I saw a super post on how to tackle Twitter as a beginner, HERE, but the big question for me is what to do if someone unfollows you unexpectedly. I am very lucky in that I have quite a few followers on Twitter and with that comes a lot of unfollows. Mostly, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest but just occasionally I get an unfollow that takes me by surprise.
I use www.who.unfollowed.me to keep a track of unfollowers (I can tell you that the day I retweeted JEDWARD was the day I got the most unfollowers in one single go!). Twitter is notorious for unfollowing completely randomly and the first I know that this has happened is if someone Tweets me about it. Last week I was unfollowed by someone that I was pretty sure hadn’t meant to, but, how do you know that they haven’t just had enough? Of course, it’s everyone’s right to follow who they like and to unfollow if they feel what you Tweet isn’t right for them any more; but if you get a surprise like that it can really sting. So, it’s finding the balance between respecting their right not to follow any more and letting them know, in case they don’t know, that they’ve unfollowed. Not easy without looking like a neurotic control freak.
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The way I tackled the ‘surprise’ unfollow was to tweet her letting her know, and sure enough, it was a mistake. Using something along the lines of “Sorry to see you go but thanks for following over the years/months/weeks,” is best because I think this leaves the door open for them to refollow if it was a mistake, but also to not reply if it isn’t a mistake.
Whatever the reason, taking unfollows personally is the road to Twitter hell; I get anything between five and fifteen unfollows a day (but on average get more new followers over time) so I’ve had to learn to just get over myself about it. I did once email someone that I really minded about to let them know and they never replied! Arghh.. mortified.
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7 comments
I really would just ignore unfollows. Sometimes I follow someone for a time and then realise after a while that they aren’t a good fit – it would be rare that one tweet would make me unfollow. Also, bear in mind that as we follow more people, you could be on private or public lists that don’t count on the ‘follows’.
On a different tangent, is it possible for you to crop your photos so they are the width of your blog? At about 4000 pixels, I can’t see whole photos in Google Reader because they’re three or four times the width of my browser.
Hi Rebecca, I know.. I’m really sorry about the pictures thing.. I am seeing the techs next week and hopefully we can sort it out properly. I’ll post them smaller in future, but it then makes them look too small on the blog *head-desk*!!
Thank you 🙂 In the meantime, poor you – hope there’s an easy peasy answer.
..and I always ignore unfollows unless I think there has been a mistake.. it’s the surprise ones I am talking about, not the day to day. x
Thank you for these Twitter articles. I’m new to this social media, I’ve only been using it for the past month or so and I’m still trying to figure out it’s etiquette. Not wanting to appear like a stalker or someone in need of attention is not so easy so this week I’ve toned it down a notch (I think).
I’ve had some unfollow and can’t say that I’ve minded too much for they where unrelated to what I do or to my interests. For my part, I have unfollowed people, one of the reasons, constant publicity and the other, negativity. One person in particular kept tweeting about how she hated this or that, how she was tired or didn’t enjoy her lunch. I had only been following a week and it was starting to get to me. Negativity is unnecessary.
I didn’t know that Twitter could unfollow randomly, I’ll have a look at the program you’ve mentioned. Again, thank you for these. 🙂
Hi Jane,
Love the new look site, very easy on the aul eyes (not that it wasn’t before).
Great post and, like many of your opinion articles I found myself nodding along. Twitter can be a bit tricky, I tend to ignore unfollows too unless it’s someone I engage with regularly and sincerely think it’s a glitch – it’s happened to me before too.
I have to agree with Icaria in that the only reason I unfollow people, for the most part, is negativity. It can be in the form of bullying others, uneccessary vulgarity or that we don’t engage regularly. I like to surround myself with positive, helpful, funny people in real life and don’t see why my timeline would be any different to be honest.
I’ve found as a blogger though, that other bloggers can be very tetchy when you unfollow them. In my opinion I shouldn’t feel pressured to follow people and read their negativity, just because they happen to be in the same online circles as me. Sounds harsh maybe but that’s just my preference.
Thanks again for a great post.
Personally, I’d stop using http://www.who.unfollowed.me. It’s such a subjective thing. It seems impossible to follow hundreds, so people have to make decisions as they go. It’s best just to not worry about it.