It started with Chris Brogan, then Darren Rowse followed suit. Both said it was in an effort to help clean up their Twitter streams and DMs. Now, plenty of ordinary people are saying, "If the big guys are doing it, I'm going to do it, too!". I'm seeing mass purges everywhere. I'm disappointed that some of social media's most influential names would legitimize this sleazy practice. Perhaps their reasons made sense to them, but they've set a trend that is contrary to the philosophy of social media and the idea of community building.
Here's the reality. Most people who have a large number of followers built their numbers on reciprocity. They connected with someone and that person followed them back, or vice versa. Those numbers were built on a mutual connection (let's face it, only "real" celebrities can get tens of thousands of followers from scratch and only follow back a handful of people). Now, much to my dismay, it's the hip thing to say your Twitter follows are unmanageable, your DMs are being hijacked, and you can't focus on anything in your stream. You simply must unfollow everyone so you can start over with a clean slate. Know what I say to that? Hogwash.
It's no secret that I despise those who work the numbers to artificially inflate their followings. I have 5,000 followers, yet could have far more if I followed back every bot and spammer. But, I don't (I firmly believe in quality over quantity). Instead, I look at each and every Twitter profile and decide whether or not to follow back. If the person doesn't break one of my 12 Twitter rules, I'll give a followback. As such, I don't get any spam. Ever.
Today I saw a post by Daniel Newman that talks about the purging practice and the rationale behind it, going as far as to say "Don't pee on me and tell me it's raining." He does a great job of outlining the ways that anyone could combat the problems that people are citing as reasons to unfollow. Danny Brown also has a post on the subject. He shares a "leaked" email that implies the mass unfollows were to get attention. Although quite amusing, this was never my theory. However, I'm glad Danny called out the the unfollowing practice, too.
I still think Chris and Darren are smart people. If you read my blog regularly, you know I've raved about how much I love Chris. Darren is a darn great guy, too. However, it's kind of like when you learn that Santa Claus is really your mom and dad. Don't preach about community and then tell me unfollowing your community isn't anything personal. It may not be personal to you, and lots of people may kiss your backside saying you're a trailblazer, but I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid.
Big names in the social media space serve as role models; teaching by example. When they do something, they set a trend. Granted, everyone can do as they please and there are no official rules to any of this social media stuff. I get that. However, now those who work the system with mass follows and unfollows are no longer sleaze bags and charlatans. They can now conduct those shady practices knowing full well that they have the perfect defense: "If the social media gurus can unfollow everyone, why can't I?"
I talk about similar aspects a lot, especially when it comes to reciprocity among everyone. "The 'big names' don't reply back to anyone, so why should I?" And, "The big names don't follow a lot of people, so why should I?"
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also preach that following back is a choice. If you have already chosen to follow that person, you must have had a reason besides just growing your numbers, right?Well, that's what we'd like to thin,k anyway, hoping to give people the benefit of the doubt.In everyone's marketing strategy, they should follow people that they will truly enjoy hearing from, they shouldn't be obligated to follow every single person that follows them and shouldn't be obligated to keep them if they don't see that they're a good fit in their strategy and aren't engaging with them or they aren't very engaging. Twitter is a learning process. Everyone needs to find their own way of doing things. I'm like you, though, Just like with any strategy, though, it all takes time, and that's what people tend to forget when building their followers on Twitter. Great article!!
Well articulated, Amber!
ReplyDeleteI've noticed this too. There are people who have a strategy to follow loads of people, get them to follow you back and then unfollow. It's really annoying and easy to discover, so I just unfollow them. What a stupid game!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, Pam!
ReplyDeleteHey Travis! That stupid follow and unfollow scheme has been going on for years. It's despicable. Now, my concern is that that practice is, in part, legitimized when well-respected people in the space say it's alright to conduct a "purge".
ReplyDeleteGranted both groups are coming from a different mindset. The schemers were deceitful from the get-go and their intent was always to use the people that they conned.
As for Chris, Darren and the others, I don't believe they intended to do anything harmful or malicious. Not at all. However, the action still sets a precedent and condones a practice (mass unfollowing) that I don't agree with.
Your community helped you get where you are. If you see some malcontents, dump them. But don't disregard the people who made you who you are. I guess it all comes down to one's perception of loyalty and allegiance.
Overall, I just believe these well-regarded people in the space are role models and teachers. And, I really hate for people to follow their lead thinking purging is the way to use Twitter.
Thanks for stopping by, Travis!
Thanks for adding your thoughts to the discussion, Morgan. Great input.
ReplyDeleteYes, a followback is a choice. And, of course everyone is allowed to change their minds. I honestly do understand that. But changing your mind about 10s of thousands of people who spread your name, tweeted about your books or webinars or websites, and helped you build something from nothing isn't something I'm going to think is alright. Sure, granted, not every single person did that. But, I'd venture to say a great majority did.
As I said to Travis above, I just think it's a bad precedent to set. There are enough shady practices on Twittter from folks gaming the system. I hate to see any of those legitimized in the least. Now, I see many people saying their going to purge, too. Some with so few followers it's laughable. It's just the cool thing to do.
Followers are people. Not numbers. Blog commenters are people. Not avatars.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, Morgan!
Great post Amber! I haven't dealt with this problem yet, but interesting insight nonetheless. I do, however, dislike auto-follows. Sure it's about commonalities, but if you're far away from me and don't have similar connections I do not see how we can build a solid connection or help each other out. I don't auto anything on Twitter, ever! I tend to follow only people in areas, companies or who know people that are of interest to me. It's a bit selfish in retrospect, but I'd rather not follow from the start than unfollow people who I'm not benefiting from. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteAmber, aloha. Wasn't Dan's post amazing? He definitely did not pull any punches--nor are you by not drinking any of that Kool-Aid.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Amber, I am a bit confused by something. What do you mean that mom and dad are Santa Claus?
Intentionally or unintentionally, the "purge" as Danny calls it, definitely started a controversy. Since I am new to Social Media, I did not knwo about the 2009 purge. What I do know, Amber, is 2009 is quite a different time from 2011. It will indeed be interesting to follow the actions/reactions and rationale on this.
Wishing you, Puddy and Faith a Terrific Thursday. Until next time, my friend, aloha. Janet
I pretty much agree with you, Amber... but I wonder if there's an issue of scale that we're not able to fully understand. To wit... I follow back only after looking at profiles. Even so, in the last batch of spam-DM-virus stuff, I got 10 one day. Some were from folks who obviously clicked links by mistake and were mortified. Others were from accounts that had largely gone dormant but I'd never unfollowed. I don't get them from bots, so none were from that. Now, multiply my follower count by 25 (or more) to get up to the big folks and I wonder if I'd've gotten 250 spam DMs in a day? Another scale issue is that some folks get 200-300 new followers a day. It's fair to say that they shouldn't auto-follow back, but I wonder if it becomes an issue of never being able to catch up? (A champagne problem indeed!).
ReplyDeleteStill, whatever the scale issues, it does seem that the reciprocity issue as you point out creates the challenges, so the change in strategy seems problematic.
Cedar, great points!
ReplyDeleteI think you've tapped into something here. Perhaps the problems all emanate from the auto follows. If, for example, Chris and Darren hadn't auto followed from the get go, perhaps they wouldn't have become so unhappy with their Twitter experience. I think you're on to something here.
I'm with you, though. I don't automate anything. Granted it takes more time to have my hands on everything, but I think it's the price to pay for maintaining integrity within my stream.
Thanks for the great input, Cedar! I think you've really hit on something...
Oh geez. I was afraid I'd blow the lid off the Santa Claus secret for somebody! So sorry Janet ;-(
ReplyDeleteYou're right. This will be interesting to follow. I'm sure other big names are waiting to see how this plays out so they know if a purge is something they can get away with, too.
Always a pleasure when you stop by, Janet. I'll pass on your aloha to the gang! Thanks for taking the time to chime in and share your thoughts ;-)
Nicely presented, Amber. I think the biggest takeaway I've seen from much of the "fall-out" are the views "Why should people care? It's only Twitter - if you're putting value of your life into strangers you follow, you need to ask yourself questions".
ReplyDeleteWhile that might - might - be a fair question, here's another point of view to consider.
I can see why people *do* care. Let's transpose "followers" for "customers".I have 200,000 customers (or 100,000, or 50,000 - use whatever number you want for whichever example you want). These customers have helped me grow from no-one to a successful someone. They bought my products; shared my news; recommended my workplace (blog, site, forum, etc).Now, all because some new customers come along and I don't like how they behave, I'm banding all 200,000 customers into the same boat and jettisoning them. Just like that. Doesn't matter if you've been with me for 10 years, 5 years, one year - these customers that came along in the last few weeks have ruined it for everyone.BUT... don't worry. I'm going to open a new refreshed store and start again, so make sure you come back after the customer clear-out and continue to buy from me.Yeah... I can see why some would be pissed and upset.Ah well - what do we know..? ;-)
Scale. Excellent point, Greg. And I do get that. We're small potatoes compared to the big guys. However, couldn't a virtual assistant be hired to screen and follow back people (rather than the auto follow)? Based on the person's criteria? Sure, that's an expense, but if you've built your empire on teaching folks about how to do social media, it seems like protecting your presence is worth a few bucks.
ReplyDeleteI guess when anyone takes a road and then realize down the line that they're not pleased with it, it's hard to change course. I think that's what happened to Chris and Darren (based on the comments I've read from them). I understand how that might be frustrating. I truly do. However, it's the extreme nature of the solution that baffles me. Unfollowing everyone? Really, that's just too much.
And, again, it's really the precedent that's set here concerns me. Whether big names in the space like it or not, they're role models. Newbies learn by watching. I'd hate to see new users think it's ok to build a following and then just unfollow everyone later. Sure, motivation comes into play, but the end result is the same.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Greg. Great stuff!
Let me take a breath here first... ok, here it goes.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the whole world of the Internet in regard to social media is like this. As someone who writes mainly a personal blog, I go and visit a lot of blogs. The idea for this? Hopefully most will come and visit and return the comment favor. And maybe, just maybe, they'll become regular readers. That's how I am. I try and answer each comment on my blog AND try and visit the other blog because, let's face it, not everyone comes back to see if their comment has been answered.
That translates to Twitter, too. Among other social media platforms. People follow for silly reasons. Then unfollow. It happens. I don't always respond to each thing with me, but I try because it's the right thing to do. I won't follow anyone back who appears to be a bot. For example, one tweet I spoke about how much of a Canon person I was and that I was not a fan of Nikon. Within seconds, several Nikon-based Twitter accounts started following me!
I think the trend recently has been more along the lines of just building and building. It's hard to find twitter accounts or blogs that I really enjoy because so many of them are about becoming better at social media. I don't care. I want to read stuff I enjoy. So many blogs I try and visit are about making my blog bigger. I don't want that. If every blog is about being a better blog, then where the heck are the good blogs??
The same with Twitter. People need to be people. I realize that these tools can help people network and advance. And hey, in my current situation, I could use some networking. But I also like to read tweets about friend's lives. Or online friend's worlds. I follow because I like what someone did. Therefore, there's no need to unfollow.
I don't need to be the most popular kid on the block, so this doesn't bother me one way or another. Would I love to have more regular readers to my blog? Or more people following me on Twitter because I say good things? Sure. But the reality seems to be the opposite way of things. I don't know why. The world isn't just about learning to network and blog or tweet and keep growing.
So if these people stop following me on Twitter? So be it. I'll stick to the people who actually care about what I have to say/re-tweet/share. I gather that most of the "big tweeters" don't see all they follow anyway. I have a hard time keeping up with the 300 I follow. I can't imagine 10 or 20,000!
Hope I didn't ramble too much. ;)
I feel like the bottom line is that everything comes down to intentions. I have seen a few arguments for this trend that make a lot of sense and I have the utmost respect for someone who is willing to come to another persons blog to further explain their decisions.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that we don't know anyone's real intention and if the response that we are given by some is simply, "It's my Twitter account and I can do what I want, fools" (Is Mr. T on Twitter? He should be...) that's where the conversation gets muddy. If you do something that will cause people to ask questions and then do nothing to answer the questions that arise, that's where I get a funny feeling.
We shop somewhere else. If my money was good for you then and it isn't now, then you don't get my business anymore.
ReplyDeleteExcellent analogy, Danny! How could anyone argue with that????
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I've voiced similar thoughts in the comments below (although your analogy rocks it!). These followers are people. People who helped you grow and succeed. Just because a couple problem children start to create issues here and there doesn't mean everyone is guilty. Isn't there a saying about throwing the baby with the bathwater????
Sheesh.
Thanks for stopping by, Danny! It's quite an honor ;-)
Exactly.
ReplyDeleteHonour shmonour, miss - didn't know about your blog before (bad me!), just subscribed.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, you don't punish everyone for the failings of a few...
Hi P.J.! I think it all goes back to intentions and your strategy out of the gate. If you're mindful about followbacks from the beginning, you don't encounter the problems that can occur. Frankly, your approach is similar to mine in that you have to make a conscious decision about whether to follow back or not.
ReplyDeleteI suspect Chris and Darren just felt things were out of control and that they were passed the point of no return. However, there are always tools, as Daniel mentions, that can help you manage things better and weed out the chaos.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a thoughtful comment, P.J. And don't tweet about Nikon again ;-)
Hey Miranda. Yes! Intentions! You're so right. I've mentioned that a bunch in the comments.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't think Chris or Darren intended to offend anyone. I don't believe it was their intention to collect followbacks to build an empire and then dump everyone. I don't. They're good guys and I guess that's why I was disappointed in how they responded to their problems. Unfollow the spammers, bots, and ne'er do wells. But to dump everyone? It just seems like smart guys who get it could come up with a better solution.
Chris has been pretty transparent in responding to his critics and blogging updates on his "great Twitter experiment". Darren even chimed in on Daniel's post to explain his reasoning. They both realize that people are talking about it and have been pretty good at responding to the issue.
I guess Danny's analogy really makes sense to me. Don't alienate those who helped you succeed. And, of course, don't ever embrace a practice that is in sync with one that is used by the slimy pond scum that lurk in Twitter's seedy underbelly.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the subject, Miranda!
Always enjoy your posts, Amber. I have followed your advice and gotten followers slowly and have followed and chatted with some wonderful people. I guess I've done it pretty well, too because I seldom get spam. Thanks for always sharing your wisdom!
ReplyDeleteJeanie
Hi Jeanie! Thank for reading and commenting! I appreciate your very kind words.
ReplyDeleteI guess I rather build something real and honest, even though it takes more time. I see some of my social media connections buying followers and it just makes me sad. Sure, you have the big number to boast about now, but it's not genuine. It's a lie.
I've missed seeing you around! Thanks for stopping by, Jeanie!
WAIT! WHAT? Santa Claus was my mom and dad?!?!?!?!?!?!? I may need therapy now. LOL.
ReplyDeleteAs you will plainly see, I have only a handful of followers and I only follow a handful of people. Like you, I am selective who I followback. And if I happen to make the mistake of accidentally following a spam-bot, I will unfollow, but I've never had to do a mass purge.
Should I implement tactics / techniques to get more followers? Maybe. It would be nice to have someone "stroke my ego" and rave about my latest blog post but I really don't do it for the accolades. I will never be one of the "Ashton Kutchers" / "Seth Godins" or "Chris Brogans" of the Twittersphere, but I'm okay with that.
We'll be starting a therapy group on the Santa issue next week. I'll send you a tweet about it, James. Sorry to ruin the magic ;-(
ReplyDeleteAs for being an Ashton, Seth, or Chris; the world already has those. Just be yourself. No one can be you better than you!
Thanks for stopping by and chiming in!
I COMPLETELY agree with what you say here. Community, kindness, manners are the fuel that keeps social media going. I want to make sure that I'm following people with quality content, not spammers. Beyond that, they need to be polite and following me. I'm sure lots of people will continue to follow Chris Brogan and the like, even if they don't reciprocate. But I won't.
ReplyDeleteI went to bed last night feeling very discouraged. I write a blog, I have a Facebook personal and fan page, I have a Twitter account and I can't keep up! I tried to read through all of the tweets I had piling up and I became so fatigued I just gave up. Granted, I'm not following that many people, but if you've got even a few who tweet every five minutes, it can be overwhelming. I probably should have been more judicious in the beginning and not followed back. I just unfollowed about 10 people because their info just isn't clicking with me. Tweeting "I'm tired" or the time of the day is just asinine. I've unfollowed people and immediately they've tweeted back their irritation over it - what's up with that? Can't we just be gracious about the whole thing and realize that it's NOT personal?
ReplyDeleteMass unfollowing was a ridiculous attention-getting device. It doesn't need to be a standard practice and shouldn't be emulated. I'm going to take the advice of most of your commenters here and only follow if I'm interested in what people have to say.
Amber,
ReplyDeleteNice post and well thought out. The last few days on this topic have been exhausting but it has been a great discussion and now I'm ready to move on.
I like the way you presented your feelings and created an environment for discussion. I will be back more frequently to see what else you have in store.
Cheers!
Thanks for adding to the discussion, Jenise. I feel the same way about good manners being the fuel behind social media. Great thought.
ReplyDeleteI guess I think like this. If I follow someone and they follow me back, we're equals. If I follow someone and they don't follow me back, I'm their fan. And, although, I may admire someone, I am nobody's fan.
Appreciate hearing your thoughts on this, Jenise. Glad to know I'm not alone :-)
Thank YOU for getting the dialogue going, Daniel.
ReplyDeleteI think once we've all had our say, we're free to move on. Things are what they are. Lessons learned and insight gained.
Thanks for the nice words and thanks for stopping by!
Jean, personally I think what you're doing is the way to do it. If someone isn't clicking with you, unfollow them. Add someone here, unfollow someone there. Keep a handle on your following as you go.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand that Chris and Darren may have become overwhelmed with what they had created, however they're smart guys with resources you and I don't have. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater was just too extreme.
There are tools out there that allow you to get rid of the spam and manage your stream. If I know about them, the folks who are more knowledgeable than I am certainly do. And, if I made my living by preaching about community and the value of online networking, I would find a way to fix my problems without alienating my followers. Even if it was a solution that took a little extra time or effort.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, Jean! Sounds like you need an internet-free weekend! They can be quite therapeutic ;-)
Thanks for the great reply Amber! It is something I could talk all day about.
ReplyDeleteAuto-follows are annoying and it takes away from the real experience in a way. Twitter is like blogging. If you want people to comment, view or follow your posts you need to post relevant and awesome content. Same goes for Twitter. If there was a way to auto-send your blog posts to the web for everyone to read it would be done, but can't. It should be done organically. I have started numerous Twitter accounts for companies, large and small, and it is difficult to gain a following, but in a way that's the fun of it. It's like a rich kid getting through college with no worries and getting a decent job and a poor kid (like me) getting through college on sheer hard work and ambition and getting a great job after because of the life lessons learned.
You mentioned earlier something real social media lovers should always follow is: quality over quantity. Having 100K followers and only 20% are relevant to your goal doesn't do any good to anyone. What can help with this issue, is something that very few people take the time to do, is to put tweeps in lists. This allows you to follow 100K people and still get something out of it and follow along through the clutter. Twitter bothers me with this because they only allow 50 lists, so you then have to be creative about how you assign tweeps.
Every Wednesday, at 9 pm central time, I get involved with #toolschat on Twitter. We discuss social media tools that help optimize, enhance and manage the experience for the user or business because some folks follow too many people or are on too many platforms to stay up to date and we find/create/discuss tools that make life easier in this regard. You should join us next week!! My friends @LeoWid and @MQTodd run @Toolschat each week, great stuff with awesome people!!
Hey Cedar, great points!
ReplyDeleteIronically I tweeted about #ToolsChat just last night ;-)
I hope you don't have any kids who regularly read you. If so, you just totally ruined Christmas this year!
ReplyDeleteI have two thoughts on the mass unfollow: Either it's a publicity stunt (which is working) or the Twitter elite didn't gain their followers organically. I have a gazillion Twitter followers and I gained them all the same way you do - I look at each profile before I follow. It takes more time, but I know I don't have spam or gross DMs this way. And it's completely manageable.
Kids? This is news to me.........
ReplyDeleteI concur with Danny's comment in that these are the people who got you to where you are and now it's a nuisance? Hmmmmm......
ReplyDeleteI would like to be more engaged with some of my followers but it can be difficult. However, I have no reason to cut anyone loose.
I check out my followers too and get very little Spam.
I did see Chris at the PRSA event but did not talk with him as I have never followed or been a fan. Not that I don't like him, I just have never spent any time with him.
I thought your post was well written and I vote with you.
Do not read anything about Santa Claus!
ReplyDeleteMy dogs don't read my blog, so I didn't ruin the illusion for them. They'll still be expecting Santa Paws this December ;-)
ReplyDeleteGini, this is why I like and respect you. You put in the effort, you don't use lazy shortcuts, and you value the community that you've created. Thank you for being someone who walks the walk. It shows in everything you do.
I've met Chris in person and was very impressed with him (as you can see from the post where I gushed about him). However, I am saddened that this is the approach he took to "clean up" his stream.
ReplyDeleteOnce he got wind of my objection, he tweeted me that it would take 37 hours for him to have reviewed each profile to keep the real people and dump the bots and spammers. Then asking me what I would do (as if my response was obvious and I would have dumped everyone like he did). I said if it were my brand and my business, I would take the 37 hours or create a criteria and have my assistant help me with the cleaning. Let me repeat, I would take the 37 hours. If that's all it took to keep my community intact, I would do it. Seems like a very small price to pay.
Thanks for chiming in, Bill. Good to hear your thoughts on the subject ;-)
I am a little late here, but these are my thoughts too. I was calling bullshit from the start. What makes me even sadder is that Michael Hyatt did the mass unfollow and admitted it was for a higher Klout score and AdAge ranking.
ReplyDeleteThat made me throw up in my mouth a little.
I still go through my followers and decide who to follow back. It is not that hard and I never get any spam messages that way. Anyone who DMs me after I follow them I get rid of, so I eliminate that problem. It just screams of "the lady doth protest too much"
I met Chris Brogan in person and he was very nice to me. Gini Dietrich and Danny Brown were nicer though! :)
I wonder what kind of policy they've now adopted with peeps who want to follow them back? Or newbies who don't know they did this? Are they just not engaging any longer?
ReplyDeleteThis is a disturbing practice to me; highly disingenuous. And, you're right -- the spirit of Twitter has gone by the wayside (and that's coming from a 2.5 year engage).
Hi Nancy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your take on the situation. I guess, for me anyway, it boils down to feeling manipulated and used.
I don't know how many people Michael Hyatt unfollowed and I will always think the practice stinks, but I have to at least give him credit for being honest about his motivation. However, like you, the whole mass unfollowing thing makes me throw up in my mouth a little ;-)
Kudos to you for taking the time to review your followers and make smart decisions. I believe that will serve you well down the line. It's worked for me, as well.
I'm anxious to meet Gini and Danny in person one day. Gini has a wonderful understanding of community and her actions compliment her words. Something that, unfortunately, is becoming more of a rarity in social media.
Thanks again for adding to the discussion, Nancy!
Hey Jayme! Chris still engages with folks and uses that as validation as to why following back isn't important. We exchanged some tweets on the subject over the weekend and he simply doesn't see the problem with the mass unfollow of his community. Ironically, those that came to his defense were two people who Chris still follows. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, lesson learned.
I agree, though, Jayme. It is a disturbing practice and it is disingenuous. I firmly believe you are judged by the company you keep and I much rather invest my time and effort into those who understand the value of community--and are appreciative of those who have helped put them on the map. But, hey, that's just me...
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts on the topic, Jayme!
Um. I hate to tell you this, but JB was reading over my shoulder and then he sent out an all points bulletin. So your dogs know. I'm sorry.
ReplyDeleteP.S. And thanks for the gold star file material!
My dogs only speak Pig Latin. So I doubt they understood the bulletin ^..^
ReplyDeleteGreat article Amber! I'm still into reciprocity, but then again, I'm still a pretty small fish. Let's hope if I ever do get to be a bigger fish, that I remember how I got there.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you think, Pat! Kudos!
ReplyDeleteSo Happy I came across this! I wrote a similar, (not as well written!), post some time back. I couldn't agree more! And I'm thrilled to see that we share a like mind on these views Amber!
ReplyDeleteHi Eleanor! Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteI've really tried to shape by Twitter network by connecting with those who share the community aspect of the platform. As such, I have to say, I don't see a lot of people in my stream working the system (although there are a few).
I'm glad we share the same stream of thought on this. Because, really, I think it's about treating people with respect and courtesy. No one deserves to be used and discarded. No matter the reason. And especially not for something as silly as follower numbers.
Loved your article. I've had a few new artists and bands follow me. I listen to their music first, If I like their music, I follow back. Later, they unfollow me after a week or month. I am irritated that I spent the time to listen to their music. So much talent out there, I just unfollow . They lost a fan, and maybe they don't even care. Very sad.
ReplyDelete