You Follow, I Follow, Who Do We Follow?

On social networks it's all about following and engaging. Who follows you and who do you follow? There are programs out there you can pay for to get more followers. Is it ego that makes people want to pay for more followers or is there a more profound reason?
I tested it out on a few of our business Twitter accounts. At first I liked it and then it go to be too much work weeding out those that made no sense to follow - like those that spoke difference languages. And then they were tweeps that had nothing to do with our niche, never engaged in conversations or followed back.

If you have a new Twitter account and not a lot of time it may be worth it. We had a new one for a line of specialty medical scrubs that we used it for. It did generate followers more quickly than doing it on your own. I would recommend Tweet Big where you can use up to 3 Twitter accounts. And they offer a Free trial of one week to test it out.
When you have a particular niche I believe you should stick to the topics and interests of that niche. It will give you a tighter community in the network and higher engagement. If you just follow everyone it will become a little overwhelming. If you can stick with your niche on Twitter you will thrive there.
I've just started on Google+ and am working on the follow strategy. On Google+ it's called Circles. You can have circles like friends, acquaintances, co-workers, etc. You can decide where to put people and when you share - you can decide with whom to share with. I may for example not share my family photos with anyone but family. And if you don't really want anyone to see something - I would not share at all.
Facebook on the other hand is different. It's more social, a lighter personality and more personal. On Facebook you know people, on Twitter and other social networks you get to know people. Would you agree?