I did something very unsocial this morning — I unfollowed nearly a hundred people on Twitter. It felt good, and not in a spiteful kind of way; rather, it was honest and, I hope, informative. Call it constructive criticism via social media.
It’s become apparent recently that my own Twitter account is something of a cluttered mess because of impulsive following habits — an interesting tweet or two, maybe a cool product or great blog post, and I click the button. And then, over the next weeks or months, I plow through the expanding list of tweets that have little or nothing to do with my actual interests, until I find myself avoiding Twitter altogether. Classic irrelevant information overload, created by my own poor filter and the hit-or-miss Twitter strategies of the people I may (or did) follow. And as in any market, occasional corrections are necessary.
Businesses working with Twitter frequently focus on their number of followers, to the exclusion of any other strategy or metric. But a huge number of followers could easily be an entirely unengaged audience — employees, family members, impulsive followers who felt a momentary burst of interest that later faded. It isn’t enough to have impressive digits under the “Followers” heading, because that number in and of itself doesn’t mean much. It could plummet any time those accounts decide to clean house.
Social media simply isn’t valuable unless something of value is being exchanged consistently and well. So if you suddenly find your follower count dwindling, do yourself a favor and ask why. Consider objectively whether you are adding value or noise, and gauge your success by positive interactions. Being unfollowed is an important piece of information, and it gives you the opportunity to do something really impressive: earn your follower back.
