Comments on: Using Twitter More Effectively: Unfollow Everyone?

By: Twitter Fan

Twitter Fan — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:32:38 +0000

I think it all depends on how you plan on using Twitter. I don’t auto-follow anyone and never have. I review the people who are following me when the time allows and make a decision on a case by case basis to determine if I want to see their tweet stream.

Part of my enjoyment of Twitter is the fact that I get information from a variety of sources. If I were to unfollow everyone, what would be the point. It would be like carrying on a conversation with yourself in an empty room.

By: DP

DP — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:35:58 +0000

Great article. I wonder how drastic your following would be cut if this was acted upon. Understanding that reading about what the latest tweets are for 10,000 or 100,000 followers is hard to grasp but then removing any relationship could become detrimental to your group surroundings. OMG, Digital Photographys last blog post: What Does The Branding For Your Photography Studio Say?

By: OMG. OMG. OMFG.

OMG. OMG. OMFG. — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:01:10 +0000

[...] saturation that comes with following that many people on Twitter. She confessed she’d pulled a Loic just a few weeks ago to make her stream more manageable and reflected on how annoyed some people [...]

By: Dave Wilkins

Dave Wilkins — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:55:34 +0000

I've never understood the whole "tens of thousands of followers" thing. I've grown to following about 700 ppl and being followed by about almost 600 very organically in a little less than a year. I look for lists of folks in my industry - analysts as well as practitioners. I look for retweets by people I follow. I look to bloggers I follow to see if they are on Twitter. When people follow me, I only follow back based on their recent posts and their bios. Through this model, I've built a large extended network of mostly "on topic," thoughtful, relevant professionals who share similar interests (and some who don't, to make sure I get a good diversity of perspective). I understand how people can get to thousands of followers using this model. I know @jimstorer (fomerly @jstorerj) and @aaronstrout have both been pretty organic in their growth too, and they are well into the thousands. But the tens of thousands thing just seems ridiculous and about as far from authentic as a "community" can get. OMG, Dave Wilkinss last blog post: Running Your Business Like a Community

By: Bloggeries

Bloggeries — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:03:55 +0000

Seriously now it’s not that they just used auto-follow. They (Jason C as well) actively followed people. (I.e made the first contact by starting to follow someone)

Dropping everyone like that just causes resentment. If you JUST have an account about what you eat or what you’re doing following tones of people so they will follow you back is just a source of narcissistic supply.

On the other hand if you have a free service that caters to the social media crowd it’s a great way to virtually “shake hands” with thousands of people and from there most likely develop working relationships with many of them. That’s why I have no clue why he’d stop following people. It was a great way to get the word out about his numerous products.

If you went to #SXSW for instance you may meet dozens or hundreds of people but end up developing working relationship with a smaller portion. Twitter is similar in the digital realm but on steroids.

There is no right way to use twitter.

By: Austin Chase

Austin Chase — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:03:25 +0000

Respectfully dude, anyone “unfollowing” their audience is an idiot…hear me out…can you imagine Oprah unviewing people?!? Maybe they don’t watch her show or experience her media day to day, but the billionaire authority on media doesn’t publicly unfollow her followers. I empathize with anyone’s complaints/angst on spam; but, really. Just be thankful man and simply utilize this amazing technology to filter the information that comes into your life/our lives. And, then spend time blogging/writing about people who are not negating humans but building them up; and, this is my intention for you–you’re obviously articulate, smart, and tapped in to your passion; so, pass you along Hell, follow everyone on Twitter. Utilize the simple filters to follow who you want to while still meeting interesting people interested in following you. Spam is so 1990’s and it really is an easy fix to deal with, whether it’s twitter, facebook, or your in-box. Quit whining and/or propagating the hassle of using a button that says delete or a strenuous mouse click to un-follow.

By: Lisa Logan

Lisa Logan — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:57:14 +0000

I do think the premise of being forced into a relationship just because someone else wants it is ridiculous--this goes against everything Mama taught me in high school. In the Twitter world, however, there is a logical sense to auto-following, which becomes the equivalent of shaking the hand of someone who comes up to make your acquaintance and hearing a bit of what they have to say before making a decision as to whether to be their buddy. This does NOT mean I believe in auto-DM's, the "I'm not really here giving a crap right now, but talk to the hand if you want" approach that eats up my text minutes and is about as appealing as elephant breath on a first date. As for Loic, he stopped the auto-bot madness by doing a time out and starting fresh. He's refollowing any who want him to using a more direct, personal approach. I fail to see how wanting to get in touch with people rather than bots has come under such negative scrutiny. OMG, Lisa Logans last blog post: Feng Shui Friday: Career

By: thewinemaestro

thewinemaestro — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:53:20 +0000

Good post and good comments.
I am fascinated by what Twitter has to offer and the fact that there really aren’t many rules, just common sense and good manners.
When people follow me I look to see what they have to say in previous tweets, bio and website then decide to follow or not. It has broadened the spectrum of different and disparate people I ‘get to know’ and is very enjoyable as well as instructional.
I have DM’d new followers thanking them but won’t any more as it is superfluous. DM should still be available but it is up to us to use rarely and sensibly. Auto DM is pointless – SocialToo have stopped offering it.
So I won’t be doing a massive (relatively speaking) unfollow, just continuing to watch and learn.

By: Don From Clover Content

Don From Clover Content — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:42:56 +0000

To answer you question: No. Un-following is not the solution. Not following everyone is. It’s a community. Do you socialize with everyone in your propinquity? Probably not.

By: WarLord

WarLord — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:22:49 +0000

Greeting

Twitter is a conversation, want a megaphone get a blog. Coversation presumes two-way, follow and back. This is only a problem for those folks that assume that 50K followers equates to mass market for DM spam messages.

As for me, I don’t follow anyone that doesn’t interact when something of interest comes along and eventually I use to twitter karma to clearcut those who don’t follow me.

Twitter is evolving before our eyes and spammers disguised as power users with their 50k followers and 0 following back are passe