Top 9 Reasons I’m Not Following You on Twitter
March 11, 2008
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I’ve been using Twitter for just over a year now. My first Twitter day started on March 9th 2007. I quickly found that Twitter is addictive but I have stuck with it just the same.
Over the past year I’ve tweeted a little over 4100 times and accumulated 500+ followers. These aren’t overly impressive numbers especially when compared with someone like Robert Scoble, for example.
But how do you decide which Twitter accounts you choose to follow?
Chris Garrett asked his readers this question. The poll results are telling. Be interesting and people will follow you.
Chris is encouraging his readers to follow him on Twitter right now with a series of give aways that are only available to his Twitter follower list. But I noticed that even though he’s actively recruiting more Twitter followers he only reciprocates on a percentage of those following him. (He’s also got this snazzy “follow me on Twitter” badge on the side bar of his blog.)
To Follow or Not To Follow
I do the same thing. I asked Chris what his criteria was for those accounts he chooses to follow. He shared with us some of his thought process in that same post with the reader poll.
But the whole thing got me thinking. Sure I follow interesting people, especially if they are the other side of a conversation with someone I’m already following. When I see someone engaged in interesting conversation I want to know what they have to say. I’ll follow them.
I like interesting folks.
But what about the other side of the coin - those people I’ve not heard of that start following me? You see, like Chris Garrett I’ve also got a bunch of followers that I’m not following. At some point I make a judgment call and decide not to follow some accounts.
Usually I make that judgment right after you follow me. I take a look at every account that follows me and either follow it or I don’t.
Here are some reasons I don’t follow Twitter accounts.
- 1. Only Tweeting Links
- If I see nothing but a list of links I’m not going to follow the account. If I want read your blog I’ll subscribe to the RSS feed. Now that doesn’t mean I mind bloggers tweeting links to their posts. I’ll tweet about this post after I hit publish. I just want to see conversation too or I won’t follow.
- 2. Over Tweeting
- If any one user starts dominating my Twitter stream for long I’ll unsubscribe. There was a period when Robert Scoble was tweeting like 30 times an hour. All. Day. Long. Now he’s a thought leader and I’m interested in what he has to say. But even someone as influential as Scoble got overbearing and I unfollowed him for a while. You aren’t nearly as influential as he is so if you over tweet don’t be surprised if I don’t follow you either.
- 3. Never Reply to Others
- If there is never an @ sign from an account I may not follow that account. You obviously aren’t on Twitter for conversation. Why would I talk to you if I know you aren’t going to answer?
- 4. Account is Not Following Anyone
- This takes #3 a step further. This person is so not into answering that they aren’t even going to bother following anyone. HillaryClinton and SethGodin are two account examples of this type. Now I realize these accounts are not run by those individuals (Seth has said on his blog he’s not associated with the account using his name.) But again, I’ve got a feed reader. If I’m interested I’ll subscribe to your blog.
- 5. Spoof Account
- There was a time when I was being followed by several ChrisBrogan spoof accounts. Now Chris is a social media rock star so it doesn’t surprise me that some folks might want to “get in on that action” so to speak. But if I see the account following me is obviously a spoof account I’m not following.
- 6. I Find Your Account Offensive
- I follow a Twitterer that goes by the name Foul Bastard. As you might guess with a name like that, the user pushes the envelope of good taste. He’s even had his account suspended by Twitter, apparently because so many people blocked the account. I went to his (I’m pretty sure it’s a guy) twitter page one day and I found the image he had up behind his account quite disturbing. So I unfollowed. I didn’t protest or tell him he should change. I don’t figure that’s my place. Then a while later I noticed he’d changed his background so I followed the account again. But if I find the account offensive from the get-go I’m probably not going to follow it.
- 7. The Account is Obviously a Bot
- Event though I’ve followed the occasional bot account, I’m on Twitter to interact with people not machines. Bots can be amusing but I’ve come to the conclusion that bots aren’t my thing and I’m not interested.
- 8. The Account is Following WAY More than are Following It
- This is sort of the flip side of #4. The way I look at it if someone is following everyone they can find they are more about the numbers than the relationships. For example the other day I was followed by osen who, at 21K+, is currently following nearly 10 times the number of accounts that are reciprocating. Some people refer to these types as “Marketing Accounts” but I’m not sure that’s a good name for it. Either way I’m not following.
- 9. I’ve Made a Mistake
- Hey, I’m human. I try to follow all the interesting folks that are following me. However I wouldn’t be surprised if buried in the 100+ accounts that I’m not following are some fascinating people. I goon things up from time to time so if you fall into this category I apologize. Let me know & I’ll fix my mistake pronto.
Not a Long List
When you get right down to it, mine isn’t a very long list. And I don’t even hold strictly to my list. Some folks operate in what I’d consider the gray area. For example Guy Kawasaki is prolific and posts lots of links. But he’s also very influential, follows most every account that follows his, and makes an honest effort to respond to at least some of the people who address him directly on Twitter.
In short he’s earned some leeway.
Of all the reasons, #8 is probably the most common one I don’t follow accounts. I get the feeling that some people see the huge amount of traffic on Twitter and hope to funnel it all to themselves overnight. There will always be those folks who don’t understand that networking successfully takes time and effort. There aren’t any easy short cuts.
I’d consider myself a fairly average Twitter user and it’s taken me a year to follow 400 people. That seems like a more natural pace than going in and adding thousands in a day. Not that I’d hesitate if bunches of interesting folks wanted me in their networks, mind you.
But I’m not going to go friend everyone I can find to get there. Ultimately I don’t see Twitter as some sort of virtual High School popularity contest. People are more valuable than that.
I also realize people change. Unfortunately Twitter doesn’t make it easy to review accounts down the road. I’d like to see a sort of “People who follow me that I’m not following” so that I could easily review accounts from time to time and see if people’s habits change.
How about you - how do you decide which accounts you follow?
I’ve been using a very similar approach, and I’d say my rules line up with yours pretty closely. I don’t have the huge numbers of followers that others do, but I find that I have really great conversations with almost everyone on my list, and that is truly what makes it worthwhile.
They look like good reasons to me. Sometimes it turns out somebody’s taking way more than they’re giving (which can happen in a million ways–it’s a judgment call) and I’ll unfollow them for that.
That is a well put together list. I can’t disagree on any point. When I first joined Twitter, maybe 8 months ago, I was guilty of #8. I think most people follow that rule as I did not start to build up followers until I focused and dropped the number I was following.
That said, I am still not to 300 yet, but I am getting closer.
Thanks for sharing the list.
Hi Chris
I don’t follow too many folk on twitter - 90 at current count. I can’t process all the information if it goes much above that - or I haven’t yet learned how.
My main reason to stop following someone is if they tweet too much.
My main reason not to follow someone in the first place if they’re just posting links.
Reasons I’ll stick with people is if they’re friendly, conversational, are talking to each other, are talking to a variety of people and not just the ‘movers and shakers’.
I like the democracy of twitter - everyone’s the same (though not everyone acts like that.)
Actually following people called Chris is quite a good rule of thumb - you, Chris G and Chris Brogan are great people to follow.
I like following Chris G because he’s in touch with some UK tweeters, so I can gradually build up my UK network - it’s nice to have some gentle chat in the morning before you guys wake up, though some people (like your good self) are often up fearsomely early!
Joanna
Nice list, Chris. I adopt all of these as well and think it’s good to have some guidelines like this to keep things relevant.
One other I have is if you have multiple accounts where you talk to yourself as if each account is a different person. That goes against the whole idea of transparency and is just plain deceptive IMHO. There’s one guy in particular who has tried to pass himself off as a Twitter guru and @ replies to himself in an attempt to build credibility! Ha! Whatta joke!
People would be well advised following your and Chris Garrett’s example and adopt a criteria of their own that helps to make a better community for everyone.
Thanks Chris. As a newby, I have been scratching my head thinking about the rules I want in place, both for what I post and whom I subscribe to.
It’s good to have your perspective.
Dan, I’m with you on the conversation thing. Engaging people are, well, more engaging.
Michael, It’s that old law of planting and harvesting again, isn’t it? If you approach it from the perspective of interest in others then others will be interested in you.
Eban, I think we all got a little out of balance in the beginning. But there’s a big difference between a couple hundred and thousands!
Joanna, I hear you on the info overload. Frankly I don’t know how people like Scoble do it. I have to step away from to get some work done from time to time. I find the mornings are a great time to connect. For me anyway.
Dave, Guidelines are good ideas. Transparency is a good idea. I guess that falls into the spoofing category.
Don’t forget #10, “You’re a dinosaur and don’t tweet”. I don’t want to spend time on twitter when I have important things like comment on your 40 days of bed head posts.
Drew, I consider them more guidelines than rules. And they’re just my own perspective. Others may have other suggestions.
Mike, You are still cracking me up. I think you are the “anti-trend”. If the lemmings go one way you head the opposite. But then you are blogging, so…
The first time I heard about Twitter. It seems interesting. I think I may join in it.
Excellent stuff. Thanks to wayne for sharing it on twitter.
I’m still a noob when it comes to twitter so this helps.
I think number four irks me the most. Why do these people even use twitter? They seem to miss out on the best parts of its experience by limiting themselves. Funny timing for this. I saw this tweet on the public timeline. http://twitter.com/thefeva/statuses/769966693
A TwitterSNOB list… too funny… people not to follow…lol.
Pai
Hi Chris,
You say “I’d like to see a sort of “People who follow me that I’m not following” so that I could easily review accounts from time to time and see if people’s habits” - well naturally someone’s done it! http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/ I’m not on a million soc nets, nor am I a power tweeter, but…I like this and tweetscan so that I don’t miss when someone @s me and can see who’s following me.
Ann
Canadian, You might consider blogging too. It’s a great way to give quality information to the community, build good will with potential customers, and increase your bottom line.
Paisano, I guess the way I look at it is it would be hard to keep up with the information flow if I had thousands of followers. Not everyone can manage it like a Scoble or Kawasaki can. Those more prominent folks may not be rude so much as just trying to maintain their sanity.
Ann, That’s a good application. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Trouble is Twitter limits how many times an application can access their API each hour so once that threshold is crossed no one else can use it until the hour’s up.
Hopefully the good folks at Twitter will build some of that same search/filtering functionality directly into the Twitter site itself sometime soon.
“I’d like to see a sort of “People who follow me that I’m not following” so that I could easily review accounts from time to time and see if people’s habits change.”
I’m guessing you are already aware of Twitter Karma: http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/ if not, and I’m following your thought there, I find Twitter Karma helpful in reconciling follow/unfollows - both batched and individually.
Interesting article. As I read the headline I thought, it’s just follow unfollow. Basic. As I read on I began to think, “h’m, okay, yes, Ido that, and that, and of course that too…”
I suppose I’d never consciously assessed my follow/unfollow thought processes before.
I added a bunch of people at first as a way into twitter, something around 50 people and it eventually grew to about 100. I’ve been into it about a month and have started to not follow people that do not follow me back, even if they are interesting. What is the point? If I want to know info from them, I’ll just read their blog.
Ed, Twitter Karma is good as far as it goes. The big challenge is the API access limitation so that much of the time I hit the Whack! button and get the error
It would be nice to see some of that functionality built into Twitter directly.
Leo, I’m right there with you. Reading folks blogs is a great way to see what they bring to the table.
Hi Chris! I remember that incident. I learned from it, and a similar avatar incident, that having NSFW visual content tends to cause massive follower burn. I now keep the visuals much more tasteful. I think it’s funny that Guy Kawasaki is now known for follow-backing almost everyone who follows him. There was a time when a mass unfollowing was organized against him because he only followed 6 people. Obviously he has learned from his Twitter mistakes too.
I know its customary to follow those who follow you but people like @osen take it way too far. I only ever follow people who I find really interesting, and I only ever follow about 12 people at a time, I just don’t need that many interruptions.
I’m pretty ruthless about unfollowing people too. Twitter is so immediate that I have a much lower signal-to-noise threshold than I do with Facebook or blog feeds.
Foul, It takes a big person to learn from their mistakes. Too many stubbornly hold on their perceived “rights” rather than adapting and moving forward.
Andymurd, following thousands is a tactic to get large numbers of followers quickly. It doesn’t sit well with me.
For me the key is to set Twitter aside when I need to focus on something. I like the fact that it is always going so I can step in and out whenever suits me. There’s pretty much always someone there to “hang out” with.
All great Twitter rules, I do the same thing when people ask to follow me. I have found that 200 people to follow is about my maximum. I have creeped up to around 212 right now, but some of those are accounts of people’s pets, so I think they don’t count.
My biggest rule, is what do you add to my life on Twitter? When that value is gone I quietly stop following you. Twitter is my blog reader and I really don’t care so much about where I am on the leader board–I did check to see if I was on the Twitter snob list. I use Twitter differently than a lot of people..more people based than geek based–even though I am a geek.
I am sure I have been deleted for over tweeting, and I know some people have deleted me for my stripper Friday photos. It’s ok, it’s who I am and you either like me or you don’t, I’m ok with that too.
:o)
Ann, Information overload seems to be a common theme. The fact that you value people is one of the reasons I follow you!
i’d add two more reasons..
1) you reply spam.. just like someone never replying, or someone filling your timeline with heaps of posts, i cant stand someone who uses twitter to say:
@username, awesome blog post
@anotheruser good morning hope youre feeling better
@yetanother, have you tried x website?
or that seems to fish for reply spam, such as:
the sky is really blue, is it blue where you are?
@wanker yep
@wanker blue here
@wanker sure is…
basically, anyone trying to game tweeterboard..
2) you have every twitter plugin going:
@wanker has just posted a blog post
@wanker is uploadin a photo on flickr
@wanker is on qik right now
@wanker just posted on seesmic
etc etc…
Peter, I guess what it comes down to is behaving selfishly in a community can create undesirable consequences. Good point.
I like following people on Twitter that I wouldn’t follow offline. It is a way for me to analyze who it is that (even though popular) that I do not want to mimic. But, as far as who I turn down, it would certainly be those who do not reply to the message that I send to them before I accpet their follow. This is a spam detection method. Spam begins SOMEWHERE..and I think before it gets to the “following 14,000″ vs “being followed by 8″ it is a way to avoid them while fresh off the presses
Hopefully the good folks at Twitter will build some of that same search/filtering functionality directly into the Twitter site itself sometime soon.
Hopefully the good folks at Twitter will build some of that same search/filtering functionality directly into the Twitter site itself sometime soon.
One thing to keep in mind re: rule #3:
Good idea, but you can’t have a conversation until people follow you. There are people out there who I follow and would like to converse with, but I can’t because many of them don’t follow me (and my friends who do follow me aren’t big twitterers).
You could make the argument that I’m boring and not worth following and therefore the lack of @replies is still a significant indication of my follow-worthiness if not an indicator of my willingness to converse. You’d be wrong, but you could make the argument.