Technology, business and change
Why I’m against the twitter unfollow trend
There’s a new trend on twitter right now, mainly popularized by this article from twitip, that consist in “starting over” with your twitter account. It was once very well seen (in fact it still is from my point of view…) to follow back people who were following you, but as the article points out, it’s hard to follow conversations when you follow 10K people. I totally agree with this point (even though it’s still possible with the right tools), but I totally disagree with the way people are “using” this article.
The article mainly says you should follow only the people you find interesting and that there’s nothing wrong with unfollowing people because you don’t care about what they have to say. While I agree, here’s the side effect I find ridiculous.
Mass unfollow
After this article was published, a lot of people started to “mass unfollow”, just so they could “start over” with their twitter account. The idea is:
I have 20K followers, but only find 100 of them interesting, so let’s unfollow the rest.
The concept I have problems with is not the “follow only people you find interesting” concept, it’s the “Let’s get 20K followers, then realize I don’t give a crap about them, un-follow them and get a killer follow/followers ratio” concept. What most people say after this is that they are “starting over” with their twitter account because they only want to follow “interesting” people.
Starting over mean starting over
That’s not what I consider starting over. Starting over would mean starting a completely new account with 0 followers and then only following people you find interesting. If you don’t want to follow back people, don’t follow them back, that’s fine with me. Would you still reach 20K followers just by doing that? No, because let’s face it, unless you’re Guy Kawasaki, you need to share, interact and follow people to get some of that twitter juice. That’s how it is. So, either you start over and accept the fact you won’t reach 20K or you accept the fact from the start that you are not Barack Obama and won’t attract 500,000 followers unless you share, interact and follow.
It’s the way the followers were acquired
My main problem with the “mass unfollow” to “start over” idea is the way the followers were acquired in the first place. Let’s face it, there are ways to get new followers easily and most people I’ve seen “mass unfollow”, followed me in the first place so I could follow them back and get more followers. That’s a perfectly fine technique, it works and a lot of people do it. Here’s why it doesn’t make sense at all to “start over” in this situation:
- YOU follow someone with the only goal of getting more followers (you already don’t give a crap)
- That person follow you back so both are happy
- Then you realize you can’t follow ALL conversations (what did you expect?)
- Finally, mass un-follow people YOU first followed because you don’t really give a damn about them. (Wait, you didn’t give a damn in the first place, so why did you follow?)
Is it just me or this scenario doesn’t make sense? You’re the judge, but I strongly disagree with this practice.
It’s OK to only follow people you like
Again, don’t get me wrong. It’s OK to only follow people you find interesting, it’s the process of mass following and then mass unfollowing that I think is wrong. What are your thoughts? Let me know.
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I like to follow people that follow me. However, I've learned that I can't answer everyone. I do have a website and people are more than welcome to contact me there if they really want to get ahold of me. That's how I do it. – Richard Brian Penn
Absolutely Richard. There comes a point where you have to accept you won't be able to read every single tweet and answer every single person. I usually answer all @reply, but can't read every tweet.
Then, I use Skype/gtalk or email to really communicate with people…
Thanks for your comment Richard!
while your point is valid… Who gives a shit? people are assholes and will do whatever they want.
If i attempted to reply to every tweet i got i would be on twitter full time. I follow lots of people on twitter – i do not read every tweet but i try to read as many as i can while i am online. The mass follow unfollow scheme is wrong and should not be done. There are 2 reasons you use twitter 1 to interact with people you like and 2 build a following to promote our personal brand. If you use twitter to interact start a small account and only interact with people you find interesting. If you want to gain exposure follow everyone. Do not do both
I agree, it all depends what your goals are with your twitter account. There is no doubt that if you are building a network to promote your brand, following back most of your followers will help you.
I follow people I find interesting, and it's great when they follow me in return
hehe absolutely
I agree with you totally on this point. To amass a bunch of followers and then unfollow them later because you decide later you don't care about them is kind of uncool. I say you shouldn't have followed in the first place if you don't find them interesting. Now of course its ok to follow someone and then later learn you don't like their tweets or their style or whatever but if you are doing this on a large scale then that indicatedes a problem to me. However personally I find that I am able to follow thousands of people and still communicated and interact with my tweeple efficiently using tweetdeck.
Thanks Gerald for your comment. I am also able to interact with people fairly easily using tweetdeck even if I have over 2000 followers. Of course I can't get personal with everyone, but when I'm online in front of tweetdeck I can read most tweets and interact.
I guess that's a way to see it… hehe
I clean up my followers/following list every once in a while, removing inactive users, machines, and otherwise uncool people. I don't mass unfollow (I don't have many enough to mass-anything).
I'd rather follow 150~ people and find interesting tweets each and every time I check my stream, than following 2000 hoping they'll follow me back, and in the process turning my twitter stream into an unreadable mess.
[...] Why I’m against the twitter unfollow trend whats your take on this? [...]
I've found people I follow back when they add me, unfollow me within a couple of days for their own gain, which is a terrible trick, IMO. Thanks to these unfortunate events, I've been very careful of who I follow back. On the other hand, I unfollow people who are inactive, post uninteresting tweets, or post RTs with disturbing political opinions…
Yep, I noticed the same dirty trick of unfollowing only a couple of days after following. Not a good practice for sure if you are looking to build a brand.
Im new to twitter and mainly using it to market my site. I have 3 Im following at the moment so looks like Ill just have to keep list trim.
TerryScarr.com BMX Racing
Wish you the best of luck to expand your twitter network!
well don't get carried away using it
very good post. I like the idea. I'm still new at twitter and it is good that i've read this before anything else. Thanks.
I don't like this mass unfollow thing either. I mean, if you follow someone and then they follow you back only to have you delete them later, doesn't that just seem like you only followed them so you could gain a follower? seems kind of underhanded because them you have all these people following you but you're not returning them the favor. I like to keep my twitter small, but I'll see how it goes in the future.
I do cleanup my list once in a while also. I think it's an important process to remove inactive users, bots, etc. I personally follow over 2K people and it's not been a problem so far, I can still track conversations fairly easily with TweetDeck.
You're more than welcome, thanks for dropping a comment buddy!
Yes, I totally understand your point. I personally have a "big" network with about 2.5K followers/following and I love it to be honest. Using tweetdeck I don't have problems to follow conversations and having a big network puts you in contact with a lot of useful information.
I also just began to twit but sometimes there are just a lot of people who are really annoying. But thanks for this great review. Man I hope to hear more of your article to catch up with the buzz is all about. hehehe…
Oh, I'm so agree with you. Great post.
Thanks mate.
some people just spam twitter which at times makes me hate it myself
Very well said, i totally agree with you. It's really unfair to do such a things, and to even have excuse for that. It was mater of time when would twitter members come on to unfollow trend. I am afraid that will really hurt twitter, and could lead to really negative effects.
I still don't understand why so many people think follower numbers are important. It's the quality of the contacts, not the quantity. The only thing that large numbers of followers does for you, is make you more appealing to services like TwitAd and Magpie. And Magpie-ers tend to get mass unfollowed anyway.
If the majority of your followers are only following you for the followback, they are not going to be the people who follow your links, buy your products, or give you any type of social life. That's why I only follow interesting people from the start. Occasionally I'll change my mind and add someone if they begin interacting with me via @'s because that's proof that they're interested in what I have to say, and not what I add to their numbers.
There I go, showing my bias again.
I totally agree that it's the strength of your network that matters on twitter, but at the same time the numbers still matter. I would go with strength first and then build A LOT of quality connections.
Thanks for the comment
Great post Ben! I love it. Twitter is dope. I used to not understand the point but now I do. I don't follow everyone that follows me, but I do most.
My thing is, I'm all about quality too, but sometimes you have to go with the quantity first to find the quality. If someone seems interesting, or they are interested in me and we seem to be on the same "vibe" I'll follow.
Now, it may take weeks or months, but eventually some of these new will @reply me or direct message and we'll start building.
Thing is it's just like alexa, or page rank, etc. Sure…this stuff really doesn't matter to many, but others, a lot of others, still put high value in it.
Some won't even follow unless you have a decent number of folks following.
I don't agree with the mass unfollow to make it look like you got maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad number of followers.
Start over fresh if you want lol
I also keep multiple twitter accounts for various topics, so I don't get cross pollinated lol. My music stuff is seperate, my business stuff is seperate, copywriting…separate.
You just gotta find your method, get comfortable, and be SOCIAL lol.
Thanks Joe, it's good to see you back!
I like how you put it mate: "sometimes you have to go with the quantity first to find the quality". I followed a lot of people that most people wouldn't have followed because they had something like 30 followers at the time. Now they freakin' have like 10K followers and are totally killing it. That make very good relations and good people to have in your network.
I also have a couple of twitter accounts. I use @bentremblay for general tweets.
THanks for your comment mate!
No doubt man! You gotta do what makes sense to you dude, that's how you create the best relationships man. Keep it coming froggy, your site is jumpin bro! Good to see it.
I also keep separate accounts! Someone who likes my photos and poems, for example, doesn't necessarily want to hear about Internet Marketing see links to data on SEO. And the same goes for other niches. I would feel weird tweeting at all if I didn't keep things separate (or at least try to).
It definitely helps keep things neater.
Froggy in the house! Strong as usual, my man. I think the mass unfollow is some bs, but what can you expect from people that just are looking for short cuts. You are building something different with your ideas, Froggy. Stay on your individual course and be a Purple Cow. (Sorry, ready Seth Godin's book "Purple Cow" right now and it just comes out of me. LOL)
Fredddddiiiee! Thanks man, I really appreciate it! I'm trying to be a Purple Cow
Thanks for dropping a comment!
You are a Purple Frog!!!
Great post Ben,
I've been very careful of who I follow back simply because I don't want to turn my twitter into an unreadable mess. I really like how Joe is doing. Having multiple twitter accounts for various topics.
I also agree with Joe's way. In fact I do the same with all my different projects, it helps to keep everything clean and build quality networks based on interests.
im with you on this one i myself don't like one i get spammed so i follow people i enjoy following
I think the way to go is to be careful on who you follow in the first time. To mass follow and then mass unfollow is just childish. But maybe it was just a trend then and it's a trend now to do the opposite. It's hard to think with your own mind!
Absolutely, my "filter" is usually to follow people, not brands and people that aren't there just for spam & make money reasons.
Its perfectly fine to only follow those that you want to. I don't see not following some as a slight, or rude.
Heck, I'm getting two new followers a week right now. I have not posted on twitter since Christmas. I wonder what those folks are looking for – silence?
haha, some are just following to get a follow back, so that's probably why you are still getting new followers.
I just joined twitter. This is an interesting article. I hope to get 100 followers… but I guess fame could be a draw back too.
Good luck in your quest for 100 followers and thanks for dropping a comment.
[...] Why I’m against the twitter unfollow trend – Frogstr I hope you enjoy these great posts. I’ll return with some more great posts next week. [...]
Well, we're going to see more and more of this as twitter grows and goes mainstream. We're going to have to deal with ti!
While I find this concept of trying to get as many followers as one can distasteful, what I find disingenuous is, after doing that, suddenly deciding that you don't want to follow that many people and don't want that many people following you either, for whatever reason, and announcing it as you go ahead and do it. That's why, even though I have a lot of followers, I look each one of them up and determine whether I'm going to follow them or not. I mean really, is someone already following 45,000 people really going to care one way or another what I have to say? And if they decide to drop me because they're tired of all those people, what am I supposed to feel about that?
I agree with you Mitch and it is my position as well. You can be sure people following 45K people have a seperate stream in tweet deck for the persons they really want to follow. I have to admit I do it to, I follow a lot of people, but I have specific persons I really want to read their tweets. So, I have a "favorite" group in TweetDeck.
Hey, I'll own up to that myself. Actually, I have two separate special lists, one for my real friends, and one for people who I'm interested in seeing what they have to say. That one changes more often, because sometimes people just get weird, if you know what I mean. TweetDeck is a great tool for that reason.
LOL nice
Thanks to sharing this great post.i am new on twitter, but i agree with you.i will follow it.
In an ideal world, I’ll only want to follow people I share similar interests with. But that is not an ideal online world.Its perfectly fine to only follow those that you want to.I don’t think one should reciprocate the invitation.
Heck, I’m getting half a dozen of new followers every week now. I won’t say I update a post every week but I try to be part of the community,,if you know what I mean. Nice on Frogster – keep it coming dude..
Hey, thanks a lot for that comment.
I think it's a choice whether you want to follow people you "don't want to" or not. Following people you don't necessarily want to will surely give you more followers and it depends what your goals with twitter are.
I too am against the mass unfollow trend. If you didn’t want to follow them, don’t do it in the first place. Yes, I have a lot of followers and no, I can’t read and respond to every person, but no one expects you to be on Twitter 24/7. If I am really interested in a particular person I follow, I just look at their profile to see what’s been going on over the past few hours/days. Its not that serious!
Twitter surely is going crazy with spammer, those who do this mass unfollow will eventually be blocked by Twitter for spamming, you cant mass unfollow anyone ethically on twitter.
Well this is dumb. I mean, you create a blog, write, gather viewers, grow in power … and then what, screw it all and start again ? what's the point ? Besides, abandoning those 20k readers would only make you look like an asshole. Sure you might not know them or find them interesting, but they know you! want to read what you write! Why punish them for that ?
Love, love, love what you just said. I really don't understand why people have to have 10K followers on Twitter anyway? Isn't the whole social media thing created to connect with people we like in the first place???
I actually struggle to find enough people to add to my profile because I refuse to just add anybody. In the end we only connect with the people we know anyway, so for the sake of looking cool it isn't worth adding thousands we don't even care about.
Simple solution is too have one for business and one for pleasure.
Yes, it's a good solution and also have seperate accounts for seperate subjects/niches.
The mass un-follow as it is being used is definitely bad. I don't really follow people because they follow me. With tweetdeck and seesmic it's not really difficult to manage 100s of people ( I am not sure about thousands ).
About thousands, I personally create "groups" in twitter for people I really don't want to miss their tweets. This ensure that I get the best out of my network, while still reading what everybody has to say when I have the time to.
If you use twitter for fun there's no need to follow that many people in the first place. If you use it as a marketing tool you shouldn't be discouraged by the fact that it's a bit harder.
I completely agree. It's stupid for people to drop people they added merely so they could get an add in return. It's the height of hypocrisy. And people need to stop worrying about how many followers they have and start doing cool shit. You know what I mean? If you are being remarkable or extremely interesting or providing phenomenal content, then the only thing you're going to have to worry about is having too many followers.
For many, Twitter has turned into another "numbers game" where people are just trying to get to the next barrier–1,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 followers–for no real reason other than it gives them an ego boost. It's a lot like Alexa–the number really doesn't mean much. If no one really cares about what you're saying or the service or information you provide, then the number is meaningless.
[...] Once you get into the hang of Twitter, there are several things to be aware of, such as spammers, and Twitterers who cheat the system to inflate their follower count, usually to promote their service. The cheats can follow you at first… but if you follow them back, they can unfollow you within 24 hours after returning the favor (or just follow you and unfollow in the same moment). I had a follower who kept following me every couple of days just so they can grab my attention–which lead me to using the Block option. It’s a really dirty trick. [...]
It's up to them to give up the followers or not.Looks like the guy indeed have great influence!
Mass following never made any sense to me in the first place. How can you possibly interact with 10k people. The thing is to only follow people you are genuinely interested in and then there is no risk of mass unfollowing. Obviously there will be times when you realize that person X is not half as interesting as you thought they would be, and then unfollow them
I agree that that method of unfollowing is uncool I would never mass unfollow people but I will unfollow people who are not active or don't update their tweeps I also unfollow tweeps that just spam.
Twitter is a great social network site to interact with your friends and follower and following features are nice to keep in touch with your friends
[...] Tremblay explains why he is against the movement – because the users in this position got themselves into it in the first [...]
Twitter is all about followers and following. Mostly people used it to follow some one and quickly exchange messages with them in short period of time. Which is quite easy and simple.
Nice post Ben,
It seems t hat your blog is really useful for many people.Keep up the good work. And yes twitter some time did strange thing, But many people love it for the Follow and Following things. It have really an huge advantage.
I think it goes wrong from the beginning when you follow massive amounts of people just to get them to follow you back. I don't mean interacting and socializing and sharing thoughts with people – I mean following thousands of people so that they will follow you back. I personally just follow people I find interesting.
I don't want to auto-follow those who follow me, for obvious reasons. For one thing, I'd wind up following creeps and prostitutes as well. I tried in the past to check each new follower and follow them back if I liked them, but it was a joke, I got hundreds and hundreds every week or every day … I would have needed to spend hours per day on it.
So now I just try to be as natural as possible with Twitter. But I can agree, it isn't really right to just gather up followers by following them, and then suddenly unfollow …
I agree with you Ben. I don't like the unfollow trend now in twitter. It just doesn't sound good for me.