The Unfolding Drama of Following and Un-Following…As Twitter Turns

Twitter Following and Unfollowing Soap OperaFor some, the following and un-following that often takes place on Twitter creates an imagined soap opera. The drama may be interesting for some, but it can get exhausting (at least for me) to pay any attention to the tidal flows of Twitter.

As a result of my participation on Twitter, my account is followed by several hundreds of new people every day, and is unfollowed by several hundreds of other people every day. If I paid any attention to that vortex of following and un-, I wouldn’t get anything else done.

Some are mystified by all of the coming and going. There is one surefire way to take the mystery out of the process; never ask yourself:

1) Why did s/he follow me?
There’s really no way to know why anyone follows anyone else on Twitter. It really doesn’t matter why or whether any individual Twitter account follows you. What does matter is that your content is relevant, non-promotional, on topic, free, and awesome.

2) Why did s/he un-follow me?
I shared a long list of possible answers in a previous post, Why You Got Un-Followed on Twitter, but ultimately you really shouldn’t care why any individual follows or un-follows you.

If you have the time and attention to notice an individual un-follow, you’re investing it into a completely unfruitful activity. It really doesn’t matter why or whether any individual Twitter account un-follows you. What does matter is that your content is relevant, non-promotional, on topic, free, and awesome. And don’t broadcast to the world that someone un-followed you, it’s just plain tacky, spammy, and counter-productive.

I am certainly not the only one encouraging folks to pay attention to what’s important. My friend, Robert Caruso, a fellow social media professional (aka @fondalo) posted this funny and instructive graphic earlier today.

Are you noticing the theme here? Don’t pay attention to what you see the rearview mirror. It’s great to notice trends. When you see your numbers growing, then you’re delivering what your followers want. When your engagement increases, that means you’re doing something right. Focus on your content. Serve your audience what they’re asking to receive: more of you!

@Thubten
CEO of WePost Media


July 25, 2012 · by  · in Recent Blog Posts · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

48 Comments

  1. fondalo says:
    July 25, 2012 at 7:58 pm

    Love it man! Thanx for including our fun social graphic!

    Reply

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