Conan O'Brien famously decided to follow one person and only one person in March of 2010. He randomly picked a follower and announced it in the tweet posted above. His decision to do this sparked interest, generated press and inspired hackers to find a way to make him follow them. A Twitter bug was discovered and his following count grew to 380 before the hack was eliminated. Since then his following has grown to 2,152,002 and he still follows one person.
If your business has the celebrity clout of Conan, you can arbitrarily decide to follow one, ten, a hundred, or your number of choice. But, if it doesn't, then not following people who follow you is a risky business.
Social media is supposed to open the door to better customer relationships. It doesn't matter whether your company is business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C); you need to connect with people. When people join your network because they want to be part of what you are creating, they need to feel welcome. Failing to follow them back says "listen to me but I don't care what you are saying."
Do you want to tell your best customers that you don't care about them?
Wouldn't it be better to pick up a few spammers than to alienate the people who support your business? It isn't unusual for people to take offense when you fail to follow them back. They may not be vocal about it, but you have planted a seed of doubt about how much you value them as a customer. This is becoming more of an issue as Twitter goes mainstream. The new people joining don't understand that not following them back isn't personal. In their minds, they just said "hello" with a follow and was ignored.
The housekeeping of followers and following is time consuming without an auto-follow tool. Even so, I recommend doing it manually so you can get to know the people who are joining your network. Do they match the profile of your best customers? Could they open a new product or service market for you? Are they your competitors or spammers? Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, but you'll get glimpses if you are vetting new followers yourself. (Hint: If you wait four days to follow back, you'll eliminate some of the people who are using tools to increase their following count.)
Developing a follow policy and schedule makes the process easier, but it still takes time and effort. Identifying your customers isn't easy. When planning your social media strategy and budget, don't forget to include housekeeping. Your customers are trying to connect. Don't ignore them. Doing so is a slippery slope to poor relationships, lower lifetime value, and less retention.