On my personal twitter timeline (not ALSaucyHorse; my personal one where I follow bands, music and my guilty-pleasure singers), there is one account that I follow that is excellent for news.  It posts regular updates, the tweets are helpful and informative and it is regularly updated.
Every time I see a post from the news account pop on my timeline I get a small trickle of annoyance. It’s easy to unfollow them, yes, but I like the news that they provide. The annoyance is caused by one thing. The account is stuck on transmit; it never seems to receive or interact with anyone, and when it does it is done with the air of someone climbing down from their Throne of Awesome to mingle with the lesser people.
If an account is stuck on Transmit it misses out on so much.  Those little details that help to build a “tribe” or a “community”.  The account isn’t shaped by its followers into a true resource and cannot react to their interests.
All it takes is fifteen minutes twice a day to go through @mentions and reply. This builds up a rapport and knowledge of customers and users.  When you tweet, stay in your account to answer any comments or questions that come in – don’t broadcast and then disappear off the radar. All of the Saucy Horseys stay in their accounts for at least half an hour when Tweeting to respond to any communication. Followers know that if they have a question it will be addressed and if they have a comment it will be discussed.  You build up a knowledge of your followers and if you see something interesting that perhaps one of them would like you can pass it on, building up the reputation of you and your account.  Your account becomes like a reference book to be used again and again, rather than a newspaper which is looked at when something interesting is on the front page then ignored. You’ll keep your followers and gain new ones.
Do you set aside time to go through your @ mentions (or Facebook and blog comments) every day or deal with them as they come in?