Getting Unfollowed in Twitter

Not everyone gets Twitter; I understand that.  Many marketers will tell you it’s better to have only a hundred or so really interactive followers than thousands who may not interact with you at all (I see their point, but I disagree.  More on that in a future post, though).  I’m sure everyone has that one friend who has 10,000 (or more) followers, and you’re probably wondering to yourself if that person is really getting anything out of it.

But I was on Twitter this morning when I saw someone post that they were going to start ‘cleansing’ their following list (get rid of followers).  I’m sure that I may be part of that cleansing, as I’ve had very little interaction with that individual.  That got me to thinking – should I take offense to their purging me from their Twitter life?

NOPE! If I don’t bring value to someone’s stream, why should I be concerned that they no longer wish to follow me?

I have unfollowed many people whose opinions and thoughts I’ve felt were not pertinent to my thought stream.  I’ve also unfollowed people who have unfollowed me in an attempt to artificially boost their numbers after I’ve followed them.  I’ve also unfollowed individuals who self promote too much.  It was nothing personal towards any of them, but I want to interact only with people who think I’m cool beans, have something to contribute, actually WANT to interact with me and who bring me the same value that I attempt to bring to them.

There are those in the “Twitterverse” (for sake of harmony, I will not mention names) who encourage people to unfollow others and for specific reasons – such as self promoting or having an RSS feed in a post (sorry, but isn’t Twitter a great traffic engine? Why wouldn’t you self promote a little, eh?).  Personally, if you’re having a hard time choosing between Chinese or Mexican food and if I have an opinion, I’ll tell you, so go ahead and post that stuff into my stream; I don’t care.  I also don’t mind a FEW self promotional messages or RSS feeds.  If you are not pertaining to my interests, I wouldn’t be following you in the first place.  Just don’t make it ALL about you (or your stomach).  Try and give me some really great nuggets of info, and we’re cool.

Many of my readers are probably disagreeing with me on this, but this is the beauty of Twitter – you can control what info you receive with the mere click of a button.

Don’t get me wrong; as far as social media platforms go, Twitter can be either “about the numbers” or “about the relationships”.  Personally, I use Twitter to establish those initial connections and to drive traffic to my website(s), so in a manner of speaking it’s both to me.  Twitter is the first level of my marketing funnel, and it is quite an effective tool.  However, you need to be prepared, people; because this once seasoned Twitter users have figured out the cheats, spammers, and scammers, this type of mass unfollowing will become more and more popular, and feelings are bound to get hurt.

Now, as far as working Twitter into your marketing strategy – if you can’t bring value to your potential followers and are using it only to inflate your ego by having a huge following, or if it consists of blindly following anyone and everyone in the hopes that they follow you back and buy from you, then – stay out of it.

So don’t be insulted when someone unfollows you; it’s not a personal attack of your worthiness as an individual – it’s just that the person who unfollowed you wants to enrich and tweak their Twitter experience.  If they bring value to you, then by all means; continue watching them.  You can always @-reply them or send them an email.

So get out there and tweet without fear of unfollows! 

Disclaimer: No Twitter Birds were harmed in the creation of this post. 

If you would like more Twitter Tips, Tricks, & Techniques, please visit my sister site:  Twitter Biz Strategies.