Comments on: What to Do When You Lose Followers

By: Dominique

Dominique — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:22:30 +0000

Great article. I had a slew of Quitter e-mails today after I posted a twit looking for constructive suggestions on a site revamp I was doing. After going through the list most of them were people who I didn’t follow back as I didn’t feel I could associate with them. If I was following them and they unfollow me I would mutually unfollow
Anyway I take it as opening new spaces on my twitter limit for more relevant people to interact with.

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:31:16 +0000

Great post. However I think it’s missing one thing. The old “get a life” disclaimer. This is a geeky tech thing that will most likely be replaced by the next great geeky tech thing sometime in the near future. You didn’t lose a real friend – someone you don’t know, never met and have no emotional attachment to simply isn’t reading your stuff anymore.

Get over it, move on, and remember what’s important. If you place any personal value on your follower count then you need to get a new life, because your current one is bordering on pathetic.

Several people here have posted the best advice. Follow who interests you and the rest is irrelevant. The people you interact with are the only ones you care about anyway, so why should it be different for other people.

By: Imie

Imie — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:55:52 +0000

Great post!
I normally don’t unfollow somone until they do the following:
1. Take over the whole twitter page with over 15 post within half an hour. I mean, I would like to see what other people are saying too, not just yours.
2. When they think it’s okay to swear and use foul language on twitter.
3. Spam me
I see these things as common courtesy. When someone unfollow me, i respect their decision.
It is also a common courtesy not to talk about a person negatively in public. I think anyone doing that is damaging their own reputation.

People can be their own executioner…

By: Joy-Mari Cloete

Joy-Mari Cloete — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:59:52 +0000

It doesn’t matter to me. I didn’t provide value to them so that’s why they unfollowed me. Either that or they were hoping that I follow them back. And when I didn’t, they unfollowed.

I’d rather have 50 followers with whom I interact than 500 spamartists who never interact with me.

By: Michael Martine - Remarkablogger

Michael Martine - Remarkablogger — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:14:17 +0000

There really are some high-profile people on Twitter who haven’t really grasped what Twitter is all about, yet, or who aren’t really providing any real value to me, and I’ve unfollowed them.

But what’s amusing about this incident you describe, Darren, is that I’ve been following you on Twitter for a while and I can say from memory that your tweeting has improved. You were bound to get a good number of followers because of the high traffic your blog gets. But you’ve taken Twitter and really gotten into it. I’ve noticed your mix of tweets is varied and contains high-value links and interesting replies to others. I can tell that you’re really trying to provide value (kind of the opposite of tedium). So it’s kind of funny to me that someone would stop following you because they thought you were tedious.

The way I look at it is that if my followers are growing, I just don’t sweat the unfollows. Sure, people will unfollow and have their reasons, but whatever. Unless the ship is sinking, you’re generally doing things right.

By: Lucretia Pruitt

Lucretia Pruitt — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:21:05 +0000

Great post as usual Darren.

Now, what are you supposed to do when you choose to politely disengage and whomever you stopped following it takes it badly?

That’s the tricky one from here. Some people don’t take “I think our paths have diverged” well. I’ve even unfollowed someone without comment and had a stream of invectives follow about how I’m so horrible and awful for unfollowing that person.

Well, that will hopefully be the next masterful twitip post! Thanks again as always!

By: Paula Brett

Paula Brett — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:15:56 +0000

I witnessed this going on `live’ so to speak and thought you handled it masterfully, lol.

I’ve never found you tedious, I enjoy your mix of personal and promotional, think you’ve got just the right balance.

Keep up the great work.

Merry Chrismtas

Paula

By: Dantanner

Dantanner — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:20:24 +0000

I just posted and the comment completely vanished! What gives?

By: Dantanner

Dantanner — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:18:17 +0000

People come in all sizes, nothing fits all. You are going to have bad vibes with some no matter what. But people are generally nice on twitter because their identities are known to some extent via a website or blog and face is put to it. You should see the nastiness when its all anonymous on some boards ..

Anyway tweeting about personal stuff never loses followers. What loses followers if you go commercial in every tweet and use Twitter as Megaphone for your marketing. MagPie is another sore thumb adopt it cleverly or you will lose followers.

PS: My comments show up as anonymous and do not always fill in. I do not know what the problem is

By: Rudy

Rudy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:42:10 +0000

Along the line with Heather’s thinking, with hundreds of followers, why would you bother with one disgruntled follower? Unless that disgruntled person is of influence or someone I know well, I wouldn’t care too much about it.

“Life goes on.”