Forums

[Mike Morgan Contribution Level: 4]

Hey what's up everyone. I have been trying to solve this problem for weeks & weeks - and I'm glad Mike (Dillard) just send out a email talking about the same thing.

So - let's attack a few questions.

Is having a ton of non-responsive followers such a good thing?

Are all those people really listening to you?

Did you just follow them back because they followed you? - and vice versa.

I have been having this problem and it's getting real irritating. I have a pretty ok response rate on most of my Tweets, but it's not good enough - considering at a time I had 1,000+ followers and I was following 900+.

I realized a few things - I should have never sought out to search for people doing "related" (Internet Marketing) things as me on Twitter and followed them. Yea it was nice of them to follow me back but that's where the relationship stopped. After they hit the follow button on my profile.

I also realized that none of those people really cared about what I was talking about. Whether I was just telling them I what I was doing at the moment, or giving them a link to some content...most people don't respond. And on the other side of it - I didn't care what they were doing at the moment, and what link they gave out - that's after I figured out they did me that way. - they were strangers that I wanted to leverage off of (in the wrong way).

The people that DO listen to me on Twitter have really make me feel like my intent is not going unnoticed. I'm amazed at some of the @Replies and DM's I've got from fan's of mines (yes...fans). I've developed some great friendships from Twitter.

I followed certain people because I wanted to hear what they had to Tweet about - and what ended up happening was I was following too many people and I would miss out on the Tweets I REALLY wanted to read!! (Yes I know TweetDeck can solve this but hey - I'm using a PC over here!)

One more thing - I was another victim of the Twitter bot (autobot) - that takes your profile and automatically follows people related to your interest. AAAGGGHHH!!!! I had to manually (and w/ the help of other apps) unfollow 600+ people just to be satisfied with who was on my homepage feed. Then this made those random's follow me back - equaling more strangers not listening. (anybody know of an app to stop the bot?)

Long story short - Twitter backfired on me when I thought that the whole "follow me, I'll follow you" concept was the way to go. So I'll ask this again....

Is having a ton of non-responsive followers such a good thing?

Are all those people really listening to you?

Did you just follow them back because they followed you? - and vice versa.

[Adam Taha Company: Amway Contribution Level: 7]

We must have started thread at same time hahahaha.

Well, I know that I am unfollowing quiet a few. First ones, are those with avatars and no photo, then work my way to see who is who, and if nothing, unfollow.

I like to have value, true friend, business relationship on twitter. What's use having loads of people following, thousands and no two way conversation or same interest, or remotely interested in one anothers journies etc.

It's only way to find out what, who, why, and I am doing it now, before it gets too thousands. That way, I keep it low. Yes, I did follow because someone followed by now, I feel, not a good idea.

So, changing things at moment.

Adam

[Cynthia Acoff Contribution Level: 4]

Thanks for the post. I am experiencing the same thing... I am fairly new to Twitter and I am learning quickly that I have to actually read the followers profile to see if they have any content I find interesting.

[Jack Parrow Contribution Level: 1]

im only following the people i know or people for whom i have respect for. i think its the best way.

marco

[Bernie Valentine Contribution Level: 1]

That has been my contention right along! If you expect to get anything out of these social netwroks...you MUST pick and choose what you want to say and do; limit your time and involvement to that or you will become quickly overwhelmed and so "distracted" from your goals or purpose that nothing is really accomplished for anyone!
See my Article: http://ezinearticles.com/?Do-You-Need-to-TWITTER?&id=2054590
and my posts on my BLOG.
Bernie

[Contribution Level: 2]

I have been using Twitter for about two months now.

Yes I have a bunch of people I'm following (you can control this) and people following me (or so it says)

Honestly I don't care who is or isn't truly engaged. Those that are will let you know in their own time.
I have made some solid contacts from Twitter and built the relationship off Twitter. I have come to use Twitter as a meeting & gathering point, rather than a relationship builder.

Works for me, may not work for you!

[Alicia Andersen Contribution Level: 2]

Thank you for saying so! If you have stature and know people pay attention to your posts, it's a great way to give them updates. And I was able to ask Mike Klingler & Ann Sieg questions, which I never would have otherwise. Plus, I do like being able to check out the websites of people who say things that I think is pretty smart.

It's pretty classic networking, if you do it slowly. If you're trying to network the right way and build mutually beneficial relationships, you're really sifting and sorting to find people you want to talk to, which is true of any big networking situation.

But maybe Mike Klingler needs to explain to me again (seriously, I think I missed something) the benefit of having a big list of people who don't care about me except as a prospect, if at all. Is it just the cast a wide net theory?

[Mike Morgan Contribution Level: 4]

AAHH Substance.

The numbers game kinda only works with email - you send a email out and it gets delivered to the ENTIRE list (in most cases). Everyone get's there chance to see it. No one misses it - unless they have a large unread email account already.

With Twitter - if you have a really, really good post - whatever it may be about...everyone might not see it.

Now some would argue - if the person wanted to see your post, they would just go to your profile...Yea....but what if they simply forget. I'd like to read every single post Mike Dillard makes but sometimes I just forget to stop by his profile. If someone had a 4 day offer - a person following 4,000 people just might miss the opp to get it because they're following 4,000 people and their homepage updates with 20 new tweets every second.

With so many people - We have to ask ourselves...or like I'm asking you

Did you just follow them back because they followed you?

[Andrew Peel Company: Magnetic Sponsoring Contribution Level: 3]

Ok the pupose of having a lot of followers on Twitter is NOT that you like them or you agree with their Tweets. Think of it merely as a 'fishing pool' it's as simple as that. The more followers you have the better. Why? Simple when you post a Blog which if you are doing Social Media the right way leads to a Squidoo Lens with the full story plus some related videos grabbed from YouTube and some Amaxon books on the same topic. They think hey this guy knows his stuff so they click on your landing page link to find out more. Include your Facebook link as a tiny URL in your reply and guess what? They will follow you on FB without thinking aout it. And what is Facebook? Another 'fishing pool' and of course you do have your Blog linked to your Notes box on your Facebook profile don't you? Anyone who want's coaching on this so it really ties together private message me and we can discuss. By the way there is a site called Friend or Follow if your Following gets a lot more (200) than you Followers go to the site find out who they are and unfollow them. Why? Because it's Tweetiquette to always follow someone who follows you you can always unfollow them later and it looks bad if you have more followers than following they should be roughly equal.

[Carolina Millan Contribution Level: 2]

Well my take on this is a bit different. Take this example to real life.
You arrive at a new place, and you want to get to know new people. There are hundreds of people at this party, and you decide you want to get to know as many as possible. Most of them have the same goal. You're not famous and neither are they, so how would they know they care about what you have to say if they haven't spent a few moments talking to you? And viceversa for you. All you know is that you want to create contacts. And many of these people could represent very valuable contacts, but unless you give them a chance to show you that, how would you know?

For known and famous people like Mike it's easier to say they know most of their followers follow them because they cared about what they had to say. They already have a reputation outside of Twitter. You will follow them because they're a safe follow for you. You know you will get value from most of their posts. And even if they don't follow you back, you'll follow them anyway!

Yes, I tend to follow every new follower I get, but before I follow back I click on their profile. Many times I realise they're bots, Gossip news, or just people who randomly followed 1000 people that day because they're new on Twitter and they think that's the way to go. Then I refrain from following. If they keep following me, well good for them

And right after I follow a bunch of people I go and DM each one of them to say hi and ask them about themselves. Auto DMs are a big no no for me. I hate getting the "thank you for following me" DMs all the time, so I don't send those.

So yeah, I don't think it's bad to follow people back, because then you get a chance to get to know what they're about. I'm glad to know that a big part of my followers has interacted with me at least once!

my two cents...

Caro