Up late tonight, uploading photos from my 20th High School Reunion. (Let’s not even waste time thinking about that, I haven’t even STARTED processing the fact that I graduated from High School twenty years ago this weekend… Yeesh.)

Either way, was going through photos, and paused to check my email, and had another note from Twitter about a new follower. Clicked on the person – no bio, no link to a website or any type of background, just a name, 61 followed, 16 followers.

So I clicked on the people she follows. First person below me was Guy Kawasaki. “OK,” I thought – “I’m in good company. Chris Brogan was below that, also cool… But I wanted to learn more.

Her background image was her sitting in front of two piano keyboards, with a microphone to her right. She was looking at the Mic. First thought: She’s a musician.

But then I kept checking out the 61 people she follows – A bunch of CNN Tweeters, but then, several PRSA, PR, and Marketing people/clubs/communities. One was the Atlanta Braves baseball team – Logic suggests she’s based there… Kept going… @visitatlantaga, etc.

So what did I learn from that six seconds of reading? This follower is in PR, based in Atlanta, sees the value in social media, and is a baseball fan.

Not a bad dossier on someone with no bio or other info that is easily accessible.

Point? We should look behind the story – behind just the “so and so is following you” email – Even if just for a second. If information is power, then digging deeper, even if for only a second or two, can help us learn about our followers, and hopefully, help us better tailor our Twitter posts to become more relevant to our audience. Because in the end, our followers are allowing us to provide them with relevant information when they choose to follow us. That’s a privilege for us. Shouldn’t it be our job to make sure we do just that?

Thus endith my random thought for the evening.

Thanks for reading.