Thursday 19 April 2012
10 reasons why I won't follow you on Twitter
If you have your own Twitter account, you probably have noticed that there is a constant "race" between every member to get as many followers as possible. I'm not against the idea of having more followers, isn't that the point? But it's essential to follow and be followed by the right people. There's no point following somebody just because you know he's going to follow you back.
So you want more followers AND you want them to be relevant, simple? In theory. Easy? Well if it was there would be no need for specialist social media marketers!
When I started working for SalonHero, the first thing I've done was to "clean" the company's twitter account. I began this process by unfollowing every irrelevant account and then extended my search with other criteria. I've listed below the main reasons that resulted in me unfollowing people and hope it can help you with your Twitter account daily management.
1. You're an egg
Uploading a photo to your profile is one of the first steps you should take when setting up your account. The internet has led to new, impersonal relationships and there has always been a question of security. Social Networks have really brought this to the surface and one way you can help win peoples' trust is uploading a picture of yourself. I personally like to see who I'm talking to and if you don't have a picture I'm therefore unlikely to follow you.
2. You have no bio
Twitter is in a way very anonymous. At first you may start by following your friends and confirmed celebrities but once you leave the realm of familiarity people look to find people with similar interests. The first thing that people look at is the users bio. That is why you need to summarise a little something about yourself in your bio. It's almost like a summary of what prospective followers can expect to hear.
3. You're a spammer
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, a spammer floods your news feed with a combination of junk, shameless marketing and irrelevant links. It is the web equivalent to that phone call you get every evening, just as you sit down for dinner, telling you that you've had an accident and offering a way to make a legal claim: "the only accident was picking up the phone to you and unless I can claim for stress, I probably won't be seeing a penny!"
I follow several businesses on Twitter however when my timeline gets polluted with a link to the company website every 5 minutes, 12 hours a day I may just unfollow that user.
4. You're rude
I don't like being spoken to rudely on the phone, I don't like being spoken to rudely over an email and in a similar vein I do not like being spoken to rudely over twitter. I would strongly suggest you refrain from using offensive language on Twitter.
5. You tweet your every move!
"I have just woken up", "I am about to brush my teeth", "I'm just breaking for lunch", "I'm going to grab a sandwich for lunch"... I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, we all have followed that kind of account at least once. Don't get me wrong, if I have followed you I am interested in what you have to say. However, if you tweet your every move, pretty soon you will have 1 less follower.
6. You never retweet other people's tweets
Everyone loves being retweeted. It's Twitter for 'I agree' or 'I would recommend'. Retweet people and they just might retweet or mention you back. Don't do it and they are probably going to think that you are not interested in what they say and unfollow you.
7. You follow and then unfollow me three times per week
That's okay, I get the message, you want me to follow back. But guess what? You're not a relevant person for me to follow and your attitude exasperates me, so I won't. As simple as that.
8. You only tweet links
Twitter is a very tempting place for companies to publish links to their website or to the latest blog post they wrote. I advise all of you to tell the Twitter community about your blog, website and latest offers. However, make sure your tweets vary from time to time. If you are a hairdresser, the best way to get my attention is to tell me about something interesting or funny that has happened in your salon, or a piece of news you read. Once you have my attention there is a much higher chance I will read your blog or click through to your website when you decide the time is right.
9. You use things like "#followback"
This is probably the thing that annoys me the most on Twitter. Using that kind of hashtag is just a sign that you are not preoccupied about attracting relevant followers but just about getting more. It looks like a "desperate" attitude and makes me unfollow you in a sec.
10. Your last tweet was 20 days ago
Twitter is one of the most dynamic social networks existing and, if you manage your account well, you should be tweeting between 5 and 10 times per day. If I have followed you, you have the perfect opportunity to keep me engaged. If you do not tweet, how are you ever going to do that?
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I agree with every word of that. It's taken me a year to build my following of people that are relevant to our salon or interests. I always try to tweet interesting stuff and mix business information with more personal stuff which people hopefully find vaguely interesting, in order to get more followers. I also tweet several times everyday to make sure we keep awareness of our salon going.
ReplyDeleteHi Jen, thank you for the great feedback! I think you manage your account well and I agree with you: It takes time to build a good Twitter account and you have to update it regularly. I personally go over the list of people we follow every three months to keep it relevant and active.
DeleteAs a brand new Tweeter this was extremely valuable information! Thanks so much for making it freely available. xxx :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Lizzie! You're very welcome and thank you for the nice comment! It's always good to feel helpful :) xx
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