I was looking over the list of people who are following me on Twitter and it got kind of nauseating to see how many initally had something to do with golf, but now havwe turned into “Hey, Check Me Out” and “I can Show You How to Get 100k Followers on Twitter for $9.95” type people. Geez, can’t they find someone more worthy to follow?
I was reading over Seth Simonds, Why I Unfollowed 45,000 People on Twitter, blog and found his reasoning for unfollowing a full butt load of Followers as being very sound. Not only is it sound but is recommended. I admire him for what he did and is doing.
The Blog was very well written as you saw if you clicked on the link above. I have to say though my mentioning of his blog is in no way an endorsement of Seth and a recommendation of you to start following him on Twitter…even though he would be an outstanding peep to Follow. No, I would recommend you do what Seth and I feel is the best way to go about building a following and that is to be engaging in a like minded conversation.
NOOOOO, this does not mean that “Hey, Check This Out” is a form of like minded engaging conversation..even thought that is what you will be told to do for $9.95.
Seth’s reasoning for taking out the trash does beg to differ what many of the people out on Twitter thinking of what following is all about. My Twitter Manifesto covers many of the things Seth reported he did to eliminate the hassles he saw with having so many Followers who really were not Following. Yet, many people still don’t get it.
I for one, and I am sure Seth is the same, do not have the time, nor going to take the time to validate each person who Follows me on Twitter to see if we have compatible interests. OH, I do glance at who they are and have blocked several thousand PORN stars and Wackos from Facebook as a result…but on the most part people can follow me at will. Who knows, there may be something you say in your BIO or the way you look in your Photo of yourself that sways me to Follow You..but that happens it will be followed by an engaging Tweet to you.
As mentioned in my Manifesto I from time to time will call for a UnFollow event. Usually I have to call my UnFollow event a few days after the #FollowFriday rodeo which generates the many of my new Followers who really do not intend to follow me. I often wonder what is the benefit of the FollowFriday if it is just going to get a trillion people who read the Open Feed to click on the name and then follow them..just to be following someone.
Having Followers who are not going to engage me in conversation really is like play golf in a headwind..not too much fun knowing that you have a lot of people following you but not following what you post. You know you are not going to reach the green in the wind so you choose to lay up. The same goes for the people you follow who do not respond to engaging statements or questions, but, again like in golf, I use a different club to handle that shot.
These Unfollow events I create is when I pull out my UnFollow Club out of my bag and effectively grip it and rip it when I click on the UnFollow button of hundreds of people who really don’t care about me as much as they do their “I am Following” Stat. It gets me through the headwind. I image each time I unfollow someone that the Qwitter Bell goes off for those who use Qwitter.
But enough of all this golf analogy on how to deal with the wasteland of Twitter. I think more people need to do what Seth did and just clean the slate and start over..that is if you really care what others out on Twitter think of you and your 100k followers.
