First, I have a confession to make. Twitter is my least favorite social network so I don’t have a ton of followers. However, I know I need to focus more so I took a long hard look at my account last week and decided it was time to clean up Twitter. Why? I took a look at Crowdfire and discovered that I was following a lot of people who were a waste of my time and they fit into a few categories.
One-time tweeters– I must have had over 100 people who were in my address book that I connected with that tweeted once and never returned. This probably happened when they clicked something that automatically signed them up years ago because they all tweeted the same first-time tweet. Since they never returned again, there was no reason to follow them.
Inactive accounts– These are people who tried Twitter and for whatever reason suddenly stopped. If their last tweet was in 2012, chances are they’re not coming back. So, I got rid of all of those people.
Worthless Twitterers– These were the people who I’m not sure why I followed in the first place. They probably followed me, so I followed back but when I took a look at their content, it wasn’t of interest to me yet it was clogging up my Twitter feed preventing me from seeing other things.
Non-followers– Here’s where it gets a little complicated because they don’t fit neatly in one category. I don’t expect Jimmy Fallon or Roger Federer to follow me back so they got to stay. However, when I follow a fellow blogger, I do hope they return the courtesy. I was a little surprised to see who wasn’t following me and I reached out to a few that I knew were oversights. Then I got rid of a bunch that I knew weren’t going to reciprocate. Some of them have added me back. Others have not. One thing to note, if you have a teenager, it’s a good idea to follow them to monitor social media.
Unfollowers– Many of these were people who followed me and then unfollowed me for whatever reason. Some of them followed me as a contest entry a couple of years ago so I followed back (now I look at the numbers and their feed and can tell who’s a contest entry). Some followed me to get me to follow them and then cut me for whatever reason. Others probably didn’t like my content. It didn’t matter the reason, if they weren’t following me I had to make the decision whether to keep them or not.
The result? I got rid of over 1,000 people. All the dead weight was gone. This gave me a much clearer look at who was interested in my content so I can find other like-minded people on Twitter. It also gives me a chance to kick back and figure out how to strategically grow the account. So go ahead. Clean up Twitter.
What are your thoughts on Twitter?
Emily says
Twitter is my least favorite social network, too. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning up. I’ve used Crowdfire (love!) and have simply unfollowed when I see things in my stream that don’t interest me.
I need to work on it more though. Baby steps, right?
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debcb says
Yes, baby steps because it all takes so much time.
debcb recently posted…Time to clean up Twitter
Kim P says
Twitter is my least favorite of the social medial platforms. I originally only opened the account because it was the only social media that my husband would use. As much as I’ve tried to use it, I just cannot get into it. I mainly use it to send out my blog posts and contest entries
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debcb says
I struggle too but I know it will help my blog traffic if I can grow my following.
debcb recently posted…Time to clean up Twitter
debcb says
Do you get a lot of contest entries from Twitter? I think I get a lot of people that follow me and then unfollow me when it’s over.
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Cynthia says
I have never been fond of twitter although I have gotten some good response from my tweets. I know I need to work at it harder.
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debcb says
I definitely do. I don’t get a lot of blog traffic from Twitter so it was time to figure out why and try to do a better job. Where are you going to start?
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