Twitter Tantrum

On By Mick CanningIn opinion, social media, Twitter

It was interesting – or demoralising – to follow a couple of threads on Twitter today where the vast majority of contributors remarked that if someone followed you, you HAD to follow back. If not, you’d be unfollowed instantly. I noticed this because a few times recently I’ve been followed, only to be unfollowed a few hours later, presumably because I hadn’t followed back. This tells me these new followers had NO interest in what I might post, only in boosting their followers total. And if that’s what the majority think, then why on earth bother posting anything if the only reason anyone else is there is to gain followers?

Just go away. We don’t want your sort in here.

46 thoughts on “Twitter Tantrum”

  1. I feel like blogging is kind of that way, that some people follow just so you will follow back. When I was blogging I would sometimes have a new follower like several of my posts in a matter of less than a minute, which means they didn’t even read them. It was a blessing to have people who engaged because of the content.

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    1. Ah, that’s a whole different annoyance, Kim. I think the record (on my blog) is somewhere around forty likes in a minute. Not exactly encouraging me to follow them! But with Twitter you can be followed and then unfollowed again in a matter of hours. I find it truly bizarre. I genuinely have no idea whether these people have any interest in content.

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    1. The conversation went something along the lines of:
      Them: You’re not coming in here.
      Me: But it’s a public footpath. It says so on my map.
      Them: We don’t care what your map says, just turn around and go back where you came from, and we’ll say no more about it.
      Me: No, it’s a right of way. I’m coming through.
      Them: Well don’t say we didn’t warn you when it all gets rather unpleasant.

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  4. Yes, I also regularly have some followers who unfollow me in a couple hours to a couple of days. Similar things I noticed in my blog too. Many followers are not liking or commenting on my posts. May be there are not returning or they have just came to my blog with several likes in a short time to provoke me to follow them. Anyway, that’s the part of blogging life, we have to live with. Let’s blog and not bother. 🙂

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    1. Yes. It seems a lot of people don’t get that it’s fine to visit now and again, sometimes like or comment. No one has to read every post, and no one is compelled to follow and like someone just because they’ve visited you.

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  5. These people follow you and wait for you to follow back. Once you do that, they will unfollow you. A trick used by many to increase followers. So don’t bother with these people. Follow the ones you want to.

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  7. I don’t do Twitter, but that sort of thing happens all the time on Word Press. People just randomly follow other blogs, expecting them to “follow them back” and thereby increase their stats. I ignore it when it happens on my blog, and yes, the person usually unfollows me. Which is just fine. I’m interested in readers, not empty stats. So my advice is, ignore them and they really will go away!

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  10. Jane Sturgeon

    Hello Mick, you can tell if someone is genuinely following you and engaging can’t you? Doing something just to get stats up is a hiding to nothing and as you say, easy to spot. The jury is still out on Twitter… 🙂

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    1. Hi Jane. Yes, I think you can usually tell. I’ve been followed by loads on the blog, for example, who’ve never commented or left a like (perhaps after initially ‘liking’ twenty posts within a minute) again.

      And yes, the jury is out on Twitter.

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  11. I’ve never been tempted by Twitter. Just the name itself suggests content doesn’t likely go much beyond, “I’m here, I’m here!” I don’t know if that means I’m a dinosaur or simply an introvert.

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  12. You’re in the wrong part of Twitter.

    You need to find people who are talking about the topics you love.

    Engage in conversation with them. The people who do follow for follow are a waste of your time.

    Do worry about your follower count there. Instead worry about how many real connections you made.

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    1. You’re absolutely right. I’m in a good part of Twitter, though. Good conversations, good people. Trouble is, apparently random folk suddenly follow me, who seem to have nothing in common with topics I follow / discuss, then unfollow again when I don’t immediately respond. It doesn’t faze me, I just find this behaviour strange.

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  13. This happens on the blog too, Mick. You find people following you who, I am absolutely sure, have no interest whatsoever in reading your posts. Sometimes there is an avalanche of comment likes too, on either my own posts or those made by me on other’s posts. Believe me it has nothing to do with the content of the comments. Your last sentence sums it up for me too 🙂

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    1. Yes, we definitely ‘gain’ followers who are not interested in anything we put up, but are just looking for a follow back. You never see them again regardless of whether you follow them back or not. The follow/unfollow thing is more obvious on Twitter, just because of the way your profile is displayed, which allows you to monitor these things more easily. But it certainly happens on here.

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