Twitter has become the latest hot thing in social networking, and social marketing. Whether people use Twitter for friends, for business, or for some combination of the two, I’ve noticed that nobody does Twitter quite like anybody else.

There are as many ways to use Twitter as there are subscribers.

Here’s the thing — in some ways I’m the classic Virgo. I like to see things complete, like collections and reading lists. It bothers me just a little bit to know I’ve got 5 out of 6 of those limited-edition widgets. Sometimes, it bothers me a lot.

So I try to dip my toes into my Twitter stream on a regular basis, without stressing too much about keeping caught up. At least, that’s the theory I work on when I add just one more interesting person from this or that referral, or consider whether to follow people back.

I also have a personal Twitter account, which I’ve actually had for a lot longer than my business one. I keep my updates protected, and since all the people I follow really are my friends, I keep up with that stream — and I remove people who tweet so much they drown out the rest of the people I want to see.

Unfortunately, even though it pains my little Virgo heart, I’m learning that I can’t keep that up with my business stream, for a couple of reasons. While some of my stream consists of people who I’m following because they tweet good info, at least some of the time, there’s also the issue of follow-backs. Not to mention spammers, scammers, and people who are just plain boring.

Following people has a cost.

On my business Twitter, just as much as the personal one, I look at every person and think, what will the cost be of following this person? Will I miss tweets from people I want to read because this person will pollute the stream? Does this person really have something to say that I want to read? Will they be butthurt if I don’t follow them? And if they are, do I care?

I’ve learned to check people out on followcost.com before I add them, but then, I also have to learn to let go. If I get up in the morning and find I have to click “more” 5 or 6 times in order to catch up to where I last checked my stream, I just… don’t. It lets me look past the number of updates per day, and look at the person, and see what nuggets of gold I might get out of adding them to my stream.

And then I try to remember that I don’t have to pick up every shiny object that goes by, and my stream will always have something new in it. I just have to check when I have time and energy to check, and otherwise, just the the stream keep burbling on by without me.

But no force on this earth will make me add someone with 42 tweets a day.