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We often talk about how many fans and followers we have. Our numbers go up and we feel like we’re achieving our goals. But, how often do we talk about the people that we’re following? When was the last time you went through the list of people you follow on your social media sites? When was the last time you unfollowed someone? If you’re like most people, it’s probably not very frequently.
But I’d like to get you thinking about these people you’re following. Are they helping you? Are they benefiting your strategy? Or are you only benefiting them?
Over the years, we follow numerous people, brands, and companies. Maybe you followed them because they followed you. Maybe you followed them because they offered a promotion, once, a long time ago. Maybe you followed them because they shared one of your blog posts. Maybe you followed them because they commented on your photo. Whatever the reason, you chose to follow them. But what are they doing for you now?
You see, a lot of scheming social media marketers will follow you in order to get you to follow them back. But then, after a period of time, they unfollow you. But you don’t notice and you’re still following them. This is how they keep their followers numbers high, making it look like they’re soooo popular. And now your feed is full of their posts, most of which you probably ignore.
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I am stuck in the Twitter follow limit as you describe in your post. I am following 4372 tweeps at the moment, but I only have 3968 followers. Do you know about any good tool for cleaning up in an effective and efficient way?
I want to follow you, but I can’t at the moment! 😦
Hi Martin. You’re in the same predicament as a lot of people. I have heard of a few sites, although I don’t use any of them myself. But I’m thinking that as I grow my fan base, I might have to. Going old school manual mode is getting tedious! 😉
That being said, here is a link to a site that lists 5 online tools that you can use. http://gregghenson.com/5-great-tools-to-clean-up-your-twitter-stream/ As I said, I haven’t used any of them so I can’t vouch for them but I have heard of most of them. If you try any of them and they work well, please let me know. I’d love the feedback.
Also, be wary of agreeing to share your stats on your twitter feed. Many of these apps/tools will ask you to share your activity on your feed. You’ll end up with daily posts telling your followers how many new followers you have or how many you dumped. These posts are more than a little narcissistic and can actually offend your followers. Keep your follows/unfollows to yourself.
Good luck!
Interesting post. Actually, there’s not much research on the value of all these followers. There is some evidence that even dormant ties (people you haven’t spoken to for more than three years) can be re-activated and provide useful input for a project you are working on (Levin, Walter & Murnighan, 2011), but participants had do phone their old acquaintances. We run currently a study on this topic and ask people to contact three different ties (close ones, weaker ones and people you know barely) for help/advise on an actual project and evaluate the usefulness of the received information two weeks later. We are still looking for participants – so if you can use some advice on one of your projects or need an information, check out your network and help us with this thrilling research! Participants get the results. http://uc.iwm-kmrc.de/uc/iwm_1_team/d01f/