What the post doesn’t address is what seemed to be the most hotly contested issue during the Twitter debate that confused me and perhaps others. The issue was why *any* business might follow someone – regardless of whether it was a mass-following or not – if they didn’t have a pre-existing relationship or connection to the person they followed.

Why that issue raises confusion for me is that I see one of the strong points of Twitter being that I don’t really have to care about who is or is not following me. This is not because I see Twitter as a one-sided broadcast platform or that I don’t value the people or businesses who may follow me, but rather because I think the responsibility to engage and interact on Twitter falls on the person doing the following, not on the person being followed.

I follow individuals and companies whose opinions & work I am interested in already or interested in learning more about. I have no expectation of them following me back or engaging me in conversation just because I followed them. It’s up to me to knock on their door if I want to attempt a dialogue and if they don’t answer I pretty much consider that my own tough luck. Although, it’s foolish on the part of any business not to respond if someone legitimately attempts to engage them conversation. I should also note, I don’t engage in conversation with every single person or business I follow and that I do block obvious spammers who follow me.

I think I and others were also surprised by your position given that you really are a very public figure. Your reputation proceeds you. You blog on technology issues. You’ve posted previously on good practises for businesses using social media (in particular Twitter) and you blog and tweet about your charitable activities too. Of course some businesses are simply doing the mass-following thing and no doubt it is disingenuous and maybe even annoying (and they really should take note of the methods you suggest). Other businesses may follow you just because you are a member of the media. However, others may follow you because they are genuinely interested in what you have to say, perhaps they follow your technology blog or support the same charities you do and they may have no other direct connection to you – and you have no obligation to follow them back so I’m not sure how it benefits you to publicly chastise them for following you in the first place.

If a business or person (with no original connection to you, only familiar with your work) hasn’t followed you on Twitter they may not come across this post. The loss will be theirs, not yours.