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We're all guilty. Hell, I just self-promoted this article on Twitter. :p I hope it was in moderation and my karma card is good enough that all my friends don't drop me.
thanks for being part of the conversation!
Great article. Your points were valid and good reminders.
I will RT, oh wait maybe not.
Okay, I will tell people I found a great article that I want to share... oh wait maybe not. Ummm?
Well. This article is so good I will take the chance and both RT and suggest, but not at the same time.... cuz I don't want to bogg down the wall of new twitters....
Kudos and hats off. I look forward to your future articles.
Deann DaSilva
It's wednesday and I need to come up with something again... Any ideas for a good blog post you'd like to read?
I would have to say that Banality is the #1 reason I stop following people.
p.s. I had cereal and soy milk for breakfast ;P
Personally, I limit the number of people I follow, and then also follow about two dozen keywords, ideas, and topics.
This way, I can use Twitter more efficiently and limit the noise.
I feel your sentiment. I used to be more particular about social media connections and only connected with people I was interested in - but recently I've decided to "go bigger" and connect with more people. Using the right tools and filters, I'm finding that it actually enhances rather than detracts from the experience.. but it definitely takes more time.
I totally respect your style but some people think it's rude or not social to make friends with everyone - and they might drop you. #6 is a heads up, rather than a "Thou shalt"
I think if I were to follow thousands, I would essentially stop following anybody manually and only follow keywords.
If someone wants to follow me, more power to them. I don't feel compelled to follow back a perfect stranger that I have nothing in common with--just because it's polite.
But then, I'm not on Twitter to gain e-fame or sell a product, I'm there to communicate with my friends. If someone else finds me interesting and wants to follow me--okay. If I find them interesting, then okay as well. I also follow a lot of people that don't follow me back--I don't feel snubbed, or that they're being elitist.
People take everything so personally. "OMG I've been defriended, WHY??"
Who cares? At least it's less awkward than defriending someone in real life. At least this way, you don't have to worry about getting your CDs back from them.
I agree with nearly all of them to a point (well, the narcissism I agree with 100%, ha). I think it's all a balancing act that includes the reason you created your particular account in the first place (strictly social? mostly professional? are you keeping it private? what?) and the kinds of people you WANT to follow/friend you.
I think the only one I kind of disagree with completely is number six. I don't think people should feel compelled to follow/friend others just because those others followed/friended them. I made this mistake early on, and ended up following a lot of people who posted, quite frequently throughout the day, about stuff that had nothing to do with anything that interested me. Then, I ended up missing a lot of the posts that I was actually interested in from people I followed BECAUSE I was interested in them (even if they didn't follow me back - I was still interested in what they were posting).
I agree with you but some people will think you're snubbing them if you don't follow back and they'll drop you. Stick to you guns, but be prepared to lose a few folks who probably aren't your "real friends" anyway.
Maybe those filters that have been mentioned would weed such stuff out even if I did follow, but you know what? They ain't on the front page! In fact, apart from some tweet mention of 'em, they're damned hard to find - and frequently harder to utilize.
Until there are more user-friendly safeguards in place *within* Twitter, universal re-follow is simply not practicable for this old man.
I am using Twitter for professional reasons... so that definitely inspired this list.
It sounds like you are a "Give everyone a chance, then unfollow if problematic" kind of follower... which is how I am doing it these days, too.
The only one I am not sure about is #6. I agree with your sentiment but not sure I could follow everybody. There is only so much time in the day. Pretty sure I will get there. Right now I am going to get comfortable with the community before going big.
This article is NOT about how to be popular or how to cultivate personality in social media. (That's a great idea for other posts.)
It's about the most common reasons why people drop friends online. Nothing more.
Thanks for reading!
People most defintiely use it for different reasons... but I still contend that:
Even if you have just an intimate handful of friends and followers, doing one or more of the above 11 actions -- in excess -- is likely to irk them!
I'm fairly new to Twitter and have seen most of these 11 things already so I hope this article gets a lot of circulation. "Overload" (#9) is the one that puts me off the most.
I learned from a Christine Comaford presentation this weekend that if we are patient and follow the sequence of: "Building Credibility, then Rapport, then Trust" we will create a great following that are open to our offerings.
Thanks for reading! I am sure you'll find the right balance and create an online presence that works for you. It's a personal decision and you create your own digital reality!
It's very kind of you to let people know why you're blocking them or unfollowing them - but you're one in a million. I've found that most people are in a tremendous hurry - or else they might even feel guilty - and so they'll drop you without saying a word.
These are great reminders that everything we put out on the internet "brands" us. We should be good stewards of our online presence on Twitter and everywhere else, and be concerned about our impact on others as we are about expressing ourselves. I've blocked a couple people from following me on Twitter due to their avatars being too raunchy or inappropriate. I don't want to be associated with some images. So that might be another item to add to your list...
#13 - Pictures of private parts or weapons of mass destruction in your avatar.
Check!
Thanks for stopping by! Do you blog? Where?
Of course, I may be misunderstanding the thrust of your post entirely, and you're discussing using Twitter as PR and or brand management.
But that, I think misses the point of social software as well.
I definitely understand. I can handle people's political viewpoints too (as long as they are not cruel or extreme) - but a lot of people can't and they'll just ditch you if you get religious or political and they don't know you well.
I don't think you're missing the point of the post, totally.... but I'm not saying "Never, ever discuss religion or politics."
I'm saying "if you want to discuss politics, be prepared that some people might unfollow you with no warning"
And some of them will. For sure.
On the other hand, a lot of people in my local faith community have joined me on Facebook, where I'm definitely on a mission to "educate" politically. So far, nobody's cut me off. But I sometimes look at all I post and ponder what it may look like from outside my peculiar belief system. Interestingly, a number of people—some of them quite surprising to me—have stepped up and joined the discussion. But I make sure I leaven the dough with plenty of funny things, especially if they show the less-than-stellar side of yours truly. I'm passionate about some things and deeply concerned with some of what's going on and I don't hide that, because it's part of who I am. But I'm a lot more than the sum of my passions and I care about a lot more than politics and religious convictions. Starting with the people who live in my "world."
Thanks for reading. I spent half my weekend on it - glad u enjoyed!
Congratulations. All in all, a quality post of things to avoid over-doing. As noted in a separate response, I disagree with your general take on item six: I simply do not hold the 'snob/elitist/polite' rationale to be a legitimate cause for following someone who's bio is unclear or nonexistent.
And I certainly do not need a Judith Martin (aka Mis Manners) dictating how I should utilize a social medium to which I subscribe for my own reasons. If I lose my 'closest friends' for a no-follow, then they weren't very close friends, were they?
Too many times, the auto-follow concept - it's not new to the current crop of social media, ya know? - been around since the days of the message boards, long before the Web came into being - brings everyone down to the lowest common denominator. If I meet someone in a bar or a church - both are social environments - that I dislike, I'm not obligated to hold discourse with them. Why should that be any different here?
I'm not trying to tell you, or anyone, how you should do things. But I'll live my life as I see fit, not by your standards, on Twitter, in the real world, within any social context.
That having been said, you've produced a yeoman piece of work here that should be required reading for all habitues of social media sites.
Congratulations upon a job well done. Yech! That sounds elitist doesn't it? Oh, well, congratulations anyway [chortle /].
But if everyone took it, damn would Twitter ever be a boring place.
It would be boring, indeed! I kinda don't like this whole new paradigm of "striving for popularity and politeness" and people using their real names all of a sudden... the thrills, spills, chills and flaring egoes make it a kind of interesting place.
Or another great way to lose followers is to frequently tweet about how many followers you need to reach a certain follower # (although this is arguably covered in the narcissism point)
Chris (http://twitter.com/ChrisCade)
Yesterday @msaleem quoted Leo Laporte:
"You know, @leolaporte is right, talking about your followers is like talking about how much money you have. Stop boasting."
I totally agree!
Very nicely done; echo's the advice one may want to heed in face-to-face/group settings.
Wonder why your follower count stays flat - or drops? Curious as to to why people don't want to go to lunch with you?
It might stem from you doing any/all of these...
It's kind of eerie how much this is common sense / real life! Not some kind of social media / digital voodoo.
However, I'm sure some people will be able to run with some of these angles, taking them as far as they can and end up really quite popular by distilling their audience into particular niches. Perez Hilton got famous for the bitchiness and gossip - a heady combination of negativity and self-promotion has made that guy very successful.
It depends on your agenda and goals.
No doubt that some people break all these rules and do well - some people are quite obnoxious and get bizilions of followers - but they also lose a fair share of followers in the process, guaranteed.
You might like my post on "Voyuerism: Social Media' s Delicious, Guilty Pleasure" - which explains how social media can reward some "reality TV" behavior and personalities.
1. Their views didn't support mine and they were too loud mouthed about it. Like, tweeting about their views all the time. This comes under narcissism I guess.
2. Excessive blog promotion.
3. Not giving a damn about others. I am the kind that loves conversations. I unfollowed people who didn't reply to my tweets continually.
That's about it.
1. No one like a contrarian loudmouth.
2. Being a blogger is a hard job. I am sure struggling to write content and get people to read it - until
I reach the point where people will regularly recommend on my behalf and I don't have to self-promote. For now, I grit my teeth and ask friends to check it out.
3. Yup... one of the downsides when people start to follow thousands is the inability to participate in the conversation :( Like it or not though... social media is gonna get bigger and bigger, and that includes the numbers!
That is a GREAT addition. I'm going to update the post and throw it under #6 - Lack of Reciprocity. If you follow people and don't talk back to them ever - that's lack of reciprocity!
Caring so much about your number of followers that you change what you're tweeting about to avoid losing a single one of them. Some of these might be applicable to corporate accounts where you're the voice of a company, but otherwise? Tweet about what you want and screw the numbers game.
I hear you. I really do. I started off using the internet when it was underground / illegal for anyone but government researchers to use.. and it was a very different culture that I kind of miss, a lot. No one used their real name, very intelligent and blunt discussions, no holding back.
I totally and heartily encourage you to talk about what you want to! And I admire your courage for not caring about the numbers!
When I use social media for fun, I go all out. When I do it for business (like this blog, my Twitter account) I have to use a kind of business etiquette that still reflects who I am. Hopefully it's still interesting and not sterile.
You, my friend, should screw the numbers game and let it all hang out!
The beauty of Twitter is that everybody has the ability to unfollow so as to create their own perfectly dialed in feed, so speak up and be yourself - if they unfollow, that's a good thing because they are selecting their "play list" and there will be others who prefer your voice.
It's not important to retain every single follower in your network. I totally agree that you should be able to express yourself and have a following who fits.
This post wasn't a list of "Thou Shalt Nots" - it was designed to give you a list of questions to ask yourself beore broadcasting content to make sure it was relavant and interesting to a majority of people - not all of them.
If I had to boil this post down into two points, I'd say:
1.) Don't share a lot of negative / trivial / vain stuff
2. ) Pay attention to other people, listen to them, coverse with them
I agree that people should unfollow and select whom the wish to hear from and get a perfectly dialed account with the perfect audience for their broadcast.
I'll bet you've seen all of them, huh?
Only YOU can prevent rampant online narcissism! (*by clicking the unfollow button! ")
;)
Lots!
Just don't be negative, self-centered, pushy or religious - at least all in the same update ;)
Respond back to people and you'll do fine!
My question: Where's the balance? I want to connect with everyone I follow or I wouldn't have followed them.
I figure that those who can't tolerate the # of Tweets can always unfollow, or they could say Hi and connect...
I just think of Twitter like a big, noisy dinner table conversation. It's okay to talk but if you talk too much, it might block other people's conversations from trickling though.
It's okay to Tweet a lot - nothing wrong with it - but if people unfollow you - you'll know why.
All of these were real updates taken from my Tweetdeck. In some cases, the names or the avatars were changed to protect privacy but the updates were for realz.
No doubt, banality is one of the first objections people when adopting social media. You, rightfully, don't want to be exposed to unfiltered, user-generated content... any more than you'd want to watch hours of someone's un-edited home movie footage!
Glad you enjoyed! Always helps to remember and ask ourself if we're crossing the line.
I'm guilty of all these plus about a dozen that were too fringe and irritating to make the list. ;)
I'm guessing I hit on some kind of nerve or something.
Be yourself. Say what you want to. Let it out. But if people unfollow you, at least you'll understand why.
It's not about being neutered and soulless. It's about having good manners. Not being unnecessarily negative or banal. Not overloading people. And focusing on your friends as much as you focus on yourself.
That's all!
Either way, RT'ed
Thanks for stopping by!
My personal take as a Twitter novice....
I don't focus too much on number of followers (I do check, obviously). I don't really pay attention to people that stop following me that much because I look at it as a free will type of thing, much like how some relationships are transient in real life.
In the order of things, here's what I would be most concerned about:
1. Losing a friend (real, not virtual).
2. Losing a customer at any of the services I've worked at.
3. A follower.
Conversing with all of your followers, notably those that have tens of thousands, is probably not all that reachable by any single human being. Not responding to a direct inquiry, IMHO, is probably a lot worse than not sending a message to every person directly.
I agree... the point of this list is to "be nice" and a good conversationalist... to focus on others as much as you rant about negative / inane / narcissistic / banal stuff.
If it's part of their online personality, I say it's acceptable--but that #5 should be followed. I'm pro-choice, for instance, but I'm not going to tweet rants about pro-lifers.
I'm not saying it's "wrong" or "bad" to talk about religion of politics... just that you MIGHT lose some followers who aren't interested in your religion. This isn't just a "trying to inflate your numbers social media" thing - a lot of savvy business people avoid discussing politics + religion in real life too.
You should, by all means, discuss what you do -- as it is your life..!
In my experience so far, I didn't follow one person back because his picture was of a muscular bare chest. He seemed really vain.
It's kind of Twitter's fault. They ask, "What are you doing now?" and that's a strong prompt for banality. For instance, now I'm sitting here in my PJ's, drinking a glass of soy milk.
p.s.
I guarantee if I posted pictures of my bare chest, I would lose followers too.
Sad how people don't read carefully, though, isn't it? You must have said *at least* 200 times that these aren't 'Rules' but might be 'Reasons'.
And I think a dash of good manners never comes amiss, wherever you are. Poor old Notlistening really got their knickers in a twist, didn't they!
Anyway, want to pick your brains about the filtering tools. What? and Where? and How? Have you blogged about them?
Keep up the great work! x
I use Tweetdeck and keep people deep to my heart in a custom group so I don't miss their messages. That way I can follow everyone and not miss the critical stuff. I use Whiz RSS to keep track of friend's Digg submissions so stories don't get lost in the shuffle. And Facebook now has great controls for silencing some people's updates.
Understood. Just mentioning that there are more important things to lose than a follower:) I only mention politics sometimes on my Twitter account, largely due to the fact that politics can be like talking to wall (nothing I will say will change a person's affiliation with a particular topic). The same goes with religion, which is something that can be a very divisive topic.
I actually think that folks that have 10k+ followers are in for one hell of a ride. T
he best advice you gave is to be personable, which I wholly agree with. A simple response back to a Tweet, or any other medium, is appreciated by the person that received your response.
It' okay to mention politics and religion.. I do absolutely do it sometimes and on some sites... but not on sites that I use for business. I depend on Twitter to make a living so I leave politics out of it. If you're just using it for fun to to be social - there's no limits you should even consider... let 'er rip!
I don't know how the people who follow 50k manage to do it! It's like having a conversation with an entire small city!
Nor do I! While I have engaged with a large number of communities in the past, that number is still quite large to me. Props to the folks that can do so to some degree.
Politics and religion: Even if I have my own views, I am personally loathe to do so in any environment that would affect my relationship with my employer. I am actually a weird hybrid when it comes to politics (Democrat and Republican), and perhaps even more strange when it comes to religion (largely Buddhist in thought, terrible in practice, and practitioner of the Judeo-Christian ethics that permeate Western culture).
Thanks for the interesting article. Appreciate it!
However, on some forums I don't use my real name or I don't use for business so I let 'em rip! ;)
Glad you liked, please subscribe via RSS and I'll see what I can do in the future!
RT'd what is a great tweet and article.
I'm gonna do an article soon about how not to miss important updates.
Thanks a lot! Feel free to suggest it!
I like your style.
Keep it real and not worrying what others think gets respect points in my book.
I'm not sure I understand... are you saying the English are more positive than us yankees? Or vice vera?
So
"feeling really positive today about the business, here are my top five tips for SEO success" c
comes across to us as
"Drone ! Will work for food! desperate desperate desperate"
Gotcha.
Syrupy sweet positivity can come across as new age fluff for the Brits, huh?
Some fo the most engaging people I follow take negative stuff and make it funny. Snarky. Witty. Sarcastic. They vent their frustrations but it makes you chuckle rather than cringe.
I recommend @toddmintz - he's awesomely funny.
thanks for the lesson, a lot to learn. I think everyone is guilty.
Julius
Thanks for stopping by and connecting, giving me a chance to "meet" you and see your event planning Blog...
We're all learning!
I love your approach.
Great post again
Julius
Thanks for reading and commenting. It gave me a chance to check out your Life of Pursuit blog and it's good to meet ya!
Supper dupper post very helpful and to the point.
Thanks so Much! Appreciate it!
Cheerz, Mate!
"I just drank a sip of water and checked my email" =--NO#@@$@@#@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#$!@!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Too many of us find ourselves wrapped up in the online safety blanket that we forget the "rules" that govern real life.
Loved the post hence the Stumble and Twitter RT.
Cheers, mate! Thanks for stopping by and giving me a chance to check out 20 Steps!
I'm not countering these arguments; I just think it depends on what your Twitter goals are.
#9 is probably valid on all levels. If you're over-Tweeting, get a blog. :)
Thanks for the post!
The point isn't to censor or not talk about things... it's trying to find GOOD stuff to talk about that will endear you to your RL friends. Even close friends and family members can get inflamed about politics..I know at my family dinner table there were always 4 different sets of beliefs and arguing.
People should be able to freely converse.. but the art of social media is picking the most interesting and relevant things to talk about - and talk about other people!
To each his own.
You'd be surprised! Because politics and religion have an emotional / territorial component to them more than logical ... so people can "see into" what you're saying and come up with all kinds of helter-skelter misunderstandings and projections.
Your friends and family will forgive you but SOME acquaintances will drop you. At least that has been my own experience.
I follow plenty of people. Many people choose to follow me. While the numbers will look similar, the reality is different. Most of the people whom I follow at first are not my followers. If I don't find a follower's updates intriguing, and I follow back quite a few of them, I am perfectly fine with sharing my thoughts with them without reading theirs. :)
you shouldn't follow anyone you don't wanna. You have every right to keep it as personal as you like!
Obama is a celebrity. Celebrities have followers and attract interests no matter what they do.
Different rules apply to normal folks like me.
No one is saying you must never discuss politics, but be prepared to have the occasional misunderstanding of what you're trying to say! And be prepared for some random guy to disagree and drop you as a result. I'm not saying it's "right"- but I've just noticed it happens.
I'm wildly opposed to the idea of "Twitter Reciprocity". It's perhaps the quickest way to render Twitter useless. If I subscribed to that mindless notion I'd have a Twitterstream filled with "Hey, guys...I just got my free laptop" and "I just made $3,800 in an hour - you can too". Using social networks with purpose and truly building a rapport with others requires being as choosy about those you associate with online as you are about those you associate with in life.
I hate the spam on Twitter. I definitely unfollow the MLMers and such. I agree that having good quality interactions is better than having "lots of" interactions... but the cost of following someone on Twitter is very small - just to try it out... and it's very easy to unfollow someone.
I personally tend to follow anyone who looks like a real, non-spamming human and "drop" people if they become annoying... and that works well for my style of using Twitter as an independent social media marketer.
You have every right to keep it intimate, and the article doesn't contest that... but rest assured some people will AUTO DROP ya if you don't follow them back. If you can transcend concern or fixation on number of followers you have, this should pose no problem.
Thanks for your comment!
-Brett
p.s. how did you manage to make $3,800 in an hour? WHERE CAN I SIGN UP? ;)
Cheers man, that is a huge reason I left off the list. For sure, being inactive means some people will drop you.
EXCELLENT comment, thanks!
(But beware. Each time I've checked this out, I get paranoid and update my status a lot less for a while. :-) )
Cool tool! Thanks for sharing.
good on ya. You have every right to be selective about who you follow.. .and not enter into relationships with people you don't even want as followers.
All my best from Mexico
Thanks for your comment! Glad you enjoyed!@
5. Well okay, I'm grumpy and negative sometimes, but this, like all things, in moderation. I do admit I really hate filling my blog/feed/whatever with nothing but grump and grar, so I try to avoid it.
6. This is a philosophical thing -- I follow people if I'm interested in what they have to say, and generally not celebrities. Following me is not a guarantee that I will follow you, because IMO filtering misses the point.
7. Maybe this will get people to unfollow you, but I tend to think it's a quality-over-quantity thing on this one. If someone's unfollowing me because I talk about ... well, anything they disagree with, then I'm probably not interested in them anyway because I'm not likely to see real dialogue from them.
8-9. Spot-on, and they go hand in hand.
10. This could go both ways -- your example at the top is one I'd really hate, but if they're talking about, f'rinstance, what's being discussed at SXSW or live-tweeting a keynote at Apple WWDC, something like that... that's stuff I want to know. Quality over quantity again, I guess.
11. Would that more people would learn this. Unfortunately it lies closely with #5 and I'm probably guilty of more of it than I'd like (which is to say any at all).
Thanks so much for your thoughtful and excellent comment. We all do all these things sometimes, but we live and learn.
In my game, social media marketing is about polishing our online presence until it resonates with a large mass of people... because I want to have connections, opportunity and audience.
Making this list forced me to reflect on what worked and what didn't.
But of course, these people are just a few spoiled beans out of the whole basket. Twitter still remains an amazing place to connect with like-minded individuals. I'll keep an eye for such black sheeps in the future, thank you!
Only small issues with points 2 & 7 but your "Ask Yourself" qualifiers remediate those.
Good article.
Thanks
DPBKMB
One more reason is F-FB-UF Someone start to Follow you, you Follow Back, after few days you find out they Un-Followed you. This is just fishing for new followers to artificially increase their numbers. Its rude and definitely leading to boot from me. If that happened few times with the same person - I even block them to prevent it from happening again
Yeah - the F-FB-UF 'fishing' behavior is the worst. I might have done it accidentally a few times tho... as it gets hard to remember who is who when people change avaters / bgs, etc.
My money is on you changing your stance on #6 one day down the road. The Lack of Reciprocity shouldn't be on this list. Not being followed is the market's way of saying "your Tweets aren't of interest". Nothing wrong with that.
Don't get me wrong, I get hurt feelings too when someone doesn't follow back or talk to me. But, we all have priorities and I cannot expect others to waste their time on my Tweets if I'm not offering any value - entrainment, educational, etc.
#4 #5 #7 #10 #11 can all work in the right circumstances - and as many others I'm not convinced that if you followed all the rules all of the time that you'd have anything interesting to say on Twitter at all.
I'd much rather follow someone interesting and provocative rather than bland.
I've noticed a few things that really irk me that you haven't mentioned specifically.
The first seems like an edge case that's mostly covered under a combination of #3 and #4. If I catch someone declaring that they are participating in a dodgy scheme to collect followers, I will not only not follow them, but block them, and un-follow them if I'm currently following them. It's also a #6, as while they seem to be only too glad to follow people who follow them and in fact follow first, they are about getting followers without putting forth the effort to even try to build a relationship.
The second is keyword-following without sane human intervention before the following takes place. I have occasionally said a few highly uncomplimentary and profane things about, say, Web 2.0, or social media. Each time I use a keyword, I get a little shower of followers. It's very clear from their feeds that they're doing this in case I'm one of them, but without looking at what I just wrote and saying "Wow, this frill is not the kind of input I need if that's what she thinks of my entire industry."
Don't get my wrong: I have no problem with coming to the attention of people via an automated keyword search, otherwise I wouldn't be posting in public. However, when people are using an automated keyword search to replace any human judgment in their selection of people to follow, they are immediately in violation of #4 (their keywords are their agenda, and I can usually tell what that was by looking at my recent tweets from the last 10 minutes and a glance at their profile), #3 (they are following me to promote themselves; their first and only impression is negative and I am likely to consider them a spammer), and #6 (they do not care enough about building a relationship to actually care about the meaning of what I have said, just that I have said keywords that they are interested in; they may never actually read what I have written).
I have strong feelings about spam and spammers, to a point that's almost religious (and doubtless I run the risk of losing followers when I rail about it, under principle #7). There are undoubtedly spammers out there, spammers who know what they are and what they're doing. However, there are some people out there who doubtless are just following the "rules" they've been taught for Twitter, and, in doing so, have become spammers, just less professional than most. Rule #12 should be: "Don't be mistaken for a spammer."
I also think automatic follow-backs are evil, because they encourage clear spammers. By all means, follow everything that looks like a legitimate person following you. However, 5 guys named Jason who are all trying to survive in this economy by getting a free laptop are not legitimate people. But seeing that 205 people are now following Jason will lend legitimacy to a spammer before Twitter suspends them.
I can understand 6. In fact, I disagree with 6. I don't have to follow someone to interact with them (unless they have their posts locked - really, I have no idea who you are and you follow me with your locked posts - your profile better damn well tell me who you are!). You can see if anyone with public tweets (or anyone you follow who has locked tweets) has (properly) directed a tweet at you by checking your @replies.
9 is just painfully true and I'm guilty of it at times. I don't tweet from my phone often or by text message ever - I don't have unlimited tweets. I tweet through proxies at work and in reply to people in groups.
as "strongly suggested" protocol! Thanks for sharing this!
~ Sharon
i am banal, dry, sarcastic, religious, political and narcissistic. i do not like reposting/recycling but i LOVE when people brag about the cool things that are going on in their lives because i want to get to know them. and dang it, if i go out and ride 80 miles over a mountain pass on my bike, i want to tell people about it that care.
i also don't care too much if i have 100 or 1000 followers. i won't be following someone that only tweets unoriginal quotes or only posts links to another person's articles.
i guess the author and i have different goals for what they want to accomplish on twitter and i'm okay with that. @johnincolorado
If you're not concerned with using Twitter for networking.. let you freak flag fly and forgot the people who don't like what you have to say.
I use it for business so that has an influence on the way I use it and what I say and do.
Mind you, the concept of doing anything with the specific aim of gaining or placating followers seems sort of pathetic to me anyway. Just do your thing, and be yourself.
If you don't care if someone drops you or not... go for it! Let it fly. Some people will disagree and drop you, but who needs if if you're passionate about politics!
It's certainly hard to keep your passions from interfering with your stream though. Especially when you follow people that push your buttons. Why do I follow them? Just a gluten for punishment I guess.
I don't automatically unfollow people who unfollow me, either.
People I don't follow tend to be those who use Twitter to Sell! Sell! Sell! in advance of (1) an express need for the product/service or (2) spam me. My favorite are the life coaches wanting to sell me coaching--when I've taught business and executive coaching internationally for the past decade and been in the industry for upwards of 2 decades. When I point this out, they are always surprised. So, I guess (4) people who can't be bothered to read the profiles of the people they follow. Oh, yeah, the (4) the people who are trying to be the generic all things to all people? Boring as hell.
I think the insistence of twit for twa (OK, that didn't come out right) and generic inauthenticity will kill the freshness and cause Twitter to run counter to how we operate off the twitter grid.
Lalita
(@LLAmos)
A proposed #12 anyone that links to or produces a self canceling list.
Sorry you thought this was "garbage," but I have found from personal experience that SOME people will drop for all 11 of these reasons... wheter or not you think they are just - it will happen because they do trigger some people.
if you're using social media for fun and you're not concerned with offending someone , somewhere.. and don't mind losing a couple of followers who ultimately weren't for you... don't worry about this list.
If you're sensitive or your trying to run a professional brand or company account, beware!
I disagree with Rule 6, reciprocity. I follow 64 people -- a nice power of 2 -- and I am trying hard not to follow more. I can't keep up. I do try to read everything they say. And I have other activities and social media besides Twitter (mainly text-based Usenet Newsgroups, the old-style, original, UNIX way, without a GUI). If everybody fakes out his or her followers by filtering them, then the entire stats and ego-boost from being followed becomes nothing but a sham. I follow people I find interesting.
There are many -- thousands -- I'd like to follow. If someone's excluded, it isn't a statement I'm making about his or her self-worth or even about how much I might really like that individual.
An important point for me that doesn't seem to have been covered is, if someone is following and followed by thousands and then adds me to his or her follow list, I have to doubt that he or she really is interested in what I have to say. Rather, I'll suspect the person is fishing for new followers to raise his or her own stats. This kind of thing tends to send me scurrying rather than following in return.
I try to use irony and wit in my updates. But I am not the best judge of how successful I am at that. :-) Last bit: I'm pretty new around here.
Following more people doesn't have to be overwhelming... as long as you don't think you need to follow every single detail of people's lives. I challenge you to try following more people and just soaking the flow of information in. You can still keep tabs on all your close friends:
http://socialmediarockstar.com/follow-more-people
I am guilty of ALL of these plus 7 or 8 minor ones that didn't make the list.
Live and learn!
Social media is a personal communications evolution for all of us!
I need a Twit Slap. How does anyone tolerate me...and why didn't anyone say I am a horror show on Twitter?? :)
You're doing fine... this isn't a list of rules... it's just a list of suggestions that "can't hurt"..... no need to follow them unless you are keen to add lots of new people and not lose anyone!
Please don't die.... stay alive... come back... read, share, and follow me on Twitter!
No... it's just applying real life manners and conversational strategy to the online medium... good for you!
Some people seem to think that going online gives them license to talk about stuff they'd never want to mention in real life.
Politics and religion is tricky. If you go for it, keep in mind that there's a 90% chance that 40% or more people will disagree with your stance and feel distance from you, rather than closer.
glad you liked it!
I am so stoked that you enjoyed this. Please check back for more.
It might be sad, but people can and do unfollow people for a variety of reasons. These are 11 of the most common ones.
This isn't a list of commandments to be politically correct. Just gudlines / things to think about for people who are trying to gain more followers.
There was actually a lot of value in your comments to this post too. I'm sure you gained new insights yourself Brett as you heard others opinions. Thanks for sharing and look forward to hearing more from you on the subject.
Glad you enjoyed this article. I too just unfollowed a Bible verse tweeter, an overloader... and also someone with political views that offended mine.
The reason I put the effort into publishing this blog is because it's a tool for me to meet people and connect with them.
My philosophy: "Write something that will help someone else, see who responds to it, and then those are most likely people that'd be good to connect with for personal and professional reasons."
Thanks for your comments, I checked out your site and you do some first class Drupal dev work. I know who to send people too for solid sites and gorgeous themes.
Some people criticized "11 Ways to Lose Friends and Followers Online" as being some kind of lisrt of rules for becoming a soul-less, bland McSocial Media personality.
I disagree... I think that a lot of the subtle nuances and background bits about your personality are sometimes concealed online... and if you talk with a diverse global audience the way you'd talk with your church friends or stoner buddies... a lot of people may mis-interpret what you have to say. A certain kind of "universal" eqituette may be helpful.. but not necessary.
Thanks for that Magpie story link. I knew of the service, but hadn't seen it in action. The crass personalization of the Tweets is pretty lame.
Also, I believe that being a social media, Twitter is a good forum, and should be tolerant of people expressing their political and religious views. A steady diet of anything gets old fast and noone wants to hear anyone rant about the same old thing all the time but I believe that religious and political views are important and should be shared when something comes up that you feel passionate about.
As far as #6, I follow most folks who follow me, unless they're obviously spammers, or they are rude, or don't have any interesting updates already posted - I'm being followed by someone who only posts ads for cars, trucks, etc - since that's not something I'll be looking online for, I see no need to follow them.
I'm not in it for the numbers, I'm in it to meet up with new friends and learn something.
Do you do disagree that some people will, in fact, drop you if you
talk about religion and political things? I've found, time and time
again, some people will. No matter how carefully you word things.
I'm not saying that this is "right or wrong" - or how things should be
- I have just found from hard knocks that many people don't share your
admirably thick skin and ideological tolerance.
Good for you for not being obsessed with numbers and trying to make
connections with people who really like you and what you've got to say.
-Brett
Cool nickname!
don't. Howver, be prepared that a sizable percentage of your new
followers will drop you - and you'll only be left with the ones
who are really interested in what you have to say.
-Brett
I am not the least bit after growing my following base. I started twittering about what I like, and one in a while, I take a peak in my followers to see if there is somethiing I like, but I don't think we should feel obligated to follow back.
2 Following 419 Followers
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett
some people won't like it.
-Brett