Twitter is such a persnickety beast.

I'm not talking about the APIs or frequent server failures (although I'll probably go off about that topic at some point).

I'm talking about the heavy emphasis placed on who is following you, how many people are following you, and the lengths people will go to get followed. Never mind the Twitter spambots that auto-follow you each time you mention iPad, fart or Chuck Norris.

I have three rules when it comes to following people on Twitter – they're very simple, really.

Rule #1: Interest Me. Make me think, laugh, swear or *face palm*. Share similar interests to mine. You know what helps you with this? A kickin' Twitter bio. No bio? No follow. Show me what you got. You need to woo me.

Rule #2: Speak, Don't Just RT. Yes a large part of Twitter is the sharing of content, and RT'ing all of the awesome things you stumble across. But for the love of slushies, don't let that be the vein of your existence on Twitter. If I check out your timeline and all you have are the old-style form of retweets – with no commentary, or no tweets of your own – I sure as hell am not following you.

Rule #3: Talk to Me. So this whole social media/networking thing – it's still social. You still need to interact. No better way to have me follow you, than to actually INTERACT with me. I know, right? The horror. Still speaking in 2011 – who would've thunk it? If you catch one of my random comments, see a post that I just RT'd, or are chair dancing to a song I just shared with the online community – reach out and say something.

Now there, that wasn't so bad was it?

Your turn – What rules do you have for following people on Twitter? Does quantity of followers reign supreme over quality? Talkback below or via Twitter – I'm @bootyp.