Do I have to follow my followers back on Twitter?

[relievedminister987]

If I RT'd teamfollowback cause I wanted more followers, do I have to follow them back if I don't want to lose them?

[Grace Hardy]

not if you dotn want

[Jade]

Follow them if you want to, but if not then don't.
They follow you without even knowing if you're going to follow them back. They follow you because they like you

[whisperingbun876]

The practice to follow people "back" is often used by companies or people who want to increase their number of followers. It is like a link exchange on a website. You follow me, I follow you.

However its a silly practice if you use your Twitter account to really read interesting tweets and over time your twitter account gets crowded with content and information that you do not really want to read.

It really depends on what you want to accomplish. Some people have different twitter accounts. One to just read other tweets and they keep that private and others where they post their message that they want the Twitter world to see.

In the end people use Twitter management systems like SocialOomph and HootSuite not to get overwhelmed with all the incoming messages and Tweets.

The short answer is: you do NOT have to follow people back, there is no law or requirement. Tweet interesting things and people will follow you, no matter if you follow them back or not.

I mean take Britney Spears for example. She has almost 8 million followers. Now go figure how long it would take time to follow everyone back, yet alone handle all the information of tweets coming in from all her fans. :-)