break any of these rules.