What Would You Do to Follow or Be Followed on Twitter?

I have a bone to pick. Something’s been sticking in my craw now for a couple of weeks and I need to get it off my chest. Lately, many of the folks I try to follow on Twitter expect me to jump through hoops for the privilege.

That’s right, people who use Twitter validators, I’m talking to you.

Something I like to do every now and then is to look for interesting people to follow. More often than not, I’m greeted with a request to prove I’m a real person before I can follow or I’m awarded with a follow in return.

What’s up with that?

I mean, come on. How hard is it to click the link and decide if you like my tweets? Why not just lock up your Tweets if you’re so selective? If I want to follow you I must find you interesting,  but you lose me the second you ask me to “validate” my profile.To be greeted with a DM asking me to prove I exist tells me you don’t trust me. Why will I want to follow you after that? You can tell by the name if someone is sending spammy Britney porn email. Do what everyone else does, and block them. To ask everyone who wants to follow you to submit to testing means you probably lost a lot of people who could lead to interesting relationships.

Deb Ng is a professional blogger and founder of the Freelance Writing Jobs network. Feel free to follow her on Twitter @debng. She promises you won’t have to validate your profile.

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