One of the things that have amazed me in Twitter is the concept of mass following. The point with mass following is that some of those people that you follow will end up following you back, so you are building a follower-base. I wondered what happens in the mind of someone who follows someone that followed him and I have come up with a few profiles.

The Newbie

Some will follow people who follow them because they are told that it’s a Twitter etiquette. If this is true, then celebrities who happen to be those with most followers are the most unethical of Twitter users. Newbies think that it is a right thing to do so they follow people. Sometimes, they go as far as reading stuff and clicking on a few links. Sometimes, they even get influenced by promotional content because they don’t know it is promotional content. These are some of the most important people on Twitter. They are the ones who are will have the most effective viral effect because they don’t understand how the whole Twitter thing works.

The Selfish Fool

These are people who think that they are so cool, smart, fun and that it is only natural that they get followed. They follow back because of the Twitter etiquette again. These are usually selfish people who do not tend to interact with other and have more monologues that dialogues. Don’t put them in any of your Twitter lists.

The Spammer (a.k.a. the Marketer)

This is someone who is actually looking to be followed by mass followers. His trick is to mass spam and wait for people to follow him. Some of them are really clever and keep a good following/follower ratio so it doesn’t show up when they themselves perform mass following. In doing so, they get somehow genuine followers. These guys are usually very interactive and will get involved in conversations, which makes them actually be great Twitter friends!

The Ones I Forgot

Let me know if there are profiles I forgot. Note: if you follow those who follow you because they offer good tweets, then you are none of the above. I personally follow people who as a rule of etiquette when someone has something good to say.