After several conversations with trusted colleagues, last night I decided to unfollow almost all my twitter friends.(I had previously done a similar activity with “deadwood” a couple of times before christmas).
Why have I done this? (Or why social media can get too social)
Twitter gives you a clue… When you sign up it says “Join the conversation.”
So yes, it’s all about the conversation… Between me and you. (and yes I do tweet heavily sometimes).
Quite often, I follow someone as a result of a #followfriday suggestion.
For those of you not connected with twitter jargon, #followfriday is a tradition of suggesting to your followers, someone they might like to follow. Sort of introducing one friend to another at a social gathering.
After an initial burst of conversation, the person I followed just carries on about their business talking about things which I have no interest in.
These might include; what they are doing/did at the weekend, football, blah de blah … boring.
This is too social for me sorry. It’s the virtual equivalent of hanging round the water cooler all day.
I have to focus on running my business and not get sidetracked. (This is also why I don’t tweet much at weekends – but I note that some peoples twitter stream is pretty much the same 24/7).
Autofollowers
There are lots and LOTS of tools and apps that will gather you followers on autopilot follow lots of people on your behalf.
Secret guys – People have to follow YOU. The graphic below shows some of the people who follow me WHO HAVE NEVER TWEETED.
This is an exercise in pure futility and I don’t have the time to continually check for new followers see if they have EVER tweeted and say “hello” to them.
As I tweeted the other day.
Sales pitches and veiled sales pitches
Of course people have stuff to sell. We all do.
But let me ask you a question, everyone tweets their sales links and their buddies RT it (ReTweet) or pass it on.
The conversation goes something like
Social tweet – social tweet – social tweet – social tweet – sales link (picked up by buddies & RT’d)
“Hey – Thanks for the RT” – (Yes I have done this myself).
“No problem – all well with you?”
“Yes – blah de blah, boring”
But here is a secret (don’t tell anyone).
People don’t click
It’s a phoney war. False. Bogus. Fake.
Everyone is going around in circles without realising it.
Want (anecdotal) proof ?- see this random page I snapped recently.
(You do know how to see stats on other people’s bit.ly links… don’t you…?)
Autotweets
I have set up my tweetdeck and other software to filter out “tweetspinner” and “socialoomph” plus a few other phrases which I would prefer not to make public.
Again, I have dabbled in both these named applications in the past so I am not making myself holier than thou.
As a result, some people, I never see in my tweet stream. I know what they do – so I chose not to read adverts.
Still smart people around
Despite you may be thinking that I am not thoroughly miserable. I do think there are some smart people around.
However, I can live without
- People RT’ing high profile blogs and “celebs” to try and get on their radar.
- People asking “how does my site look”
- People (who charge for these services) asking “How do I resize an image” and other such nonsense.
Am I being a sanctimonious prat?
Maybe.
Am I just saying what other people are thinking?
I definitely am saying what other people are thinking.
Will I still talk to you?
Of course I will. It would be rude not to. Just address your conversation to me.
Who do I still follow now?
As I pointed out above – there are still some smart people that I want to follow and keep an eye on what they are doing as well as speak to.
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Can I be Overall Organisational Concept please. Great post Jon :-)
how to write a customer focused letter
Agreed. I think often big corporations send letters either with the in
How to annoy people on the phone
It's tough being a telemarketer. Somehow I do have sympathy, maybe bec
Maxxy
Love this Jonathan and yes you are a misery!! lol But, I think you make a valid point about concentrating your efforts on people that are gonna have conversations and who you can engage with. That word 'engage' is so over-used but I haven't found a substitute for it yet as for me it's the real key around anything meaningful.
I have lost count of the amount of people who I speak to who say "Oh Yes, I am on twitter" and they are quite proud of setting up their blog feeds to auto post to their twitter stream and haven't responded to any tweets to them directly asking questions or wanting to find out more about them… that to me is like placing an advert, then leaving your phone ringing when someone responds!
Twitter lists can be a great alternative to unfollowing those that you are not sure about as it can be time consuming to try to listen to loads of conversations at once and you can then dip in and out of conversations using lists.
I also have filters on tweetdeck and I also show long url which stops me clicking on some low value stuff
Jonathan
Hi Max & hope all is well.
The blog feed is a bug bear with you isn't it?
Funnily enough I had an enquiry from a "social media strategist" looking for us to do some work with/for him. I didn't like the look of him and I knew that his feed consisted of "adverts" (because I looked)…
I tested him (and he failed) – I sent him a tweet saying something like "Hi please follow me so I can send you a DM"
I am still waiting for a reply.
Nice thoughts about the lists. Do you want to write a guest post? It's something I don't know much about?
Roy Gough
A very interesting read Jonathan.
Twitter has become, for many, a numbers game marketing exercise (albiet maybe an important one). I hold up my hands and say that a lot of my posts are 'sales' based too.
The difficulty I find, with making it more social, is handling, viewing and managing all the stuff that comes through. Filtering out the key posts from people you like to follow closely isn't easy without being overwhelmed and spending all day on Twitter.
Things like Hootsuite make life a bit easier, but only when you are desk based. I use Socialoomph, but simply to vet new followers, as it's quite good for that and stems the flood of forex/weightloss/evangelistic stuff that swamps us.
What the 'secret' Jonathan?
Maxxy
Ha Ha .. yes it's a bug bear.
Like the way you say "Didn't like the look of him" as I guess you mean what he looked like online rather than physical appearance! It's important isn't it? But interested that he didnt follow just to receive your DM and then unfollow you again!
Yes will do GP about lists as they are close to my heart
… thanks for the invite and talk soon.
Max
Jonathan
Roy – the "secret" is lists and Maxine is going to write a guest post sometime soon…Hope all is well with you
Jonathan
"Didn't like the look of him" – yes he needed to take his own advice about getting a decent picture etc etc.
Graham Parker
Bitterness, like truth, will out eh Jonathan? It's not angst that makes you feel this way simply the fact that you want people to stand up and be counted for what they say they are doing and with Twitter I don't see a huge amount of it TBH. There is so much "me-too-ism" going off with people RT names or mates just for the hell of it it makes no sense and certainly adds no value.
I've taken to being an Agent Twitter (typed with a French lilt) by forthrightly questioning people that add no value, such as the numerous RTs of the "must read reports" of "Five best things you never knew about social jelly" – why do it if you don't add your own personality of add to the conversation.
I'll RT a link I see as valuable but unless I'm on the phone or plain Twitter I will add a comment, just to show I've read it if nothing else.
I loathe the automated stuff that is ruining Twitter and TBH I see it as a future cancer that will kill it as a marketing tool – I feel a blog coming on.
Anyway, glad I've not been culled – at least not yet
Lisa Blackler
For me it is also about what value people bring. I unfollow persistent auto-tweeters – the Christmas break identified many of these. I unfollow anyone who only tweets motivational quotes (shudder). And next I will unfollow all those who neither fit with my business aims nor are considered friends. It's very liberating!
Maxine Hayter
Interesting thoughts on here.
I am generally classed by all who know me as a Tech Luddite, learning about social media by trying it out, making mistakes, and asking seemingly stupid questions (as once told by an SM genius).
I always thought that the concept of Twitter came from the question "what are you doing right now?" which may explain some of the banal postings you see on there (although I am astounded how many people post constantly during "traditional" working hours!)
I'm still stumbling around Twitter, and find replies to me days after i posted something- whick may as well be an eternity if the respondant is a prolific Tweeter; but I spent 2010 trying out different sites, and this is the year that I will focus where I can get both our business message and our personality out there for maximum results.
This may mean unfollowing some people, and will probably lose some followers in return; but it's alwasy been "quality over quantity" for me anyway
Now, if only I could find whether you have unfollowed me or not, I would ask you where I went right/ wrong…….
Jonathan
@Graham (I will post this in english). I think the "me tooism " kind of sums up what I mean. I commented on your blog and if I had a decent comment plugin, I would link to it.. That's the next job
@Lisa – I read a while back that motivational quotes are the human equivalent of a photocopier.
@Maxine – Tech luddites are good. They stop smart alecs running away and doing something silly.
I have no problem with banal comments – I do so myself. Fortunately, working in technology, I can "fit it in" around other things. I will often have a "burst" while something is downloading/finishing etc. Sometimes, I will go hours without posting.
Quantity over quality is my approach and I made a point of keeping most of my local/sheffield followers where they would have been ruled offside living anywhere else and if you would remind me of your twitter name – I will surely follow you back.
Graham Parker
Three recent examples for your to ponder:
1) Twitter tweets an invite to an interesting looking network event – I respond in minutes and still await a reply
2) Networking guru tweets a string of advice on building relationships – I respond three times, he does not.
3) Some guy checks into a hotel and decides to tell us all that he has; via a Best Western auto tweet mechanism! I ask him what the wallpaper is like? A day later he replies very confused. Now I may be interested or I may be winding him up, but seriously, who outside of his immediate family is interested in knowing he's checked in safely?
I always check who has followed and quit me with Inanutshell – it's brilliant and free. It means I can monitor the new followers that join for and then bugger off because I have not auto-followed them. Why would I want to follow a Dog Trainer in Tuscon or a HR Consultant in Brisbane? I don't care if these people are not connected to me because they won't be useful or add value to my life and that's the starting point for me, just as it is for Maxine I think.
You could spend all day being a busy fool and the Twitterverse is very well populated with such beings. Come ad to the conversation at http://www.parkerpr.com/blog I look forward to it with glee – but definitely not Glee. Adieu
Maxine Hayter
@BespokeMax
Kevin Woodward
Hi Jonathan, thanks for this, an interesting point of view!
As my mum always says when I finally get around to ring her, why haven’t you phoned for such a long time, I always respond, funny that, I was just thinking the same, you haven’t phoned me for a long time either! It does take two to make a conversation, but the onus is on each of us to want to make the start of the conversation.
By un-following us all (oh, and thanks for the re-follow by the way) you have now made it impossible for you to see that very occasionally we might have said something that might pique your interest and for you to want to ask us something first.
So, as you are never going to make a conversation with me, I might just as well unfollow you. Now, if we all did that, you would have no followers, and of course you wouldn’t be following anybody either, so you might just as well not be on twitter.
As others have suggested, I use lists, and use TweetDeck to filter my followers – I don’t always follow back either – but those that I do, might graduate across to a list where I will happily converse, and very occasionally graduate back to the main timeline rather than unfollow. I do unfollow people, but rarely.
To me this is a far better way than not to follow – and yes, I’m sorry, but I do talk about football/rugby/cricket, and the quality of the beer down the pub, but I have another twitter account for all that stuff!
@infraredheating is where I talk about my work, my product that I want to sell, where I follow people who interest me, it’s linked to my facebook page, so I don’t have to do things twice – I give my point of view occasionally, and sometimes participate in a bit of work banter – oh, and yes, I have made a sale as well, so I’m going to keep it up. Today though Jonathan, you piqued my interest, and I read this blog, and we have conversed and you have followed me back, but we’re probably not going to become mates, but may well pass the time of day, I will get to know what you do, and might mention you occasionally, and maybe vice versa
@llamakevin is where I’m at – the real me – I breed llamas and pygmy goats, I have a much bigger following there, converse far more with people, talk rubbish most of the time. I tweet about my holiday cottage (sold at least 5 people holidays through twitter – it’s the llamas), I tweet about my other job, I’m a business advisor and run a local business networking group, and generally have more fun using twitter! I’m also a bit fussier about who I follow there – I have more lists, there are more people on each list, and as @llamakevin I tweet during the evening and at weekends – but, I also make money from doing that, as my target audience is different!
Great fun though, but in my opinion, you need to follow as well as be followed, because that’s how conversations get going – it takes at least two!
Jonathan
Hello Kevin & thanks for taking the time to write such a details response.
Yes – the “waiting for you to ring” syndrome is very true. Interestingly enough, I was followed the other day by a very high profile UK twitterer and then unfollowed a couple of days after. He was obviously using autofollow/unfollow – despite what he says publicly….
After your comment, I spend a little time checking new followers everyday but most of them are obvious autofollowers because
1. They rarely say anything
2. Their follower/follow ratio is just out of kilter – as they inch their way up in terms of followers. There is the interesting people who have only tweeted 100 times and have 85,000 followers and are followed by 84,500.
As for having two twitter accounts, if I spend time online at night talking to strangers – my wife would surely be alarmed…
Claire
Hi Jonatahn
Hi Jonathan
Some lively comments on this topic! I use lists to keep in touch with what’s being said and I do communicate with some groups more than others. I disagree about not posting the blog links as some of the people I follow write amazing blogs which really challenge the status quo and I would miss them if they weren’t posted on twitter.
Also I tweet links to interesting articles in my sector but make sure I label them so people can open them only if relevant. I think it is more than just a conversational tool and it would be a shame if we missed out on the learning and development potential.
PVE67
Hi Jonathan
I’m one of those you culled, after I responded to a question you asked in the general stream. However I understand your point of view totally. I’ve been using Twitter for a quite a while as an experiment. My approach is fairly freeform and my participation depends largely on the time I have available and whether or not I feel I have someting of value to add.
To be honest, I don’t often feel I have “valuable” information to add and thus will participate in the banality of the stream which to be fair is a big part of ordinary life.
Twitter is about conversation, that conversation does not have to have any intrinsic value in itself. The value comes from getting to know people via their stream.
Over the last year I’ve learnt a lot of new things about business, technology and a whole host of other topics. I’ve also met people on Twitter who helped me out and I’ve met a few of them offline as well. Its a great way to keep a finger on the pulse of the fast changing environment we live in. It is also a great way to listen to and to seek peoples opinions. I’m not sure it is a realm that will or can be expected to deliver “new business contracts” at a steady rate every week.
I have a reason for being on Twitter that hopefully will become apparent over he next few months. I wanted to understand how to use the medium before I “attempt to use it properly”. Ironically enough I’m not convinced there is a single proper way to use it.
Personally I think banal, social and purposeful tweets have to exist together to allow one’s personality to be fully expressed. I do agree with you about auto repyling and bots etc. Real people participating are required.
How much an individual tweets is up to them and just because they don’t particiapte everyday or engage you personally in a conversation on a regular basis dosen’t mean they have nothing to say.
However if we restrain our interactions purely to people and topics we have a high level of (or vested) interest in could mean that we miss out on the breath and variety of the medium and its powerful ability to take us down new paths.
I liked Maxine’s point about using lists to follow people that converse on specific topics. I do find develving into the stream doesn’t always work for me, however that could just my mindset at that point because I often find it useful, insightful or simply entertaining.
I also liked Kevin’s views on having 2 accounts, something I’m wrestling with. Not decided whether I will go this route or not yet.
So to summarise I think you have to go with the flow somewhat and explore new avenues.
Ann Hawkins
How (and why) does anyone find the time to check out who has unfollowed them? Why bother to find out if followers have ever tweeted? They’re not bothering you if they’re that quiet. Its not all about you, really its not. Some people just like to watch
I’m constantly amazed at who pops up in response to a random tweet – people I’d forgotten I’d followed, but we have a little exchange of views and then they pop off again and that’s fine.
I agree about the auto-tweeting stuff and don’t get me started on 4sq but mostly, life’s too short to analyse everything.
Hootsuite lets me keep up with the people I care about and everyone else is a rich stream I dip into if something catches my eye. I certainly don’t expect interaction from everyone – I’d be knackered.
I unfollow people who annoy me but I have no idea if anyone has unfollowed me and really don’t care.
Today I’ve laughed my head off, been awed by someone’s creativity, had a rant with Maxine, RT’d a bunch of stuff and probably gathered a few more followers, some of whom I’ll follow back and many that I won’t.
Who cares? Twitter is fun AND productive and I don’t need stats to tell me that.
Take a look at this great poster:
“Its avatars that capture the attention but personality that captures the heart and mind” http://www.theconversationprism.com/media/images/behaviorgraphic-poster-highres.jpg
Jonathan
Ann – I *think* there is a service where you can get a DM everytime someone #unfollows you ?
Ann Hawkins
I’m sure there is but why would anyone bother?
AND – OMG did I just get an automated “thank you for your comment and please like my facebook page”?
Is this not just as bad as the auto DM when you follow someone on Twitter that says, “thanks for following, check out my website”?
Are you hypocritical or am I just hyper-critical?
Jonathan
Automation – would you expect anything else from me
Pooky Hesmondhalgh
Ah it makes sense now! I do follow a lot of people as I find it useful to be able to search their tweets for useful links to read or share but in terms of conversation I tend to mainly start rather than react to conversations so it doesn’t matter so much who I am following but more who is following me. I use hashtags a lot more than my timeline too. So maybe I should take a leaf out of your book.. It just seems so… rude though!
Jonathan
Hello Pooky & sorry it has taken me a day or so to get make to you.
Good points – especially about hashtag. Maxine – probably has several comments in the timeline above – is a big believer in using lists of targeted people. That way you can drop in and out of relevant conversations AND THEN follow if required. Have you read Robert Cialdini and “Influence – the pyschology of persuasion.” One of the key influencers is reciprocity – the feeling to do something when someone has done it to us or for us. Like umm following…
Graham Frost
I’m quite a novice at this really but am finding that I am building a following organically by giving people something interesting to read, hopefully, and re-tweeting things that make me think or make me laugh. In all honesty, I don’t have a lot of time for people who use Twitter purely as a sales channel or as an alternative to chatting around the office water cooler at work. OK, I do tweet stuff about my book now and then but also tweet about new and interesting people that I have met.
I’m sure Twitter is different thing to different people and of course you don’t have to follow anyone. It is a bit of a distraction sometimes and I need to manage my time on social networking sites better!
That’s my three penn’orth.
Jonathan
Graham – I (am no expert either) but I think you have got it bang on. You talk about your book because that is what you are working on. This is the same as you would if we went out for a beer. (Which I am sure we will at some point).
Truism = Way to get followers = post cool stuff. #FACT
Have a good weekend.
Sarah CruickshankTwitter: SarahCru
Hi Jonathan, I follow very few of the people who follow me on twitter, but I do engage in conversations with them, my biggest hate is people who don’t put anything in their profile, why would I follow someone who I don’t know and have no idea what they do or what their interests are?
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