I have a confession to make, I don’t take the time to remove inactive Twitter accounts from the list of people I follow. The only thing that would drive me to unfollow someone is when they flood my stream with post, after post, after post without any effort given to temporally spreading out their posts throughout the day. That, and if a follower turns out to be X-rated.
However, I have noticed that many twitter users take a much more active role in using software and other means to unfollow people. I tried using a tool (I think it was Unflitter) but it took way too much time to process, so I stopped.
I am also not one of those people who unfollow just because they did not follow back. I use Twitter for two reasons: 1) to make connections, 2) to gain knowledge and news. If I want to hear what someone has to share, I’ll follow them, and don’t really mind if they don’t follow back. ( Is your head spinning with the all the “follow” inclusions, I’ll have to remember not to use it as a keyword so Google won’t punish me!)
Anyway, the curious George in me wanted to know what criteria others would use to unfollow someone on Twitter, so I asked my Facebook community. Here’s what they shared (I love my Facebook community!):
Multiple Choice Answers
Some of my awesome Facebook friends also shared their thoughts as comments.
Comments
How about you? What motivates you to unfollow someone on Twitter? You are welcome to vote below or leave a comment, or both!
Motivation behind unfollowing people on Twitter
What would motivate you to take the time and unfollow people on Twitter?
- crowd rank
- curated
- alpha
- newest
- queue
-
Not who they seemed to be, they're trashy porn sites
-
Those who flood my stream with Rss feeds
-
Those who use vulgar and offensive language
-
Those who send me too many Direct Messages
-
Those who provide little value to me
-
Those who only autopost from Facebook
-
I can't build realtionship with people who don't follow back
-
I unfollow inactives, no posts for 15 days or more
-
Following back is a sign of mutual respect, pure and simple
-
Thos who's content is no longer relevant to my life/work/school
About Sherry
Two main reasons: if they auto-post constantly, which means my stream is flooded with ANYTHING “the same” – sales pitches, motivational quotes, whatever. Or if I talk to them and they don’t answer. I usually try a couple of times but after 3 or 4 times I ditch them. There are a lot of smart people with good things to say. I’d rather find the ones who are on Twitter for the people, not the broadcasting. As for the porn type accounts, I don’t follow them in the first place. You can usually tell by the profile picture and don’t even have to read the stream!
Carol Lynn recently posted..5 Tips For Engaging Your Blog Audience
Hi Carol,
I did not think of the ones who do not reply, you are right, they do not deserve to be followed. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!
Interesting discussion! I tend to unfollow if they hyper-tweet. I like to see a nice mix on my stream, not 300 posts from the same person! Re the reciprocal following debate – I don’t auto-follow those who follow me if I have no interest in what they are tweeting – I don’t follow people to get a follow back, I follow them because I’m interested in what they have to say. I think if you want to follow someone, follow them, whether they follow you back is up to them! x
Donna recently posted..Follow Your Instincts
Thank you Donna! Looks like you and I have the same approach to unfollowing. Thanks for sharing your input.
I typically unfollow if I’m not getting value from their tweets.
Thanks for your input Dave! How would you define value?