I have a gmail filter set up so that notifications of new Twitter followers don’t get sent to my inbox. I go through them a couple of times of weeks, and I’ve picked up on a few patterns in my follow-back decision making…

  1. If you are following more people than I am and have only produced 1% of the tweets I have go back! You are not getting followed.
  2. If you are following 10x more people than are following you, go back! You are not getting followed.
  3. If you are following a number of people approximately equal to or smaller than the number of people that are following you and your number of tweets is at least 10% of the number of people you follow, I’m going to check you out and probably follow back.
  4. If I know you in real life, I’m going to follow you. Even if you’ve never tweeted. But expect me to prod you into participating.
  5. If you mention David Lee Roth or Falls City beer in your profile, I will follow you.

Expect this list to grow and evolve.