wrote an article just about this couple weeks ago. Answers to my industry :)

Twitter's Most Famous Painters

I follow many competitors in the marketing automation space. It gives me an idea of what they are doing and how I can position myself to be different. They are also sharing information of interest to me and my business, so on occasion I actually retweet them. I'm not worried about giving them some publicity, because I am confident in my unique marketing position.

As far as getting their followers to follow you, by reciprocating, retweeting and engaging your competitors on Twitter, it gives you a chance that they will do the same, but only if your CONTENT is unique and compelling! If you want you can choose followers of theirs to follow and engage. Be upfront, follow them and drop them a line. For example, "I noticed you are a follower of XYZ Co. If you like their information, you may enjoy this related (but different and compelling) information from me.

Following is easy, listening isn't.

Follow everybody that affects your business: customers, vendors, competitors, etc.

Use a twitter client to build lists that isolate the useful signal and funnel it into more manageable buckets. (I like tweetdeck, sessmic is another option, there are others.)

The lists will help you find the conversations that you want to monitor or join.

Why not? They might just follow you back. It's all part of the larger conversation, and you don't want to be left out. Isn't this brave new world of openness and transparency great?

Here's another question: should you follow your competitors' followers on Twitter?