Atherton Bartelby聽is a Brooklyn-based graphic designer, art director, writer, blogger, and photographer. He authors a blog atCurious Affairs.
We鈥檝e all been there: You鈥檙e at a party hosted by that one fabulous friend, and populated with the best of your mutual circle of friends. The atmosphere is almost carbonated with excitement; the guests鈥 personalities flawlessly compliment each other; and the conversations that abound are infused with intelligence, caustic wit, and a wide variety of knowledge that ensures the complete absence of any pregnant, awkward pauses. Then, it happens: someone appears who just doesn鈥檛鈥it.
A similar phenom happens on聽Twitter You鈥檙e having conversations with your established Twitter friends, you鈥檙e broadcasting useful information, news, or links to your followers, and you鈥檙e 鈥渆ngaging your Tribe,鈥 etc., when suddenly, someone begins following you who, much like that previously referenced party guest, just doesn鈥檛 fit. This is the person whose follow on Twitter you simply cannot bring yourself to return. This is the follow fail.
Run any number of searches on聽Google or聽Alexa聽and you will arrive at a veritable host of articles offering endless lists of tips on 鈥渉ow to get more followers on Twitter.鈥 What you will not find are lists compiled by Twitter 鈥減ower users鈥 regarding the major reasons why they will or will not return a Twitter follower鈥檚 follow when it happens, and this is my gift to you: 鈥淭he Top Ten Reasons Why *I* Will Not Follow You In Return On Twitter.鈥
1. You have no user avatar
鈥r your user avatar is neither a personalized photograph nor reflective of a brand.
More important than whether or not your Twitter profile background is 鈥渄esigned鈥 is how you choose to present yourself in that seemingly insignificant 48脳48 pixel square. If that square is empty, impersonal, or otherwise lacking any qualities that will immediately allow me to visually associate it with you, that is an immediate Follow Fail. If I am going to build a Twitter relationship with you, I want to see you, or your brand, and not, however humorous I may find it, a screen capture of a magical leoplurodon.
2. You list no location, no website, or no bio
Clearly, Twitter is all about brevity. So how difficult is it to provide a few additional characters of information that may offer potential followers more impetus to follow you in return? I鈥檝e returned countless follows from users whose Twitter streams I鈥檝e found 鈥渕eh,鈥 but whose listed blogs, sites, or portfolios were too amazing to not follow, or whose 160-character bios were too humorous/intriguing to pass up, or who were in the same city as me and therefore potential project collaborators.
These fields take two seconds to populate; it would behoove you to take those two seconds to populate them.
3. Your 鈥渨ebsite鈥 listed is a MySpace profile
鈥r, far worse, an AngelFire 鈥減age.鈥
I鈥檒l admit it: I had a MySpace profile鈥ntil I deleted it a year ago when it became obvious that only teenagers and musicians were still using it. I also had a GeoCities/AngelFire 鈥減age鈥濃or my very first website when I first got on the Internet in 1994. If the Twitter user in question happens to be an actual teenager, or musician whose MySpace presence truly works for them, then fine. But I tend to pass over those users whose proffered web presence is, well, clearly doing it wrong.
It doesn鈥檛 take much these days to establish a web presence that seems genuine and thoughtful, and appears to intend to attract and build an online community based on the content it provides. AngelFire pages simply don鈥檛 communicate that.
4. You鈥檙e following over 1,000 users, have 20 followers, and no updates
鈥r, worse, one update that includes a shamefully ill-constructed mention of Jason Calacanis.
Who, aside from those running Twitter apps that automatically follow and unfollow followers, would add these Twitter users? While I may every so often and uncharacteristically give these users a chance, simply to see what sort of content, if any, they may eventually provide, the gratuitous mention of any higher-profile Twitterer or web-famous personality means little more to me than that you were properly able to spell 鈥淐alacanis鈥 or 鈥淜awasaki.鈥
5. Your profile features any variation of 鈥淚nternet expert鈥
鈥r 鈥渟ocial media expert鈥 and you have very few and/or insubstantial updates.
While I generally loathe any mention of the word 鈥渆xpert鈥 in a Twitter bio, it is particularly egregious when paired with a Twitter stream of only five updates, or one with a plethora of updates that make me question your 鈥渆xpert鈥 status. You鈥檙e an 鈥渆xpert鈥 who is only now tweeting about a Twitter app that everyone else was tweeting about two months ago? How awesome for you! #instantfollowfail
6. Your updates clearly indicate that your Twitter activity is always, only, about pushing your own service/product
So, you have decided to use Twitter as an online marketing tool in order to sell your amazing service and/or product, and you make this glaringly obvious. I find this fabulous, because not only must this tactic be working for you, but it also allows me to immediately decide whether or not I want to follow you in return.
Since I do not use Twitter in this manner, I rarely follow any of these users in return, unless said product or service genuinely piques my interest/desire to support it.
7. Your following and my return follow result in a poorly-constructed auto-DM reading, 鈥淭hx for the follow! How can I help you get to a 4-Hour Work Week?鈥
I鈥檝e several Twitter friends who employ the automatic direct message tool upon any new follows, but their messages are carefully crafted and, well, thoughtful, and go far beyond the garden variety 鈥渃lick my junk鈥 automatic direct message. As I am an intelligent, savvy, thinking Twitter user, I am more than capable of reading all about how you can help me get to a 4-hour work week by consulting your Twitter stream, Twitter background, or website. An impersonal automatic direct message from you along these lines does not impress me, it insults my intelligence.
8. Your most recent updates make references to any need to achieve 鈥渕ore Twitter followers鈥
鈥r 鈥渆nough new followers to reach 10,000 followers by midnight!鈥
For me, Twitter is not a shallow popularity contest, it is about forging interesting connections and conversations with other people. My Twitter followers are far more to me than a simple follower count: they are friends, they are colleagues, they are collaborators, they are peers, and they are sources. To follow someone in return whose only intent is clearly to acquire more followers would be to devalue the esteem with which I hold my other followers.
9. Your Twitter stream indicates a propensity for consistent arguing
鈥ith your followers/random Twitter users/really anyone.
I am all for intelligent debate on any topic, and I鈥檝e been lucky so far in meeting Twitter followers who are still able to politely debate about a variety of passionate topics without constant and vitriolic argumentation. If your Twitter stream is filled with nothing but mean-spirited opinions and argumentation that only advance your own beliefs and allow no consideration of others鈥 views, then my Twitter stream is definitely not for you.
10. You do not engage your Twitter followers
Probably the most important reason why I will not return your follow, though, is if it is glaringly obvious that you do not engage your Twitter followers. Here I suppose I need to make a distinction between those Twitter users who use Twitter to broadcast their content, as opposed to everyone else; these broadcasters, in my experience, are generally the ones who are followed, not those who are following.Obviously, engaging their followers is not a priority. Twitter is a major platform in social networking and social media, and they aren鈥檛 called 鈥渟ocial鈥 networking and 鈥渟ocial鈥 media for nothing. There are other people out there, and if you are not engaging or interacting with those users who take the time to follow you for whatever reason, that is a huge follow fail in my book.
The three tenets
My list isn鈥檛 perfect, and it is definitely personal and therefore biased, but it is a start toward exploring the differences between a successful Twitter follow attempt and an outright follow fail. In the end, and to return to those previously referenced lists of 鈥渉ow to get more followers on Twitter,鈥 I think there are really only three tenets that should be followed should you desire to build a successful and quality Twitter network:
1. Present a cohesive personal brand, or, if presenting a brand is too much for you, simply present a cohesive sense of yourself
2. Always be consistent in your use of Twitter, i.e., become known for the unique ways in which you use Twitter, and stick with what works for you
3. Engage with your network. Genuine engagement with your network of followers will ultimately ensure that your mobile number is retained, and not 鈥渓ost,鈥 at the end of that fabulous party, and it will ensure that you don鈥檛 (too often) commit any serious follow fails.
What do you consider follow fails? Tell us below in the comments.
Atherton Bartelby聽is a Brooklyn-based graphic designer, art director, writer, blogger, and photographer. An observer by nature, he enjoys studying the fascinating intricacies of interpersonal relationships, the design and media industries, and Internet culture, and faithfully records his observations in his blog,聽Curious Affairs.
From:http://mashable.com/2009/01/06/twitter-follow-fail/
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I think you’ve pretty well nailed all the reasons I don’t follow back. I also refuse to follow anybody with highly partisan descriptions in their bios. I’ve grown allergic to partisan “thinking” or lack thereof, even if I agree with a lot of their positions.
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One reason I will not follow is an offensive avatar. No, I do not want to see your girlfriend’s cleavage, or the back end of anyone. Young men sem especially prone to this. And I agree that, if your political or religious affiliation is the first thing you mention in your bio, I can’t believe I’l be interested in your Tweets.
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You’ve covered it pretty well. I don’t feel compelled to follow every person who follows me. My Twitter #s (following and followers) is still low enough to individually look at each person who chooses to follow me and directly reach out to them if appropriate. If nothing else, so say, “hey, thanks for following me. Hope you get some useful info out of.”
Along the same lines, check out this piece on How To Ruin Your Social Reputation on LinkedIn Before it Starts
I’m surprised at how many people, marketing professionals in particular, who aren’t thinking about the most important point of 鈥渃onnecting鈥 or “following/being followed.” I view this from a conversation marketing perspective (on a friend/personal level who cares how you do it.)
From a conversation marketing standpoint, the purpose of connecting with people is to build relationships for interacting with the market conversation and the Influencers who drive those conversations and their Participants and Listeners. By now, every marketing, sales, and business professional should understand that #s don鈥檛 necessarily mean anything. Just because a million people accept a connection request or follow you, doesn鈥檛 mean you have a relationship with any of them鈥搒o what is the point?
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Yep, these are great points and I agree with Patricia as well. I’m a quite new Twitterer (Twitteraty….?) and so far managed the whole thing intuitively. but your article really wraps up what I couldn’t really put my finger on. Thanks!
I started off socially, followed a few celebs for fun, used it during holidays to stay in touch with family and friends, and now am starting to expand. Luckily there are some great people who found me, one of whom I’m going to meet soon in person - very thrilled! and some I am not sure about how great they are. So TweetDeck seems to be helpful to sort them into groups. The friends are communicated with closely and the may-bes are only scanned. If someone sticks out and contact is established, then they move over to friends and I check out their friends base for more hopefull matches otherwise they get de-followed after a while.
Twitter is such a brilliant tool and articles like yours help a lot to get the best out of it. Thanks again!
Might consider following you now, … no need to follow back ;o)
Rika
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Great Article, in fact here in Spain we do not usually get so many tweets around but this fenomena is getting bigger so this article helps a lot to newbies…
Congrats!!
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Thanks for such a well constructed article as well as being “right on”. I agree with all 10 of these reasons, although I do usually follow someone back, at least for awhile to give them a chance, because not everyone knows how they should conduct themselves.
However, if anyone unfollows me, which means they don’t want to listen to me or they just wanted me following them for another number, then I will quickly unfollow them as well. Social Media means to be social which is listening and interacting with those around you.
It really annoys me that several so called “guru’s” think we should all follow them and listen to them all the time but that they shouldn’t follow us and listen to us in return. “What PART of Social Media, do they NOT understand???”
I have had several, again, so called “guru’s” follow me to get me to follow them and then they unfollow me. (They are following me 1st) Of course when they unfollow me, and I find it out, then I’ll unfollow them in return. Several have done this multiple times, which to me is SPAM. One so called “guru” has done this to me now at least 6 times I know of.
To your health,
Edward Moore
http://twitter.com/EdwardMoore
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I agree with the above, It is a great article and finally someone actually writting about this topic. I am also fairly ne in the Twitter scene, and bombarded with ow to get more followers in 90 days… hmmm. Like you say… is it anumber thing or are people genuinely interested in YOU. I think you have really made a good point here. And definately hot points to think about before following people blindly…. whom never reply anyway.
Will ponder about your message… good luck with all.
Kind reagrds,
Carolyn
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Enjoyed your post and the great points you made. It’s interesting that on Twitter, as in life, sometimes you just can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear… but at least you just have to unfollow!
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Great article! I definitely agree with all of your points, especially with #s 7 and 9!
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All very good points, especially the one about no profile info.
However, a main one for me is if I look at your updates and almost every single one starts with @”someone” … especially if they are short posts that, out-of-context, have no meaning at all. This tells me the user is utilizing Twitter like IM, and that they don’t “get it” at all. Plus, they are just messing with the signal-to-noise ratio & clogging up the system.
There is probably a prime ratio of some kind that works best, depending on your goals…maybe something like this:
- maybe 1/3 helpful links and info (based on your area of interest/target audience)
- 1/3 personal [and interesting] insights and observations into your “area of interest/knowledge”
- and then another 1/3 in meaningful engagement (dialogue) with other Tweeters
Ratios might vary, but I think this is a decent place to start…
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“Friends, colleagues, collaborators, peers and sources.” Damn right. Life is too short to waste on people whose focus is primarily themselves, which is what leads to most, if not all, of the fails you listed.
I don’t fault others for not following me back - I won’t presume to know their needs or motivations, only my own. And I don’t automatically unfollow anyone who doesn’t follow me back. I like interaction, but I get plenty, and some people are just too interesting to me not to follow.
We all use Twitter selfishly - to meet our own needs - but if one’s Twitter needs stop at the surface, then the needs of others for connecting with another human will go unmet and the resulting network may become large but will remain empty.
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well the only time people follow you when you dont do any thing on your profile if your a celebrity. i have been to a few celebs pages and they have nothing on them and no pic and they have like 5000 people following them.
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Ironically, these follow-tards (”get followers and make super duper free money on Twitter yo! just run this bot!”) are now linking to this article… despite their being effing poster children for exactly what you describe. Here’s one:
http://twitter.com/EthanHISER
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Nice thoughts.
I’m trying not to be too selective with following, but sometimes I get annoyed by too heavy load of promoting tweets, in some cases if you get ad flood of dozens of tweets, I prefer to unfollow. Other reason for unfollow is rude language, that I don’t like.
Principal I have found to be true on any area of life is that if you are too selective with first steps, you may never learn walking. So going trial with quantity isn’t that bad, if your final goal is quality of connection, communication and content. Ones who don’t like your tweets or presence, will leave you naturally and ones, who are too passive to get in deeper relation, will pass away sooner or later. Only time and pressure will polish the diamonds.
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This article has it all backwards, assuming follows will be rewarded by a return follow UNLESS you commit a faux pas. This is only how a certain subset of Twitter users believe etiquette should proceed — mostly those who cut their teeth on symmetrical ‘friending’ like in Facebook, etc.
But the whole point of Twitter’s asymmetrical system is for YOU (as in US) to use the service differently.
In other words, I don’t follow you unless you are saying things personally interesting to me. You could obey all of the above rules, and perform the nicest, smoothest, most graceful follow in the world, but if all you talk about is ratchet sets, then you are doing NOTHING WRONG and you should KEEP DOING EXACTLY THAT, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to follow you.
Let’s say the ratchet wrench guy is interested in tricorders, but the tricorder guy is not interested in ratchet wrenches? What happens according to the ethical system assumed above? Do these guys have a falling out?
It makes no sense. The whole advantage of Twitter is that allows interest to flow where it *should* not where it is *obligated* to do.
Let’s not lay any extra obligations upon it and thus cripple its strengths.
I’m not going to follow you just because you do all of the above right. I’m going to follow you because what you say is interesting to me and for no other reason — not because of your bio, not because of your avatar, not because of your place of origin. You could have a completely blank avatar and bio and if you are interesting, I will follow. You could have a hilarious bio and a kickass avatar but if I am not interested in what you are writing on Twitter then you will not get a follow.
I see all of the above as basically a bit fat red herring.
Just stop worrying about follow-exchanges, folks! That’s not what this is supposed to be about.
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Bob Reply:
April 19th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Hello DBL
It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong. What I like is you aren’t a sheep like all the other replies.
Twitter works just fine if you do your thing your way and stop telling others how they should do their thing.
It all balances out in the end.
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Thanks for this. Agree with poster who mentioned that lots of @ posts are hard to follow, and with the ubiquity (and meaninglessness) of calling yourself an expert. But, for me the #1 fail is any mention in a profile of of the dreaded letters “MLM” Argh.
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Thanks for posting this. I’ve often wondered what’s so awesome about following or asking for followers or however the stuff goes.
I like the way BDL explained it all too!
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this article was great! i am new to twitter and have developed a few hundred followers. i want to use to tool to be able to connect with people and actually help them in some way. i also want to gain insight to information from the people that i follow. it is ridiculous that some people only tweet you with sales pitches. i quicklyh un-follow these jokers!
thanks for the information!
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While I want more followers (for business reasons), I also don’t want to pursue numbers for the sake of numbers. I want them to be people who actually DO share common interests and for whom my tweets are actually worthwhile. Yesterday, I think largely due to Twitter, I hit a viewing record for a blog I maintain. Since every page view is worth roughly a penny to me, this is a good thing, so I posted a ‘thank you’.
However, I am NEW to Twitter, so, like Usenet, I’m feeling my way around the social protocols, learning the ‘in’ language. How do I find out who The blog link behind my name is NOT the money maker … it’s a personal effort whose ads have paid me, to date, exactly zero. But, with roughly 30,000 page views a month, eventually someone is gonna want to buy something!
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All excellent points! Not just numbers, they are my friends, and I love interacting and hate auto DMs.
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Some of these are good points, but I also believe you take this way too seriously (and maybe personally).
People use the site in different ways, and one has to remember that a “friend” or follower/followee on Twitter is not the same as a friend in the flesh.
Often what might seem like a personal affront or insult to your intelligence is not that at all; but merely what that individual has time for in the period when they are not committed to other activities.
There are people on twitter who use it as a form of socializing and there are people who use it more as a way to network for their business.
I’m sure Martha Steward doesn’t have the time to follow each one of the above guidelines, and she has a presence on Twitter as do many less famous people.
The short and sweet format of Twitter requires that you get right to the point, so if you are there for your business then beating around the bush is not going to translate into sales or other business transactions. Pretending you’re not there to promote would furthermore not be an honest representation of your focus, and since when is advertising a dirty word? Most everything we eat, drink, and wear, not to mention live in, is advertised, so on some level that must work. Managing your account that way may come across as blunt or too “all-business” to some, but it is necessary for branding in a format in which you only have so many characters in which to get your point across.
I see no harm in following people of all kinds and if you don’t want what they’re offering just don’t take it and if you do then that’s OK too.
I’ve found you never can assume that someone has nothing to offer. Even if much of what they post is not of interest to you, you might connect on some issue or another down the road.
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We’re just happy Twitter is around when it DOES work, which is MOST of the time
Sincerely,
The Songnumbers Team
Songnumbers.com
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Great post! And so true! Thank you!
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Nice points.
I don’t automatically follow those who follow me. I’m not on twitter to compromise my standards just to gain followers. I use twitter basically to tell something. If someone finds it useful or interesting, it’s to his or her own benefit.
Anyway, thanks for following me. You got a great blog so I follow you in return.
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