To Follow or Not to Follow

Posted by Gabe on June 11, 2009 under Social Media, Twitter, Twitter for Beginners | 72 Comments to Read

Every once in a while when I think of it I like to solicit questions from my Twitter colleagues to see if there is any way to help the newer signups out there.  I put out the call this morning and among others received this question: “What if I don’t follow back followers? Is it a contest to have the most? How can I ever read all those tweets?“  My answer is clearly that you do not have to follow back everyone that follows you.  For some it is a contest, but for most it’s about connecting with people.  And how do you keep track of all of them? The answer is that eventually if you follow enough people there is no way that you can.  You end up with Tweetdeck or some such application that can help manage all the people that you follow.

Then there was a tweet pointing to a post about annoying DMs that come with spammy links.  The writer mentioned that there should be no Twitter rules, but that he hates it when people DM these links after a follow (and so do I).

I have written a few posts on Twitter followers, but all this made me think of a new approach.  Yes, there should be no Twitter rules, but I have some that I follow myself. I once came across a profile that said that this person doesn’t follow back if 1) There are few updates, 2) There is no conversation in their Twitter stream and 3) The person follows more than 600 people.  Now I got past #1 and #2, but what about #3?  According to her profile she wouldn’t follow me back just because I follow a lot of people. Hey, I’m a nice guy – she might be missing out on something.  Then I came to the conclusion that these are her rules and she has every right to stick by them.  As a matter of fact, I was very impressed with her putting them on display.  I clicked the Follow button anyway, with the hopes that she would bend her own rules a little.

So, I am putting my own personal rules or reasons out there for everyone to see – feel free to pick them apart, agree or whatever. I reserve the right to deviate from them from time to time – after all, they do belong to me. ;)

Why I Didn’t Follow You Back…
1) Because you are a dude who wears no shirt in your avatar.  No good reason – just don’t do it.
2) Because you have no (or very few) updates – especially if you are following a bunch of people.  How can I tell whether I am interested if there’s no substance?
3) Because you didn’t fill out your profile, or said you were from the “Planet Earth”, “Cyberspace” or “Everywhere”. Where you are from and what your passions are interest me.
4) Because you do not converse with others. If I see no @ signs in your stream it means in my mind that you don’t “get” what Twitter can do for you and you just want to hear yourself talk.
5) Because you have an animated GIF as an avatar – one with blinking sunglasses or animals jumping around.  Or also if you orient your picture sideways or upside down.  Too much work for me to talk to you face to face.  Your efforts to attract undue attention to yourself have backfired at least in my case.
6) Because all I see in your Twitter stream are retweets.  Although it is very generous to retweet, I am looking for people who can also think for themselves.
7) Because most or all of your posts send out the link to your web site.
8) Because you follow WAY more people than follow you.  Looks like you are spamming.
9) Because WAY more people follow you than those that you follow. Either you think you are a celebrity or you just want to hear yourself talk.
10) Because your profile pic is not updated, you have one tweet with a link, no profile…Really? Are you actually convinced that is an effective marketing method?
11) You have 10,000 followers and only 5 updates.  Your tweets aren’t that good!
12) Because your color scheme makes it so difficult that I can hardly read your profile and/or Twitter stream. Light pink on white and dark gray on black just doesn’t work, people!
13) Because you take the “What are you doing?” question literally and all I see are short posts on what you do throughout the day. Get over yourself.
14) Because your avatar is of a female chest shot in a bikini and you are going to show me how to make money filling out surveys all day. Really??
15) Because you tweet only sporadically – maybe once a week or so. How can I have a conversation with you?
16) Because you protect your updates and your profile is either missing or vague.
17) Because your avatar is disturbing. You got through every other criteria – you are social, profile is filled out, you are generous – I couldn’t imagine having to look at that avatar all the time.
18) Because I read in your profile a tweet that said “Get 10,000 followers easy using blah blah blah.”  Your follower count: 147.  Wow!!
19) Because your profile read “This is NOT SPAM!”  If it takes that much of an argument then I guess it is.

Why I Unfollowed You…
1) Because you sent me a link of how I can get 16,000 followers on Twitter in 90 days.
2) Because you used profanity in your tweet.  (I have a 10-year-old who is always looking over my shoulder.)
3) Because you stopped using Twitter.  If you haven’t tweeted in a month that tells me you gave up.
4) Because you stepped over the line.  You retweeted my tweet and I thanked you – then you asked me to retweet something of yours. That wasn’t cool.
5) Because you keep posting about how great you are and how we should see your web site.
6) Because you didn’t respond to my @replies.  I see that you are still tweeting but after several attempts to connect with you I have received no response.  No hard feelings – guess you are just not that in to me.
7) Because your posts are too much of a religious nature. I have nothing against religion but I personally don’t feel Twitter is the place to convert people. Let’s make a deal.  You don’t try and convert me to your religion and I won’t try to convert you to mine.
8) Because you clogged my Twitter stream with too many posts in a row – either repeating yourself or sending out multiple links. I tolerate that to a point but be careful with it.
9) Because I saw the tweet “RT @garymcaffrey blah blah blah” in your Twitter stream about a pyramid scheme to get more followers. It benefits him more than anyone and you just damaged your own reputation by using it.
10) Because you keep begging for RTs, votes and/or followers.  Believe me – it is great that you passed 100 followers but you are one of the very few who cares.  The followers will come naturally.  The RT’s will too as long as your tweets are interesting.
11) Because you asked me to join your mafia or be your spymaster.  These are two games going around Twitter.  If you are using Twitter to play games then you really don’t get what it can do for you.
12) Because you sent me an auto-dm with a spammy link and asked me to retweet it. WHAT?!?
13) Ok let me get this straight. I followed you, then you auto-DM’ed me back with: “I just gave you peace and happiness” plus a spammy link. If that wasn’t enough you added “You should send me a gift back.” Here’s my gift: UNFOLLOW.
14) So Donald Trump is going to make us all millionaires and you want to be the 500th person to tell me about it. You’re fired.
15) You sent me an @reply about how great a tweep I am. Now I normally would thank you for this, except I noticed you aren’t even following me. My reputation must be really awesome.  I see in your twitter stream that there are thousands of other great tweeps like me.  Do you really spend your day typing that stuff in??
16) You sent a #followfriday to me and others which was nice. What’s that I see? A spammy link in the middle? We are not stupid, spammers!

Why I Blocked You…
1) Because we have no relationship and you @replied to me with a link to your spam. Seriously??
2) Because your avatar and/or posts are pornographic or link to porn. Or if you have the word “Horny” in your Twitter ID.
3) Because your avatar is a pretty girl, your ID is cryptic, you are following a bunch of people and you have only one tweet that links to your spam.
4) Because you @replied to me asking me to do something that benefits you when we have no relationship.
5) Because you sent more than one direct message to me asking me to do the same thing.  If I didn’t act on your request the first time, leave it alone. I get so many requests and can only do so much.
6) Because you followed and unfollowed me several times in the past 24 hours to try and get my attention – it worked – I blocked you.
7) Because I just discovered that you wrote a blog post a week later that was titled the same as mine and paraphrased my thoughts without any credit. (Happened to me regarding this post.)
8) Because you actually had the nerve to copy the text of someone else’s reply to me and and resend it with your spammy link attached to the end of it. Wow! I can’t wait to buy your junk!! Are you kidding me?
9) Because you @replied to me (and others) with the words “Free affiliate software…”

UPDATE: 06/14/10.: I have noticed that services like TwitIn and Huitter have now said that by providing a way to mass unfollow and/or follow they are violating Twitter’s new Terms of Service.  I have noticed that, thanks to this effort, I have been getting fewer (if any) porn bots following me lately. (Thanks Twitter!)  However the spammers will never give up — their new way to get at you is to reply to your inbox with their spam. I see this a lot which instantly triggers a “block and report for spam” from me.  So please be very careful how you address people for the first time.  A request to follow or retweet, without any history, could get you blocked.

Why I Followed You…
1) Because your profile is filled out with actual places, names and passions.
2) Because you have a good amount of updates that vary in substance.
3) Because your avatar is of yourself and you are smiling.
4) Because I see that you retweet, converse and also have thoughts of your own.
5) Because your tweets are (at least most times) interesting and informative.
6) Because I see we have a chance of connecting.
7) Because you promote others’ causes that interest you whether they be professional or non-profit.
8) Because you engage with other people.
9) Because you have a relatively even follower/following ratio.
10) Because you are not hard-selling everyone. You are promoting something but being social first is encouraging people to see what you do after they connect with you.
11) Because you left a thoughtful comment on one of my blog posts – because of that I looked you up and discovered you. I may have missed you when you followed me.
12) Because I studied your profile and your Twitter stream. You are a parent, an educator, a philanthropist or someone I think that might really enjoy our web site.
13) Because I can see through your tweets that you are trying to help other people – to lift them up – this is what Twitter is all about!
14) Because I feel that I can learn something from you.  Whether it be cultural or otherwise, Twitter can be used as a personal enrichment tool.
15) Because you don’t pretend to be someone you are not.
16) Because you engaged with me in a friendly (non-spammy) way.  Again, I might have missed you when you followed me.
17) Because you are a genuine person who supports others.

What many people don’t realize is that when you send a link to someone you’ve never contacted before, that is spam.  That same link, if sent after you have connected with someone, becomes interesting and might open up new doors.  Take the time to connect with people – you will be amazed at the results.

Ok – what did I miss? I’m sure quite a bit. If this is like my other Twitter posts I will be updating it from time to time as I learn more. Happy tweeting!

Just discovered this similar post by Lee Devlin. Might also be of help.