Twitter Churn

RE-TWEET IT!
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Today, as I churned my small list of people I follow on Twitter (where my “Rule of Forty” remains a guideline), I mused about what makes me decide if I should keep following someone.

I came up with some interesting conclusions:

• I follow people on Twitter to connect. Not just so I can brag about how many people are on my network, but to develop closer, deeper bonds of RELATIONSHIP.

• Most people I am following are regular Twitter users, who tweet at least 3 days in a week.
• All people I follow on Twitter tweet about diverse things, not just one narrow niche or a few. I get to know them as PEOPLE, not as ‘marketers’ or ’speakers’ or ‘non-profit evangelists’ or ‘authors’.
• I follow a few (maybe just one) on Twitter because she makes me laugh!
• I follow some people on Twitter as a ‘trial’ to see what they are up to on Twitter. If our interests match, I’ll follow them for longer.

And so, why do I drop someone off my ‘following’ list on Twitter.

Based on today’s action, I identified some reasons.

• I already know the person and am connected via other channels (forums we both frequent, email exchanges, phone calls from time to time)

• Infrequent activity on Twitter
• I’m just not interested any longer in either the topics they tweet about, or their style/frequency of tweeting
• Niche tweeting… uni-dimensional activity on Twitter that reflects the persona, not the person
• Pitching or ranting too often, for too long – this is a very flexible and loose criterion, some get a lot of slack, others get unfollowed very quickly

And finally, a very important distinction I realized was this.

Twitter, to me, is a connecting and communicating channel. It serves a very specific purpose in my extensive online activity list.

What I do on it is in no way a reflection of my personal feelings, thoughts or attitudes towards the people I follow, or who follow me.

So, if I don’t follow YOU on Twitter, it does NOT mean I like you less, or respect you less, or care about you less.

And contrariwise, if I do follow YOU on Twitter, well… I’m not saying more!