One of the questions I am most often asked is, “how do you decide to follow?” I wanted one place to point people for my answer. This is that place. I’ve taken a lot of hints from a lot of people, but here’s my algorithm.

Golden rule

Generally, I am an equal opportunity follower. If you follow me, the default rule is that I follow back. I do not think that I am super cool and need to be rationed to the world. If you want to have a conversation, I’m usually game.

There are, however, a few rules in the algorithm.

Get rich quick

Are there only one or two updates, and are they talk about getting large amounts of money from FedEx? Block. We are not cool.

Numbers hunter

Look at the ratio of Following:Followers. If the ratio is much greater than 1.5:1, there is a problem. Usually this person is in the business of trying to build up numbers. They don’t likely add value. I look closer.

Twitter puts a limit at 2,000 unless close to that many follow you. So, if you are following 1,984, and 101 are following you, I do not follow back. Your 101 followers are just those set to auto-follow.

Link bait

If the avatar is any way related to a scantily clad woman, there is 1 update, and the lone update is a link, there is trouble. I guess they’re selling porn, but I’ve never clicked on one to find out. Block.

Pretty much any nakedness results in a block.

Gurus, evangelists, and life coaches

Any one of these words gets you more than halfway to being ignored. I don’t care if they follow me, but I have little use for them. The rest of their bio gets close scrutiny. Saying something particularly interesting elicits a follow back.

Stealth social media

If you don’t have any bio, I am unlikely to follow you back. Tell me something about yourself. Anything. Are you a real person?

Goofy names

If your Twitter name and your real name are simply something cute, then I have no choice than to assume that you have something to hide. Your name is your brand, and if you’re ashamed of it, I am worried about you.

No photo / weird photo

If you joined an hour ago and don’t have a picture, cool. But I am leery when you keep not having one. Call me paranoid, but what are you hiding?

Likewise, I’m not following your dog, so I’m curious why you chose that picture.

Academics

If the person is a student or professor of anything, I follow them back. Always looking to make academic contacts.

Lone Star Tweeps

I live in Texas. It’s good to know your neighbor. Usually even gurus from Texas get followed.

Businesses where I know no one

I’m sure Idaho is nice, but I just don’t want to know what the local TV station there is covering.

Summing it up

I’m on Twitter and the Web to make connections. When in doubt, let’s talk. But please don’t coach my life or give me investment tips.

Did I miss any rules?

We’re all together in, broadly, the business of applied persuasion. And college students (hopefully) learn a lot in college. But they cannot learn everything.

That’s why I’ve launched #ADvise, an open discussion on Twitter where we can bring together professionals, instructors, and students.

I was inspired by the incredible success of Twitter conversations #journchat and #PRadvice, organized by the very impressive Sarah Evans.

The line between advertising and public relations is vague or invisible, and all are welcome here. Nonetheless, their are questions related to copywriting or art direction that might not come up over at #PRadvice.

Everyone is welcome!

So at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, January 15, we’ll kick off #ADvise on Twitter. We hope you’ll be there with questions and answers.

If you have any suggested topics to cover, please leave them in the comments below.

Welcome to Twitter. You’ve decided to join the quickly growing world of micro-blogging. Approximately 1 billion blog posts have been written on how to Twitter well.

This is neither my attempt to improve upon nor regurgitate them. This is simply the part that I distill to my college students, and I can point them here for a refresher.

(Look at Mashable for perhaps the best overall Twitter advice I’ve seen.)

Dear college student: At first you won’t quite get Twitter, and you probably won’t like it. Just accept that and move on. It’s one of the most powerful ways to meaningfully connect with awesome people. You’ll get there. Trust me.

But Twitter can help you get a job. That alone makes it worth acquiring the taste!

You’re an Adult Now

The first step is picking your username. Be an adult. It’s OK that you picked your AOL screen name when you were 11, but I don’t want to be tweeting to @lovespuppiesanddiasies.

Don’t tweet anything that you would not say to your mother or boss. (I read this somewhere. If it’s familiar, please tell me so I can properly attribute).

This isn’t LinkedIn. You don’t have to wear a tie. But leave the pictures of you doing a keg stand on Facebook (actually they shouldn’t be there, but I know they are, so I’ll deal). You can be a little bit witty. But think before you tweet.

A College Student Friendly Bio

Here are some tips that will encourage people to follow you back. There are a lot of get-rich-quick types that we all hope to avoid.

Use your real name. If you’re paranoid, then stay off Twitter. If you’re on, then be open.

Use a real picture. The default picture screams “newbie” and will decrease reciprocal following. Also, you’re not cool enough for a silly graphic. Tina Fey is. You’re not. Show us your face or stay home. Oh, and have clothes on in the picture.

Use a real location. You don’t live on the “Earth” or “here.” Don’t be cute. Be descriptive. In addition to my personal pet peeves, this helps potential employers know where you are. But don’t put the name of your apartment complex like so many of you do on Facebook. A terrible idea.

Write a professional bio. Tell people you’re a student. Tell them what university, and spell it out. UT around here is Texas at Austin. In the south, it’s Tennessee at Knoxville. Tell them your major. You can also mention something about yourself, but I strongly suggests it not be politics or religion.

You’re not a guru of anything. So just stop. And unless I’m going to see you on my television this Sunday asking for money for your church, you’re not an evangelist either. Please. These kinds of superlatives are silly and cheapen you. Just say “no.”

I’d like for you to have a Web site, but that’s a discussion for another day. Don’t simply link to your Facebook bio if there’s anything on your profile that you wouldn’t show in front of the class. Rule of thumb: If a link leads in any way to photos of you throwing up after consuming too much alcohol, omit it!

And don’t protect your updates. This is huge! If you want to be private, stay off of Twitter.

We’re Not in High School Any More

Don’t count just to count. Raw followers mean nothing. You tell me how many you want, and I can tell you how to get them. Foolish. Don’t do it.

Look for quality people. Look for professionals in your field. Look for professors in your field because they’re likely to tweet things relevant to college students.

It’s not “creeping” to look at who I follow. Check it out. Follow the good ones.

Add a few media outlets. Never hurts to get news.

When in doubt, ask yourself: “Does this person add value to my network?” If the answer isn’t at least, “probably,” move on.

When to Follow Back

I don’t suggest that you follow back affiliate marketers. Maybe you need some vitamins, but I don’t.

I don’t know what a life coach is, but I don’t want one (no offense intended to the 12 who follow me).

If someone wants to help you get rich quickly, ask them to please move along.

Numbers don’t mean everything, but they mean something. If someone is following thousands and being followed by only hundreds, go with the herd. They smelled something foul, so trust them. It’s like “Ask the Audience” on Who wants to be a Millionaire.

Unless it’s a friend or a brand new student, beware of 1 update. Also beware of 20,000. They will wear you out.

If the photo is of a petite Asian woman in a bikini, please click “block”.

Know Your Tweets

This is very rudimentary, but you need to know it. Otherwise you can embarrass yourself quickly.

The simplest tweet is the update. You say something to the world. I tweeted this yesterday:

The comma, especially, baffles young people. Sentence fragments and comma splices outnumber proper use.

Just me to the world. Simple.

The second simplest tweet is the reply. I want to reply to something someone said. If I click the little curvy “reply” arrow on Twitter, it will start my tweet with the @ symbol and that person’s username.

In addition to letting them know you’re talking about them, it has some other functions that you’ll learn later. Today I said:

@bchambers Just Google TweetDeck. You’ll have to install Adobe Air first. Both are free and Google’able.

Sometimes you think what someone said is so awesome that you want to share it with your network. So you retweet it. You copy their tweet and their username, and you add an RT to the very front with an @ before their name. Today I retweeted:

RT @shannonpaul: 5 PR Tips to Survive 2009 – http://tinyurl.com/9aefu2

The Direct Message is reserved for private messages between only you and the recipient. An important caveat is that you can send someone a DM only if they’re following you. It does not matter if you’re following them.

Sending DM’s is kind of clunky in the Twitter Web interface. So you can also send one by putting a capital D (not DM!) in front of their username with a space and no @. So for instance, last night I saw someone from Ohio State and wrote:

D redacted Just saw your bio. Go Bucks! [Their name is not really "redacted"]

Finally, there are times when you want to keep track of a multi-party conversation. This is done with the hashtag. This allows you to use Twitter’s search function to keep track of the conversation.

For instance, @PRsarahevans organized #PRadvice as a forum for advice about PR careers, etc. You should check it out. But I was able to follow the conversation using search and the hashtag. During that conversation, I said:

The comma, especially, baffles young people. Sentence fragments and comma splices outnumber proper use. #PRadvice

Be really careful with Direct Messages when you’re new. A small slip, and you broadcast a private thought to the world.

Above All Else, Add Value

Twitter is about conversations. Try to add to the conversation. Have something to say. Ask a meaningful question.

You’ll never get to know anyone by being a Twitter wallflower. Talk. But add value.

Don’t scam people, and don’t ask someone you’ve never met for an internship. Get to know people. This is about a real network with real contacts. Not some tool.

Last But Not Least

I’m certainly not the Twitter expert. Nor am I a guru. And I’m certainly not an evangelist. Many readers will be more well versed than I am in Twitter. What would you tell a college student? You can even build your Twitter network by leaving a comment since you can leave your linked Twitter username right in the comment.

Photo credit: tanakawho on Flickr

Instead, I will offer complementary advice.

I will spend the next semester telling every student (and non-student) who will listen that they need to be on Twitter. I won’t extol the benefits today. But for a person working in the communications industry today, it is vital.

If you’re one of those people new to Twitter, please understand that the quality of your network is far more important than the size.

Here are a list of people from whom you can learn immediately.

Plunk around for more than 5 minutes, and you’ll find the obvious ones, such as @chrisbrogan, @scobleizer, and @guykawasaki. You’ll find those on your own.

Instead I offer you 5 opinion leaders who are approachable, cool, and fun. They’re smart and friendly, which is an excellent combination.

@PressReleasePR — Danny Brown may live in Toronto, but he’s one of the coolest guys and sharpest minds in social media today. His blog, Social Media PR, is intellectually stimulating and uplifting. A must read. If there were a Twitter expansion draft, he’d be the first protected player on my team.

@jasonfalls — The first thing that Jason taught me is that Kentucky is finally wired for the Internet. Then, a comment I left on his blog probably landed him in the hospital. Seriously, though. I left a comment on his Social Media Explorer blog, and he reached out to say that we should flush it out into a post. Very cool. And he may be even more irreverent than I am, which is always a plus.

@thebrandbuilder — Seriously? When did the South get so many smart people? From South Carolina comes The Brand Builder, Olivier Blanchard, who is a forward thinking brand strategist. He has great ideas about brand identity, and I think he’s so smart, I’ve arranged a conference call. Saying a lot given that I’m allergic to the phone.

@Jimconnolly — Jim Connolly has almost 15,000 followers, which puts him at true rockstar status and should make his ineligible for this list. But his Jim’s Marketing Blog is a must read, and he has been part of several conversations with me. Not many rockstars are so willing to share their advice. (Read Jim’s network-building advice here).

@NickLongo — This guy helped revolutionize the Internet at a time when I thought it was just a toy. He founded CoffeeCup software, and he’s as cool as can be. We’ve traded meaningful information and bantered about parenting, Texas, and black eyed peas (the food, not the band). Read his bio to be astounded.

Honorable Mentions

Funniest on Twitter

@TheBloggess — She’s not rated G, but she’s hilarious. Funniest person I’ve met on Twitter. It’s a travesty that she’s not a full-time humor columnist.

Best of Texas

@sarah_crisman — Sarah’s been helpful and funny. A very cool person from whom I hope to learn a lot. You need to know her.

Best People with Whom to Trade New Year’s Eve Quips

@nanpalmero — His epic “yellow unibrow” and “@wifebradley3″ comments won’t soon be forgotten. He’s also a tech pimp, and if you ever Tweet about a hardware problem, rest assured he knows people.

@Adrigonzo — She chased off dozens of New Year’s Eve followers with my favorite word, and she rocked a New Year’s Eve bash wearing two hoodies. Enough said. And she lives in the Bay Area, and I don’t. Sigh.

All of these people will add value to your network and your life. Follow them today.

Your Suggestions from Comments

@ajinnashville
@ambercadabra
@bethharte
@bookgal
@chrisTheAuthor
@dana_willhoit
@dmullen
@glenndavid
@kellyecrane
@KrisColvin
@LizzHarmon
@PRsarahEvans
@scottmeis
@shannonpaul
@sonnygill
@smashadv (added May 26, 2010)
@THE_REAL_SHAQ
@thespotter
@timlaubacher

More Suggestions from you!

@afhill
@awolk
@bmorrissey
@halvorson
@laniAR
@leeaase
@leighhouse
@mackcollier
@scotthepburn
@tbrunelle

Your turn: Who else did we miss? Let us know in a comment.