As a once reluctant, and still introvert marketer, one of my pet peeves happens as much in person as it does online. I call it, corrupt connections. For me it’s an irritation and almost like that pea under the princess’s mattress fairy tale: I’m not a princess so I feel that pea. It’s an irritant when you think about the pea being there. I don’t know if one venue is worst than another – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. People are doing this likely on other venues. I personally find Twitter to be the worst. Here are two rubs and a couple of erasers – free erasers.
Rub #1: People follow on Twitter and then never have the first @. You, as the one they followed, never receive the first engaging tweet. The DM is automated – oops. I’m guilty of that one! Let me rephrase that, the DM is an automated sales pitch. It tells you to go to a link and get a fabulous gift, which by the way, you never really wanted. Whew, my automated DM upon attracting a follower is not that.
Most of the tweets of your new follower use a link to sell you something. And, if you make the effort to open a public conversation, you never do hear that 2 back. That’s just awful for in particular, the shy and reluctant marketer. Come on people – the days of lurking in online forums is long gone. Besides, it’s one thing to lurk in a forum, and quite another to attend a party and totally ignore all, if not most of the people who you initiated a connection with. Twitter is like that party.
Eraser #1: thetwitcleaner.com/ I found this on a day I got more spammers than normal. It occurred to me I might have people who spam and I just didn’t notice it. In the past I’ve unfollowed people one at a time after I either @ or DM a message to them and didn’t hear back. But thetwitcleaner does this and more for you: it tells you who is tweeting what percentage of links, who has had little to no activity, what percentage of content is being pumped out from feeds, who has little original content, and so much more. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s free.
Rub #2: There’s little insight into why, or even when, people who you are interested in, might stop following you. Was it something I said? Is it my breath? Can I have a clue? This introvert is curious. After all, even to network online will have to lead to meaningful conversations or else, it’s hardly worth the effort, and most certainly an energy drain.
Enter Eraser #2: https://tweeteffect.com/ Twitter notifies you when someone follows you. But what about what was the event that might have caused someone to unfollow you? For certain there are so many variables – Twitter and non-Twitter related – that could affect someone to unfollow you. What tweeteffect does is analyze your latest updates and flag those that made people either follow or leave you. It too is quick, easy and free.
Online social networking has tremendous potential when we realize the operative word is social!
What pet peeves do you have on any of the more popular venues online? Or even a not so well known venue?
And what “erasers” have you found to be helpful?
Hi Pat – I just cleaned out my Twitter feed with thetwitcleaner.com. Very good tool.
However, the most famous people or companies you follow are not going to follow you back (major media, for example) and also even if a lot of people mainly do RTs (as I do), there can be value in those RTs. I RT a lot of the social media experts who may have a link in their tweets. But I was glad to delete the people who tweet excessively. That’s one of my pet peeves because it just annoys my followers.
I didn’t check on that when I first started getting followers, but now when someone follows me, I check their streams and if I see a lot of tweets every day I do not follow them.
Absolutely no hard and fast rules but I like twitcleaner because it gets you thinking. Thinking about who you follow and why. So even with this great tool, I find I have to look at each individual so I don’t blindly unfollow someone giving valuable content, RT or feed or whatever.
I don’t do any automatic following and haven’t for about 2 years. Yikes. Yet still, I just try to keep my own following to a minimum.