Part 1: Refollow

I’ve tried a lot of twitter tools and some are painfully slow or borderline useless. Yesterday, I decided to thin the number of people I’m following and used Refollow ( http://refollow.com ) to thin the herd.

It was awesome. Fairly quick to use once it loads your info and offered just about every way possible to sort Friends/Followers.

** This is a unsolicited/unpaid, yet glowing endorsement

Part 2: General Social Media Philosophy

While I was going through the list of people that I followed, I started to notice that quite a few people weren’t following back and I started to get a little miffed. I’m not talking about celebrities either major or minor (for a good take on that look here: What Twitter is For ). Some were people that I knew personally and others were businesses that I though, “Well, heck. why wouldn’t they want to follow me???”

You Can’t Take Social Media Personally

After getting a grip on myself, I started to really think about why someone doesn’t follow back and I’ve put this in a nifty web friendly scanning unordered list for your viewing pleasure & enlightenment.

• They Don’t Use Twitter The Way I Do
  Believe it or not, a lot of people use social media for *gasp* socializing with their friends. Even business accounts are going to skew towards friends & associated because they’re run by real people. They’re not so much interested in links or (as in my case) the occasional anonymous dry sarcastic comment. They’re communicating with their real life circle and that’s a good thing.
• I’m Not Offering Anything of Value
  My Twitter account is a mix of professional and personal items and leans heavily in the personal direction because I feel that blatant self-promotion makes me look sleazy. No offense to anyone who blatantly self-promotes; it’s just not encoded in my DNA. Still, posting design related items doesn’t always attract local business people because they’re worried about other things… like staying in business.

  Along the same lines, I don’t follow everyone back immediately. I only reciprocate after I look at their profile & recent tweets and decide that they’ve got something I’m interested in. I also am not prone to follow someone if I’ve already got an expert in their field in my list. For instance: I’ve got my goto guys for SEO already.

• I Haven’t Engaged Enough (or at all)
  Guilty as charged. I see a lot everyday that I think is cool or interesting. A Retweet isn’t always enough. I’ll be making a effort to engage more beyond my normal circle.
• I Haven’t Shown Up On Their Radar
  Many Twitter users follow thousands of people. I don’t know how they keep track of it all. Unless you’re making a regular effort, you’re going to miss some people.

In Closing

Getting upset about the whole who-follows-me-and-who-doesn’t social media game is a lot like cursing the darkness; the darkness doesn’t care. The best thing to do is be yourself and try to be interesting. All the cool tools & tricks in the universe won’t gather you anything of value if you’re not trying to do those two things first.