Twitter Unfollows: Take Them With A Pinch Of Salt

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Anybody on twitter gets followed and unfollowed all the time. But some of us get very upset when someone unfollows us. We take it personally and I have seen people brood over it like a break up happened IRL! It has happened to all of us. We post some good tweets, at least we think they are. Or we send some good links to twitter. And what happens, we get a few unfollows. Even worse, you use one of those stupid twitter tools to see who has unfollowed you and it gives you the post they left on. Dumb idea by the way!

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Even brands and corporate accounts take the unfollows too seriously and can be seen making a big brouhaha over those numbers. End of the day, all that counts cannot be counted and that is very true especially on twitter. All that I think of is the content strategy and the overall engagement. As long as these two are good, I don’t get too hung up on the unfollow counts at all. Remember, even the greatest and motivational leaders of the world have had unfollowers. So, that’s that!

Coming back to the topic, I don’t even know when someone unfollows me and I don’t keep track. To be honest, I don’t give a care. There are many reasons people unfollow or don’t follow you at all. The thing to remember is this. Focus on being you and providing value to your followers and the right people will stay with you.

Don’t be so hung up on your follower numbers that you miss the biggest advantage and benefit of twitter. Twitter gives you the chance to build a community of like minded people. It also gives you the chance to listen in on conversations between some of the big influencers in your niche. So, who cares if someone unfollows you? You shouldn’t.

Unfollow is a personal choice and strangely on twitter sometimes it isn’t, people use all sorts of tools to manage their follower/following ratio and they are not themselves aware of what is happening on their behalf. And remember, twitter has millions of fish, a few go and a few come.

All that you need to do, is create a niche, stick to the script and keep adding value. Drive traffic to your blog and be happy! Isn’t that right? So take the unfollow numbers with a pinch of salt and keep going at your social media strategy according to plan. In the end, that is all that counts and sometimes counting other things is futile and pointless.

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

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