But especially if you're just starting off on Twitter, you shouldn't feel obligated to follow all people back, even if you worry they'll think it's rude of you, our experts say. Instead, you should follow people who share your interests or whose tweets you find meaningful or compelling.

"You should only follow people who you trust, you think are interesting, or that you learn from," says (@jowyang), a senior Forrester analyst who researches social technologies and keeps a .

It's possible you'll offend some people, but ultimately it's harder to maximize the value of Twitter early on if you're Twitter homepage is flooded with tweets unrelated to your field or tweets that don't make any sense to you, Owyang says.

At the same time, don't be afraid to take some risks and follow someone outside your immediate circle, says Stowe Boyd ( ), a social media consultant who writes the .

"It's like wandering around at a cocktail party," Boyd says. "You don't just want to hang out with people you only know well. Pick ten of your friends who are using Twitter, follow them, and then pick ten of their friends and follow them. You can always drop people and add new ones."