Well, I barely use Twitter but it does not seem to notify me when someone joins but then I only have about 45 followers. I am going to a WordCamp 1/14 and expect to learn alot more about what I don;t know..

@alexandrabriggs I do send a private message to most new followers, and follow back.

I have seen a number of people publicly thank new followers in a tweet. Curious how people feel about that and its value.

@alexandrabriggs I find that my reaction to public thank yous is more in the line of thinking the person is showing off (“Look, people like me’). But, as social as I am, I also know that I have a tendency to shrink back when others grab the limelight.

This has hurt me at times in my career, especially in male dominated businesses.

So I am interested if this is something I should try. One of my new resolutions is to break a bad or ineffective work habit a quarter.

When I was new to Twitter, I did send an automated message to new followers, wishing them success on Twitter. I stopped this practice when I developed a Twitter strategy that includes following more people and fewer tweeple who prefer to remain nameless. A retweet is always a lovely way to say thank you.

@mposborn i like your approach, I welcome all genuine followers direct them to my latest blog post and ask their opinion on it, or comment on a tweet they have recently sent, it is a nice way of breaking the ice

people that use auto follow for me get instantly un-followed, very impersonal not exactly SOCIAL

@joanmuschampfagnani

While everyone needs to do what feels right for them, here’s my .02:

• Following me doesn’t mean you get a follow back. I get dozens of new followers a day and I don’t even look at them any more. However, if you say hi, ask a question, or otherwise engage with me, you’re much more likely to get my attention and get a follow back. In other words, I would rather have fewer followers but better conversations.
  
• I don’t do autoresponder DMs. Ever. I will often unfollow people who do. Seems incredibly impersonal to me. I know others disagree. Here’s a post I wrote for FastCompany.com on autoreply fails…so you can see I have a strong opinion!
• I don’t thank people publicly for following me b/c that always seems a bit self-promotional.
• If you’re from Maine, I will follow you back. 
• If you talk about zombies or bacon in your bio I’m more likely to follow you back. If you talk about both we were probably separated at birth.
  

My own beliefs have changed over time as more people have joined Twitter, and more of them are spam bots or just people who see Twitter as an arms race of followers.

@rich-brooks I love the zombies and bacon bit! Your points are solid. I send personal DMs to worthy accounts (some handles are in the grey area so I neither respond to nor block them). As for following, I am still building up, so I do tend to follow more than I might normally do if I had, say, 5000 followers.

Along Rich’s lines, if you tweet about horses or weather, I will most likely follow back.

@joanmuschampfagnani The public thank you for following does seem boastful and lazy.