The whole Twitter auto follow debate introduced me to a good point made by someone else in the comments section on Fortin’s blog (Dr. Mani). Dr. Mani said, ““to some ‘social’ only means ‘involving others’ – not personal interaction at all.”

That’s a great point! Socialization is different things to different people.  I think there’s such a wide spectrum of involvement we can have with others online that it’s impossible to say any specific usage of a tool is right or wrong because one size does NOT fit all.

For example, Perez Hilton has over 460,000 followers on Twitter. He has no reason to follow them back but he does have reason to follow celebrities because it’s his business! He blogs about what they’re doing. Following Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore and Diddy helps him create the posts for his site. He often interacts with his followers when they @reply to him at times, even if he’s not following them.

I have over 5,200 followers on my Twitter account. My business philosophy has always been to be accessible but also to have a true desire to get to know my target audience on a personal level. I had one guy email me last night after getting my autoresponder from my Guide2eBooks.com site that invites them to email me and introduce themselves to me. He said, “Well I’m sure you didn’t mean you really wanted to get to know me, but here goes…”

I replied, LOVED his blog, Tweeted about it for him, and I hope to even JV with him someday – he has a wonderful voice (meaning good, compelling writing). Do all my followers and those I follow turn out to be exciting and meaningful in my life? No, but they’re given the chance.

I read a lot of comments about how “if so-and-so follows you, it MEANS something.” Well then conversely, to the person hoping for a follow, it means something when they don’t. It means they weren’t worthy and for marketers teaching marketers, that can be a turnoff for a prospect or customer.Not for me personally, but for many. If someone lands on your lens, reads it, and wants to comment and finds no guestbook, they may be disappointed that their $0.02 wasn’t important to you.

It’s all about validation and worth. Are your prospects worth it to you?

I’m willing to bet even celebrities love being followed by Perez because it means they’re relevant. And if they follow him and he doesn’t follow back, I’m sure they feel a bit unpopular or outdated. Perez himself scolded Diddy when he unfollowed him, and subsequently got put back on the follow list. It means something – whether it’s in the world of fame or in the online marketing world.

There were a few comments on both my blog and Fortin’s that discussed how people weren’t responsible for other people’s feelings, etc. No, you’re not. You’re right. But you need to be aware of the fact that you could be offending a good portion of people and possibly losing business. My original post wasn’t about whether auto follow was right or wrong but about why it’s important for marketers who teach marketers to follow back their followers, auto or manually, either one.

Socialization to me is many things. It means both inclusion and interaction. Some people join a forum and then lurk. That’s inclusion. They follow me on Twitter, they read, I read them – it’s inclusive. Some people join a forum and become providers of excellent information or participants in general. They @reply to me or DM me on Twitter, I @reply or DM them back – that’s interaction.

I will never be a voice on a podium that speaks out and then walks off the stage so the audience can’t ask questions. That’s what I feel one way socialization is – whether it’s not following your followers on Twitter or not having a guestbook on a Squidoo lens or shutting comments off on your blog.

What are your thoughts on socialization on the web? How do you personally use it? You’ve seen several examples of myself, Michel Fortin, Perez, etc. There’s no right or wrong way – just what’s right for you!

tiff

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