When I first joined Twitter, I was nearly obsessed with gaining followers and building up that number, just like so many newbies.
At first, I wasn’t entirely discriminating about who I followed, but now I am. I don’t care very much about the number. I’m much more interested in building mutually beneficial relationships and connecting with people I can learn from and share ideas with.
Although I don’t strictly adhere to these “rules”, here are some things that will likely keep me from following you:
1. If you have no photo. Even a poor quality photo of yourself is better than none.
2. If you have no bio. Who are you and what do you have to offer?
3. If your bio is loaded with typos or grammatical errors or doesn’t make sense to me.
4. If your bio is an exercise in self-aggrandizement. I don’t care how wonderful you are.
5. If your profile has no link to further info about you. I want to know who you are and if you’re legitimate.
6. If your tweets are mostly chit chat that doesn’t interest me or teach me anything.
7. If your tweets are mostly about how to get money or make thousands in minutes on the Internet by whatever method.
8. If your tweets are mostly self-promoting in an annoying way.
9. If I don’t like your politics.
10. If your niche and tweets are completely unrelated to mine.
11. If your tweets say over and over I can get 1,000 new Twitter followers a day if I follow your simple rules or buy something from you.
12. If you haven’t tweeted in, say, over a week or so.
13. If you follow and are followed by hundreds or thousands, but you’ve only tweeted maybe a dozen times all together.
14. If your profile in any way smacks of spam, pornography, violence, or anything against my sensibilities.
Do you have any absolute Twitter follower turn-offs?
February 4, 2010 – NOTE FROM MEG:
Check out my update over at Executive Career Brand, 14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter [Revisited]
Related series of posts:
Best of Twitter for Personal Branding and Executive Job Search
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Thanks for commenting, Sylva, and for following me on Twitter.
Too much slang turns me off, too. Happy tweeting!
-Meg
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Photos are important. If I can’t see you, why should I wish to connect with you?
Tim
Hi Tim,
You’re so right! Photos can sell you and attract people to you.
Thanks for commenting,
Meg
I don’t care about the photo, as long as something is there. I don’t demand that people show their face or give out personal information on such a huge site, especially since it’s all too easy to post false info and pics. I see so many people succumbing to personal info demands and numbing themselves to the fact that they’re opening themselves up to all kinds of scams by doing so. And people posting pictures of their children and supplying their names is just WRONG! How naive can you be to do that??
Thanks for commenting, H.F.
You’re right to caution people to be very careful about the info they provide on Twitter, and elsewhere online. Spammers and no-goodniks are everywhere.
-Meg
I don’t like DM messages that are a generic ad for something. I don’t mind if you send me a link or something but if it’s a DM message try to be more personal.
Thanks for commenting, Christina.
I completely agree with you. I hate those canned DM messages that include links to sites trying to sell me something.
I don’t mind if someone has different politics than I have, so long as they aren’t trying to force their beliefs on me. Same for religion. A good discussion is great. But having someone else’s ideals crammed down my throat against my will, not so much.
Same for unrelated niches. I may learn something valuable by stepping outside of my normal little circle. And I have. Even met some great people as a result. Why would I want to deprive myself of this chance? Again, they have to be interesting and conversant.
Otherwise, I totally agree with and understand your reasons. :-)
Thanks for commenting, Mary.
Since I wrote the post, I’ve softened a bit. I do follow people with politics opposed to mine, if they’re not pushing their views on everyone, as you note.
And I regret listing “If your niche and tweets are completely unrelated to mine.” Everyone has something of value to offer. I wouldn’t include this one in my criteria any more.
Happy tweeting!
If they are following zero people back. That shows me they are only interested in what they have to say and have no intention of engaging.
Thanks for commenting, Kimba.
Excellent point! I’m leery of these people too. Seems that some of the very popular people on Twitter, those with loads of followers, are even more selective than we are in following back!
Best,
Meg
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