And while I would like to have more followers I will admit I do not use a tool to automatically follow me. This is because I want some control over who I associate myself with online.
This doesn't mean that I check out everybody who I follow. But I do notice who is following me. While doing this I am always interested when a large corporation decides to follow me.Normally I would never expect a company to follow a certain individual unless it is doing it automatically. What's the point? It's not like the are reviewing their timeline each day to see what you are doing.
People tend to follow each other because of two reasons:
- They're interested in what you have to say (Minority)
- They hope you are going to follow them back. (Majority)
Maybe you're asking yourself which conversations do they focus on? And the answer is it depends. While some companies do a great job or monitoring the positive and negative conversation it seems most of the public interactions I see are positive tweets. Why? It's simple. Positive conversations tend to be much simpler conversation in 140 characters or less.
I have personally had multiple conversations (both positive and negative) with companies via Twitter and found myself more satisfied with the outcome of any issues I have had when they company reaches out to me directly. They tend to be more candid and accommodating when the whole world can not read their response.
Engaging in a back and forth dialogue with you in multiple tweets is very difficult. It may take a few tweets to even understand what your problem is which can lead to an even further frustration for those involved. If they are monitoring it means they are listening. And the main reason to do this is to hear what you say and act accordingly.
So should you expect a company follow you on Twitter?
Sure - why not. But don't expect them to listen to what you say - unless that is you add their name into your next tweet !