Can You Follow on Twitter Without Signing Up?

By William McCoy

Social networking Web site Twitter allows you to post status updates and read updates from other Twitter users. If you find someone whose messages, or tweets, you wish to regularly read, you can follow that user if you have a Twitter account. Likewise, other people can follow you, giving them immediate access to your postings.

Overview

You cannot follow someone on Twitter without signing up. To follow a Twitter user, you must register for an account. Once you log in to your account, you can search for other users and click the green "+Follow" button on a person's profile page to follow that person.

Following

Following another Twitter user is handy if you want to make sure you receive the user's tweets quickly. When you're logged in to your Twitter account, either on a computer or on a mobile device, your home page displays tweets from the users you're following. Every time you log in, or refresh your account, you'll see new tweets.

Updates

If you don't want to create your own Twitter account, you can still read tweets despite not being able to follow that person. Use an Internet search engine to find the Twitter account of someone in whom you're interested. Once you find that person's Twitter page, you can read the tweets without having created your own account. Bookmark the page to allow you to regularly check the user's account.

Benefits to an Account

Though you might be apprehensive of creating a Twitter account, there are benefits to doing so, regardless of your intentions. If you're creating an account for your business, you'll get free exposure to people who might not otherwise hear of your product or service. If you're looking to make friends, following people with similar interests means you'll likely get some followers of your own. These followers could become friends over time.

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