I suppose I committed a cardinal sin of Twitter the other day. I unfollowed some people. I know this goes against the “get as many followers as you can” logic, but I have to say I found it to be a kind of cleansing experience. I see the Twitter experience – which isn’t for everyone, by the way – as being one that is more fruitful and fulfilling when a community built on being social is just, well, social. And truth be told, I found some people who weren’t being very actively social at all. Sure, maybe they were just listening to a lot of conversations more than anything. But on Twitter, there’s already too much listening and not enough engaging.
The type of Twit to unfollow
Here’s a Twit that isn’t worth following to me – take a look at the person’s Twitter stream and see if he or she has a combination of most or all of these elements:
1) Doesn’t converse with others.
“Hey world! Here’s everything about me and what I’m doing right now!” It’s a wonder these people are even on Twitter any more. Buy an ad. That’s what you really want. Because it’s clear you don’t care about answering questions, posing questions, adding onto other people’s thoughts, etc. It’s not hard. But this person doesn’t want to make the effort.
2) Doesn’t Retweet.
It’s so simple to Retweet a comment, quote or thought that it’s ridiculous. Especially if you have TweetDeck or HootSuite or another social media dashboard. You come across useful tweets all the time, right? Sure you do. Or you still wouldn’t be on Twitter. So why aren’t you Retweeting them? It’s courteous, it’s nice and it helps provide exposure to that tweeter. Wouldn’t you want someone doing the same for you?
3) Hasn’t posted in over a month.
OK, some people can’t tweet every day or possibly every week. Cut those folks some slack. But when you look at their Twitter stream and see their last post was May 19th when it’s October 14th, you’ve got a sure sign that this person is not the kind of individual who is likely to awaken from their Twitter slumber to have a conversation with you.
4) Doesn’t post links if they don’t link back to their own stuff.
Sure, it’s fine to post links to your latest blog post. I do it all the time. But a lot of other things are worth linking back to that have nothing to do with your brand. It might just be a funny picture. Or a useful article. Or some commentary on an issue you found interesting that you’d like to share with the community. When that isn’t occurring in tandem with some of the other traits above, you may have yourself a follower who is really just about promoting their own cause.
I know, sometimes you want to follow Lady Gaga or Jimmy Fallon or some famous business person who doesn’t really interact that much and is more about “here’s what I’m doing right now.” You have an interest in that person and it’s really just about listening for you. Here lies the exception to the rule I’ve outlined above:
Believe it or not, the celeb tweeter I actually don’t mind for one simple reason – those people usually give us a steady stream of information regularly that we find useful. Celeb tweeters can get away with a little less give-and-take with the community than average Joes like you and me.
The rest of us? Well, we have to work harder if we want to get something more out of the Twitterverse. Yet, if we do so, I think the people we are following and those following us will be that much better for it.
Author:
Dan Gershenson is a Chicago-based consultant focused on brand strategy and content marketing. Dan has guided a variety of CEOs and Marketing Directors at small to medium-sized companies, providing hundreds of strategic plans to help businesses identify their best niches and areas of opportunity. Dan blogs on Chicago Brander, mentors advertising students and cheers relentlessly for the Chicago Bears. Dan graduated from Drake University with a degree in Advertising.
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I haven’t really cleaned up my account in a while but I totally understand why you did. I follow people for lots of different reasons, but if his stream looks more like an advertisement with the same tweet over and over, I don’t bother.
Did you actually go into each person’s profile first? I am curious which method you used. It is not advantageous to have a huge following if many of them aren’t real.
Thanks for a great post. Miriam
I like using a couple of different tools, Miriam. One is called ManageFlitter and another is called TwitCleaner. I particularly like TwitCleaner in the way it breaks down each follower’s actions and lets you decide if they’re worth following based on that (i.e. “not much interaction at all”). I personally don’t go into each person’s profile first because it’s too time-consuming – you can know a lot about their actions or lack thereof thanks to tools like these. Even if they’ve got a nice profile, if they’re not participating, there’s not much point in connecting for me.
I recently went through and unfollowed followers using pretty much the same criteria as you used. I was surprised at how many accounts I was following that hadn’t tweeting in over a year. I also discovered that I was not following some people that were following me (who I did want to follow), so I remedies that.
I think the thing I’m most guilty of is not always engaging in conversations with individual people. I DO retweet, I worry, maybe too much, and post links related to my favorite subject.. I basically suffer from social anxiety and often feel like I would be intruding to comment directly to other’s conversations. This may be something I need to work on. I am mostly on Twitter to find out and share information about my favorite musician, Adam Lambert, so I know most people who continue to follow me are also fans. I am a bit of a recluse, don’t get much and, for me, Twitter and other social sites are my only real social life. Kind of sad, I know, but I am content for now. Maybe that will change someday.
I really appreciate your comments. They compel me to perhaps try to be more engaging with others. I think this can be healthy. I do sometimes feel like I’m all alone in a crowded room hoping someone might notice me and walk up to me, but I suppose, it goes both ways. I could walk up to them and risk the dreaded rejection we are all afraid of.
Thanks again for your post.
Terry
Don’t be too hard on yourself, Terry. Retweeting when it’s of value to you and you feel of value to the community is something that your most loyal followers should hopefully appreciate. You are NOT intruding on other people’s conversations, so don’t worry about that. If they wanted it to be that private, they would DM each other. Until they do that, it’s fair game for people to jump in and out of conversations – the social media streams are different from traditional conversations in that sense. When it comes to engaging others, it’s a little like that crowded room you’re talking about – you have to make the first move and comment, ask questions, etc. I think you may be pleasantly surprised at their reactions.
One suggestion – I would encourage you to delve into offline interaction via MeetUps, business networking groups, etc. among people who have like-minded interests as you. No matter how much you do online, it really helps to have those face-to-face interactions too. One cannot build relationships by social media alone. At least I think you’ll find even greater satisfaction by getting out there a little more. Good luck and let me know how it goes.
Great insight. And there’s nothing wrong with unfollowing. While twitter has been and may always be a popularity contest to some; more and more folks are culling their contacts and going for quality over quantity.
Loved this post and just yesterday I put my twits through a wash found 4 that were over 6 months old and not a peep. I like that phrase Kimble “Culling” .
Totally. Quality over quantity. I have to wonder how many of those people who have tens of thousands of followers also have at least 20-25% garbage because they’ve never cleaned out the non-participants anyway. Which, in that case, would be total window dressing.
I blogged abut this on MarketingProfs a while back, Dan. I agree; purging my “follows” was a cathartic experience.
I try to retweet as much as possible, but it’s challenging to be consistent as I can’t be online when I’ve got client deadlines and projects. Hopefully, my fellow Twits will cut me some slack.