Hot Dogs, Fine Art and Twitter

I've been twittering more lately, and I was surprised by the quick replies from some of my hometown favorites. I should mention that we just moved our family and Lutegrass back to Michigan where I grew up. Two of my favorite places to visit in nearby Toledo are Tony Packos (the best hot dogs ever) and The Toledo Museum of Art. I recently posted tweets about both of these establishments -- and I was followed by each within an hour! I couldn't believe they actually had staff searching for friendly tweets.
It makes perfect sense for businesses to use Twitter in this way, and every business should consider having a staff person monitor Twitter with a saved search for their business and product names. When you find tweets that help promote your business, you should consider paying the poster a compliment by following their tweets.

I know it's possible to automate following on Twitter with various programs that monitor new tweets, but I'd like to suggest that this might not be the best approach. First off, you might end up following someone that you don't want to follow! Following always looks to me like a vote of confidence or interest -- you wouldn't want to do this if someone was unfairly criticizing your business or work. Also, and more importantly, you lose the option to reply with something meaningful and build your relationship with a potential or current customer. Any salesman will tell you that a hand-written thank you note pays many dividends down the road.