Twitter me timbers, I’m getting the true picture of how Twitter works. I have discovered that I don’t need automation tools, no one reads DM’s and you need to block tweet to be heard.
These are just a few of the things I have noticed and embraced with the social media power house. I do use TweetDeck and SocialOomph. I use SocialOomph to simply vet my new followers for manual approval or rejection. I have a special rejection room they go to. 🙂
Anyways, all that in another post. I just went on a mass un-follow trip. It was great watching my own follower number drop from all the bots returning the favor!! I am completely fine with that because I want quality followers. Period.
I want followers who wish to engage with me, will take action on my tweets, and just, well love me! So, this post is about the top 5 reasons I will un-follow you or did un-follow you.
- I follow you and receive an automated DM. BOOOO! They generally suck big time and unless it points me to a pretty cool page, I’m gone. If it takes me to your home page, yuck.
- You are a F4F nut. Follow for follow drives me batty. This does not mean that if 2 people decide on their own to follow the other, this is the constant “follow me back” tweeters. If I follow you, it’s because I want to and not because I owe you. I would assume if you follow me, you want to. I don’t mass follow people blindly. I actually prefer to utilize Gail’s strategy over at Growmap. BIG difference between that and mass, blind follows.
- Your a Tweet Whore. Pardon the expression, but it is what it is. If all you do is tweet, tweet, tweet your own stuff…bye. I have no use for selfish tweetle-dums. (feel free to use that ) Obviously we all want to promote ourselves and that’s okay..but use discretion. The more you give, the more you get.
- You Never Acknowledge Me. Okay, yes I need attention. 🙂 If I RT you, please acknowledge that. I have been seriously testing out manually doing 98% of my Twitter activities. It takes 2 seconds to thank someone. Or answer their tweet. Someone took the time to send your goods to the masses, the least yu can do is be grateful.
- You’re An Egg. When I went through my mass un-follow, I saw so many people that looked alike! I mean, I had no idea how many people looked like my breakfast. Seriously, if you have the egg, no matter what color, as your profile pic, you are a doody head. I want to see you and the real deal so that I know who Im dealing with….otherwise I just want to cook you and that is no good for either of us!
So, there you have it. My top 5 reasons to un-follow someone on Twitter. Now, I do understand that some of the big players may not have a lot of time to make it personal, but seriously, I think it’s manageable for a lot of us. And couldn’t some of the big wigs outsource their Twitter work? Just a thought.
Okay, give it your best shot. Tell my why you un-follow people and what makes you cringe about some Twitter practices.
I would love it if you shared this!
It’s not Easter yet but I think it’s time for an egg hunt!
Thanks for the advice!
Nik
We also need reasons to NOT start following someone who practically orders you to follow him, because you “share the same interests”.
The actual tweet was this:
“Hey follow me back”
Then after replying with a short explanation why his reasoning was a bit off, I received this:
“Oh god. Ok stop this. You need not follow me..OK?”
That’s what I get for replying to 15y/o’s tech-bloggers-whatever from India AND trying to be polite at the same time.
Sorry to be a bit off topic but as I just received an email from this post I thought I’d share this somehow LOL have a great day Lisa! 😉
agree on all the five reasons!
Thank you for these tips and all the useful comments too. I’m a newbie and joining Twitter is like entering a foreign country where you don’t know the etiquette…
So glad you enjoyed it! And yes, twitter can be a black hole when u first start out!!
Twitterific list, Lisa! Great for those of us (like me) who are still learning the ropes and etiquette on Twitter.
Eggs wouldn’t bother me if they had something interesting and/or useful to contribute. That said, I don’t see any eggs on those I do follow . . .
I didn’t know one was supposed to acknowledge Mentions and RTs, but will do so now. I just didn’t want to contribute to traffic with a tweet that was not generally useful, like a “me too” type of tweet.
One thing that will definitely get you unfollowed by me is to use links like AdFly. They are completely useless when checking my feed from my Android and end up just irritating me. Ding! You’re gone!
I appreciate how people share information and resources so openly on Twitter. It really tends to make one a better person, and that’s always a good thing. And that is why I am going to start following you! 🙂
Thanks much for the humorous yet insightful list.
Best,
Lorena
Hi Lorena! I am so glad yo uliked the post. And yes, my Android beeps at me whenever Twitter is a flurry so I know how you feel!!
Cheers,
Lisa
Hi Lisa and thanks for providing this opportunity. I just discovered your blog via a Twitter link to “Top 5 Reasons I unfollow You.” Enjoyed that piece and look forward to reading more.
I’m a relatively new blogger and you can find me at http://www.womackinsight.com where I post about marketing insights, research, innovation and maybe a few other things. I’m also @danwomack on Twitter.
As I said, I’m new and unsure how to use some of the options here so if something doesn’t look as it should know that’s why I’m looking forward to reading more on your site!
So happy to have you here Dan!
“You’re an Egg.” As I was going through the list, and I laughed when I read this one. It took a second to understand what you were saying, but I clued in. I still laugh when I read it, don’t know why I just do. I guess I picture an egg with just a pair of legs.
Enough banter. I’m not the best twitter person, and I’m learning as I go. I usually only follow people if I know them (met them elsewhere) or I find that they tweet useful information.
I’m don’t really care if they talk about their day, I’m more interested in information. Because of this, I’m not one to follow someone back.
I have also been learning to thank others for the RT, which is something that I was guilty of not doing in the past. Twitter is a learning experience for me, and I’m slowly catching on.
Paul:
Glad to be able to provide some humor to you!! :))
It looks like for the first time in these past days I’m doing something right with social media!
1. I have no comments for this as I was told to do exactly that, set an auto DM and put my site there LOL (that’s gone now btw)
2. I do follow people because I want to, not because they follow me and I have my account set on auto follow which in return gives me LOTS of unpleasant eggs… I always have second thoughts about taking the auto follow off for good.
3. I hardly ever tweet, I just do it either when I’m pissed or I find something useful 🙂
4. I don’t know how to keep up with RT’s or when somebody RT’s something from me. I need to pay more attention to this one.
5. Eggs… I only follow them if I actually see any valuable content and not one tweet every 20 secs, other than that I can’t stand them.
Thanks for sharing this I actually LOLed a few times 😉
Sergio:
Now you are a twitter phenom my friend!! Glad you could find the humor in this one!
Cheers,
Lisa
Lol Lisa,
Funny post. Mass unfollowing is something that i do off and on to clear the crap out of my twitter following list, simply because they are either not tweeting, spamming or just an egg. And I do agree with you about not linking directly to your main site. My welcome message to my followers lead them directly to my “Welcome Page”. It’s sort of the landing page if you know what I mean.
I think there are a lot of bloggers out there, who don’t make use of this and just link randomly to any post from their messages or directly to the main site.
There is never any point following somebody for the sake of it. Piece of nonsense really. I am happy to follow somebody who followed me if they are in the same line and things are mutually beneficial. But I get so many follows from people who I can tell have no interest in my tweets or blog.
My Twitter followers go up and down on a regular basis. I don’t worry about that. The core people who stay are genuine and that’s what counts as far as I am concerned.
Having said that I want to be as attractive a Tweeter as possible 🙂
And those are words to live by Simon!! Mr attractive tweeter! 🙂
I can’t stand it when I RT someone’s post or respond to them and they don’t acknowledge me at all. It would seem like a little positive reinforcement would be a good idea. I always go out of my way to respond and thank others, but I guess there are a lot of folks out there that either don’t have manners or are just not appreciative in general. I wonder if someone has actually figured out what percentage of people will actually respond to someone who has retweeted one of their tweets? Thanks for the post, saw it on David Shaw’s link love and look forward to reading more from you.
Hi Dan:
Welcome to my blog and I appreciate your input! You are 100% correct in your thinking.
I think some people may feel “above” responding to the actions….not good for business!
Cheers,
Lisa
Hey Author:
But why many websites used unfollow Tag.i don’t understand that one.I think many blogger know about dofollow important for website link building & other links.
I read the Ana website articles..She put the interesting and informative articles. she also mentioned the important of dofollow tag
haha!! I like the last one best–egg. You sure have a good sense of humour and that’s good. I have just made an account with twitter and so far have only 3 followers and 6 following. Oh well, we all have to hit the ball from the home base, don’t we?
LOL Anne!! thanks and glad you enjoyed it!! 🙂
What is your Twitter name?
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I lol’ed at “Your an egg”.
Yeah its true, people who still have the default twitter profile pic are obviously bots or people that are too lazy to change it
Exactly Edwin!! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Lisa
Lisa,
I am a Tweet Deck fan. It makes it easy to create my own Tweet streams. I have not tried Social Oomph and could use any easier way to handle do weed through the spam.
I see by this post, you want Twitter to be social….like in Social Networking. Hmmmm imagine that. I want that too.
Hey Lisa!
I’m so back and forth about the whole “auto DM” thing. I have researched it and find that the answer is split down the middle. There are reasons to do it and people who say it’s a horrible idea. In my opinion, the verdict is still out.
Much like Brankica and yourself, I like to handle all of my Twitter business myself. I read through everything and check my list of followers. I don’t just follow everyone. I look for business contacts, people I can learn from and people who make me laugh really hard. Oh, look at that–I just described you;) Ha ha!
Thanks Alicia! Any chance I get to crack up the masses, I’m happy to oblige!!
I did start out with the DM’s but I just didn;t think people were reading them. UGH! I guess we will see how it plays out in the next few weeks.
Cheers!
Lisa
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OM Goodness Lisa. Your twitter peeves and mine are very closely related although I have to admit, I have not been a good Tweeter lately and spent very little time on it.
I do firmly believe that when the proper attention is applied one could turn this in to a wonderful tool.
I simply have not utilized it properly and frankly feel like once of the many people on ‘speakers corner’ in London, all talking about different things (at the same time) and nobody listens to anybody else. (don’t know if you’ve ever been there but it’s quite crazy).
I don’t like eggs, auto follows, tweet whores, either. I would rather have very few followers who were quality followers too. It’s kind of the same as blog visitors, … a million visitors do you no good if you have a 99.9% bounce rate and no opt ins. (although speaking of opt ins… better get my form back up)… sorry was that my outside voice…?
sorry for the digression, I am just nipping over to Twitter to see if I preserved your loyalty… or not 😐
see you soon
Jayne xo
LOL Jayne, I love it!! Your outside voice. Brilliant! 🙂
I have been focusing on Twitter more intently these past few weeks and I can honestly say….it works! 🙂
All the best,
Lisa
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Very correct, I too follow someone because I needed that person not because my one friend is following that person.
If I see the guy always busy in doing marketing and so on then I’ll prefer to unfollow him.
Exactly Priya! It’s all about balance and give and take.
thanks for your feedback,
Lisa
Just for the record, I hash tagged #doody head when I RTd your tweet! 🙂 Let’s see how the bots deal with that . . . “ummm, let’s spam everyone associated with #doody head . . . HA!
Anywhooooo, I agree almost 100% with your stuff. I unfollowed about 15 yesterday, or the day before. Afterwards I checked and the return unfollows were 7-1 in some cases! Teamfollowback’s, bots, etc. Unfollow one, they run like cockroaches under a kitchen light a 3 am!
The one quirky I still use is the welcome DM. I tried it without for a while. But I strongly feel if someone follows me they deserve a timely acknowledgement. Not a spam sales tweet. But a thank you. And sometimes I can’t or couldn’t get to that for a few days. Kinda like you liking to be acknowledged for the RTs. I feel the same way. I want you to know I see you, and will follow up very soon.
But in the meantime, thanks!
And speaking of thanks, thanks again for bringing a little civility to the whole social media thingy. You don’t look like it, but you’re a good ‘egg’! HA! 🙂
Gibby:
I saw the # tag! Loved it 🙂
I was using the DM’s for awhile, but it didn’t pan out as well for me. I tried a different strategy, which I am going to write about.
Good egg, Huh?! I’ll take that!
Lisa
There’s a webmaster I followed for about 3 days committing what I would call twitter masturbation. He tweets for about 10 different business websites. He’s constantly tweeting among the different twitter accounts to the other twitter accounts. It is more annoying. I unfollowed all the accounts. It’s too bad because before they hired this bird brain to tweet for them I was interested. I don’t expect a business to tweet the same way a blogger would and in this case it’s just a giant circular tweetfest. A giant NOT !
Rachelle:
HAA!! Twitter masturbation, I love it 🙂
And I know exactly what you mean. If you are going to tweet for 10 businesses, please differentiate and give us some value!
Welcome to my blog,
Lisa
I don’t know Lisa. Personally I’m a big fan of eggs.
But you’re right. They’re probably better for breakfast than to follow on Twitter.
But you’re right. The automated DM really gets on my nerves. It’s nice of you to thank me for the follow. But really…not necessary at all considering you’re not really thankful.
Now Eugene:
Why wouldn’t I be thankful for the follow?! Of course I am and I know just from your comment you got spunk!
Lisa,
This is great! You’re so funny, it’s a compliment to me that you found me funny over on Troy’s blog!
One thing I don’t like about Twitter (and I’m still a newby) is when people only quote, or RT or post links and never actually SAY anything. Now I don’t say anything – yet – I’m still working up the nerve and haven’t thought of anything to say, so this may be hypocritical of me to say it. But SOON I’m going to say something and I hope someone talks back to me when I do!
BTW I would like to follow you on Twitter but it’s been at overcapacity since I met you over here: http://www.troyclaus.com/market-your-audience
Will this turn in to a happy face 🙂
We’ll see….
Lori
Hi Lori:
Thanks so much for the kind words and yes, I loved your line over at Troy’s about HIM writing that article! 🙂
Oh, we’ll listen alright…so long as your not a doody head egg!
Im going to look for you over at Twit land!
Cheers,
Lisa
Doody Head
That was an all-time classic Lisa 🙂
I’m with you on this list. Although I’m still a twitter dufus of great proportions, I’ve found the 5 you listed above to be quite true.
Btw, I haven’t been to your blog in a while and the changes you’ve made are GREAT. Well done gal!
Marcus
Thank you Marcus!! Ana’s audit definitely helped me out tremendously. And i am still a twit noob too, but I am learning quickly!
No egg here but a logo for which I’m known EVERYWHERE…are you set on real faces only?
Oh no Dennis!! Your log is definitely a winner and I like the different logos I see out there. It’s just that crazy egg pic that drives me nuts! “)
😀 Love the image! So many bloggers are like the proverbial blind leading the blind. Good to see those who learn first and THEN teach.
Acknowledgement can take more forms than a thank you or reply – although those are nice. For many of us who are on Twitter all the time, our thank you will come in the form of RTing your Tweets or sharing your content.
My preferred method is to write a Twitter-length review of one of your posts that includes your Twitter username on StumbleUpon that get fed to Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed.
BRILLIANT Gail!! That’s more of what I was going for….some form of acknowledgment that you know I tweeterized you.
I like your strategy and how you go about ‘thanking’ someone…that takes it a step further and shows why you are a powerhouse 😉
Thanks for stopping by,
Lisa
Hey Lisa!
I tend to un-follow the same kind of people as you do. But I could add to the list!
1. Use too many hashtags
2. Abuse TwitterFeed and never post in person
3. Rude or racist towards other Tweeps
4. In active Twitter accounts
5. Send me DM’s asking me to promote their blog every week
6. Don’t know how to turn the capslock key off
That’s my list! 🙂
Phil:
Those are great ones!! i especially like the twitterfeed abuse and the caps lock!! ANNOYING 🙂
Cheers,
Lisa
Hey Lisa,
LOL!!! Great post.. Guess you told them!
I agree with the majority of your complaints as well. I hate people who just spam with their links and I can’t understand why people won’t put their picture online! They all can’t be that ugly!!! 🙂
Can always use a good laugh and your post did that for me. Only because I HEAR ya!
Sending the love,
Adrienne
Adrienne:
So glad you enjoyed it!! 🙂
I just can;t understand why someone would rather be an egg than say, a moose?? Even that’s better than an egg!
Cheers
Thanks for the tips.
I am still trying to figure out on how to use Twitter.
What do we tweet about?
Is it the same as Facebook?
That are some of the question that keep on playing in my mind.
You can tweet your blog posts and links to those you follow as well. Cool for micro blogging!
Lisa
Loved it, Lisa! LOL on the “egg” part….Can’t wrap my mind around why someone would “egg-it” on twitter or be Mr./Mrs./Ms. invisible on LinkedIn. How about following logos, pets, kids or carton avatars? I bend on that one for twitter, cringe a bit more on that one for LinkedIn…
Here’s one of my unfollow/not follow-back rules: If I look at someone’s twitter feed and you don’t see a single “@” response, comment, etc… that means their twitter approach is strictly a “look at me” strategy w/out ever showing the twitter love. A good practice for us to go through our own feed and see if there is a liberal sprinkling of @’s
Jacob:
I agree 100%! when someone follows me, I check them out and if it’s all ME ME ME, Im certainly not following back. I also realize that person won;t do much for me in the way of social engagement either.
We have to crack these eggs somehow!! 🙂
Welcome to my blog and thanks for the feedback!
Lisa
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Hi Lisa,
I agree with what you say, especially about not thanking people for RT’s. How rude is that? I must have RT’d 50 people today, and a handful thanked me for it. The rest of the 50 will be unfollowed in a timely manner.
Great post. Keep up the great work.
Gregory
Gregory:
Welcome to mi blog! 🙂 one thing I can say about you is that you have the Twitter lounge down pat. You engage, acknowledge and welcome new peeps. That’s they key to success out there.
I appreciate your humor in the Twit land also!
Lisa
Interesting points Lisa. I do follow a ton of people (I like it for research) and I do unfollow people that don’t follow me back. I have other ways of stalking, I mean following, the people I really want to pay attention to.
So many mediums so little time in the day.
Hi Robert:
See, that’s the cool thing. You choose to follow people for a purpose…research. You don;t just follow those who follow you!
And yes, stalking,,er following the ones I really get value from is top of my list!
have a great day or is it night for u?!
Lisa
I ate some of my twitter followers for breakfast this morning, lol.
Awesome one Lisa. Why did you stop at 5? I bet you have at least 55 more…
oh, I know, you are making a series… great idea 😉
Hi shooter:
Im thinking seriously about a series….and yes I think I could have gonna on and on and on and on…..okay I’ll stop!
And I know how much the egg bugs you too! 🙂
Lisa
Hi Lisa
Enjoyed the read and love the humour 😉 I don’t automatically follow people who follow me and I definitely don’t expect people to automatically follow me if I follow them.
I follow people whose blogs have plenty of interaction, I visit regularly and learn heaps from. Simple really.
And I do check who suddenly is following me…..especially the eggheads who are often spamming !!! Delete button pressed immediately.
Soon as I go on Twitter I check my DM and my @my name. DM so I can reply and with @myname to see who has RT my posts.
I say thanks individually to all RTers. To me it is only right to acknowledge those who take the time to share my posts with their readers 🙂
And being a regular Tweetheart, really enjoyed having the opportunity to bring my 2 cents 😉 Thanks Lisa. Appreciated.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia:
I love the tweetheart! Brilliant.
You are a perfect example of engaging the masses and making it work correctly. I just feel that it doesn;t take too long to show appreciation.
Glad you enjoyed the fun in this post too!
Lisa
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The number one thing I dislike most is F4F. I’ve also seen a few people try to scam by following you and unfollow you the next day hoping you don’t notice it. I think their trying to make their ratio numbers look good or something.
Exactly!!!! I noticed that a few days ago that someone would follow me and the next day…poof. It usually happens when I dont follow back. Well, Im just not going out go out there for numbers sake…can t do it!
As always, a pleasure to see you here!
Lisa
No problem glad I came across your site.