My 1901 Twitter Sins - To Those Who Can't Get Conversation

So I’ve finally experimented (and nothing kinky or sadistic by any means) on Twitter. Over two years ago I signed up for an account. The funny thing about it though was, I thought you needed to have a lot of people to follow. And this in turns lets others follow you. Nothing is further from the truth.

I recently did my own Twitter genocide. I hate to use that term in such a non-threatening way, but what is done is now done. I originally had 1900 people I followed. I finally said. Enough is enough. I unfollowed more than 90% of the people. Here’s what happened. Over the course of the next few days, only a small handful actually quit following me back. Honestly I really was not that hurt by this experience. I thought it would be a mass exodus and it turned out it wasn’t.

In fact now that I produced real content, people have been following me instead.

5 Healthy Reasons Mass Unfollowing

1. You can’t possible maintain 104,428 relationships with people. It just doesn’t work.

2. Your Twitter timeline stays cleaner. You save time. You get information only you actual want or is relevant.

3. Less spam.

4. Less noise.

5. You actually get a chance to build relationships with people. Here are some other resources of what people are having to say about this crazy idea.

This is a very small, miniscule case study, but why are people so fearful of someone hitting the Unfollow button. Please note that more than half of these accounts were dead accounts. They had 0 posts or hadn’t posted in over two years. So that was an indicator for me as well.

Oooh I have reached the 350 followers mark. (But I bet sending this tweet will make someone hit ‘unfollow’.)

By racheljanejones at 10/21/2011 1:15

@HanahRoseLouise Maybe you could just draw the Twitter bird on you for a week? If not I think all your new followers should unfollow you.

By S_Wallace23 at 10/21/2011 1:15

RT @wowzayn: I never unfollow people, cause I know they have a unfollow button too.

By binarmuti at 10/21/2011 1:15

My plan to follow less people thwarted by now following sevral new nice people. Still, I did manage one unfollow yesterday.

By psibreaker at 10/21/2011 1:15

Comments: The only one who managed to say how he felt and did not feel impacted by any means.

So unfollow people already that clog up your inbox. If they don’t provide education, enlightenment or entertainment, then why are you following them?

I’m sure there is a reason for following 135,000 other people for some social benefit or good will. And as social media as a whole evolves, we shall see…

Tags: case study, crazy idea, dead accounts, few days, funny thing, mass exodus, my 1901 twitter sins 8211 to those who can8217t get conversation, nothing kinky, twitter, unfollow