You can build your Twitter business community easily after you understand the three separate groups of people that make up your community.

• Before You Start: You have a Twitter business account. You know how to follow people and how to use Twitter’s communication features.
• Learning level: 2 | Getting Started
• Article Last Updated: Monday, August 22, 2011

Twitter Community Groups

Twitter divides your community into two basic groups:

• Following. The people you follow on Twitter (shown in blue in the diagram). You define your community by following other Twitter users. You see the tweets created by everyone you follow. Following someone means that you subscribe to their tweets.
• Followers. The people who follow you on Twitter (shown in green in the diagram). Other people read your tweets and decide to follow you. Your followers see the tweets you send out.

However, there is some overlap between the people you follow and the people who follow you. For this reason, it’s more helpful to think about your Twitter community as three groups.

You can think about your Twitter community as three groups:

• Your Twitter friends are the people you follow who follow you back. This is the conversation zone for your business community.
• Your Twitter fans are people who follow you even though you don’t follow them.
• Your Twitter inspiration are people you follow who don’t follow you back.

These are not the terms used by Twitter, but they help you to understand the dynamics of your community.

Your Twitter Business Community

When you are starting out, you may not be sure about how to define your Twitter business community. You might consider following:

• Your existing customers.
• Neighboring business owners.
• Other businesses in your industry in other locations (your peers).
• Your suppliers or vendors.
• Your community leaders.
• People who provide helpful information about your community (news media, weather services, community organizations, etc.)

This is a great starting point for your Twitter community. These are the types of people you want to follow (your inspiration in the diagram). Some of them may follow you back (moving them to friends in the diagram).

Over time, you will find that new people begin following you (these are fans in the diagram). It’s up to you to decide if you want to follow these new people back (converting them to friends in the diagram). Deciding whom to follow, your Twitter follow policy, is a big decision for your business. Most business people find that their follow policy changes over time. Start out doing what seems right, and evaluate your results regularly.

Your turn: What helped you understand the groups of people in your Twitter community? Share your insights here.

Related Articles:

• Finding Existing Customers on Twitter
• Twitter Is Like Attending A Party
• 9 Ways To Engage Your Twitter Community
• Ebook: Twitter For Beginners
• Grow Your Twitter Community
• Communicate With Your Twitter Community
• Twitter Conversation Checklist
• Your Twitter Follow Policy