Friday, June 14, 2013

Unfollowing Bad Manners


Rarely will I unfollow someone on Twitter. There have been a few occasions where an account looks “legit,” and suddenly turns into spam. But, I’ve come across a few different types of unfollowers, and some really display bad manners.

Now, I realize that this topic treads upon some touchy territory. I don’t mean to complain, really, and I don’t want to attack. Maybe my skin needs to get a bit thicker because sometimes it really hurts. I feel like, what did I do?

So here’s my breakdown:

1) The Mistake – Twitter has this nasty way of dropping followers for users. There are some people who I swear … absolutely know for sure … that I followed, and suddenly they’re gone. And yes, I notice. I’ve heard the same thing from friends, so I know it’s not just me.

2) The Professional – Mention house hunting, and realtors or Realtors (cap R) start following. A comment about my daughters, and suddenly it’s the Chess Coach (Waves: Hi, who has followed and unfollowed me about five times). Unless it’s a topic I’m genuinely interested in, I probably won’t follow back, and they’ll drop me within a week.

2a) The Spammers – I admit, I use “Who Unfollowed Me.” More than half the time, those who dropped off had their accounts Suspended or Deactivated. If you’re promising 10,000 followers, I’m not going to follow back.

3) The Newbie Friend – My Tweets tend to vary. Some days I’m high activity (Tuesdays when I work from home).  If you’re only following 10 people … yep, you’ll see me a LOT. Hang on, follow more … I promise I won’t overload you.

4) The Shocked – My bio clearly states I write erotic romance. Sometimes, the Tweets get a bit racy, especially if I’m RT’ing (reTweeting my friends’ “spanking” posts). It’s not everyday, all day … mostly Saturdays for Saturday Spanks. And yes, I’m saying spanking a whole lot. It happens, and sometimes … I lose Followers.

5) The Poorly Mannered – Here comes the sensitive category. What irks me the most are the fellow authors who follow me, I follow back, and drop me within a week. I understand that not all will appreciate my Tweets, but when they have 8,000 followers, and only follow 2,000, there’s something askew. It’s a pure marketing tool. The main reason they follow is to attract followers. Note that use of Who Unfollowed Me. Every few days I run it, and if I notice a certain “Irish Erotic Author” I recently followed back has dropped me, guess what? Yep – I’m clicking “Unfollow.” Odds are, I’ll “see” them back in a few months.

Now, none of this means I’m perfect. Every time I run the software, I find a few people who I would normally follow and depending upon what’s happening in my life, I missed … Most of the time I remedy the situation with a quick, personalized Tweet.

What hurts the most? Those friends I know in real life who drop me … and honestly, I hope it’s more of Twitter’s mistake. Yeah, that’s what I tell myself.

So tell me: What have I missed? Any personal experiences to share?

Oh, and I guess this would be a good place to put my Twitter account, just in case -- you know -- you might want to follow?

Until next time!

Louisa

6 comments:

  1. Good post! I mentioned wine on Twitter one time and then I had winery following me. I, too, am leery of tweeps with a huge imbalance in their following/follower ratio. I check bios and tweets before I follow. I wish some people wrote more descriptive bios. It would save me time. I write EROTIC/spanking romance and I am surprised when ultra religious Christians follow me. Are they hoping to save me? Or are they secret erotica readers?

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    1. Cara -- I always check bios and the Tweets before I follow. I don't do any of that automatically, which is why sometimes it takes me a few days ... and sometimes people are impatient!

      Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. Agreed, good post, Louisa. Twitter is strange. Some folks won't follow others that utilize triberr, their loss in my opinion. Some will put you in a list, but won't follow you. It is good to remember that Twitter accidentally unfollows people for you and I swear they follow people I don't remember following. Strange. Spots like Who Unfollowed Me are very helpful.

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    1. Use Triberr is a sensitive subject. I use it sparingly -- do my best to not overdo the shares, and then turn off my own post after a day. I truly like sharing other posts I find others would like, but some think "spam," which is unfortunate.

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  3. I unfollow people who have to retweet *everything* they read. I had to unfollow one author who Tweeted about each of her three books literally every 7-10 minutes. She'd fill my feed every day.

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    1. Oh, I understand Julia. Some set up automatic Tweets on their books, and it really should be more interactive than pure Tweets. Sometimes I get a follower and when I check their feed nothing is original. It's all an RT. So that makes me question what *they* talk about!

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