DISQUS

Vanguy · 7 months ago

Good food for thought.
I've never unfollowed anyone (or even really considered it) but my #s are at a much more manageable level (c.1000) than yours.
Having a major culling once in awhile and then starting over with who really matters to you is probably a good idea - and one I used to exercise with my comic book and baseball card collections.

Seth · 7 months ago

I'm fine with 10-15k but dropping to 0 with a script and building back up seemed like the best use of time. It's a problem that some treat followers on Twitter like they are just a collection of baseball cards. Not a good idea.

Btw. thanks for the music intro today. Local genius!

Shally · 7 months ago

Superb post! thanks for sharing what many of us are experiencing.....
A huge following can sometimes just be meaningless clutter...Cyber Clutter!

Whilst I love the thought of connecting with people from varied backgrounds from across the world, thru twitter, I think quality matters to me,...in connection.

I have been reflecting on this whilst I tweet. u reconfirmed the same....

Cheers!

Seth · 7 months ago

I'm glad you've found it to be true for you as well!

If you look at the people I've followed back so far, you'll see people from all over the world, of all ages, and of all walks of life. It's a wonderful mix! I really enjoy the conversations I've had with them in the past and I very much look forward to the improved communication I'll enjoy via Twitter now that I follow a more-defined crew.

Tim Maly · 7 months ago

One question worth asking is: how on earth did you get up to following 46,000 people? At any point along that insane climb did it occur to you to think "huh, this is a lot of people?"

I mean how do you even think that you'll be able to connect "in a real way" with 15,000 people? That's an entire town!

--------------------------------------------

Yes, you think about it a little, but it’s not like they all came at once. You become anesthetized to the numbers.

15k? No, certainly not all at once. I know I’d be comfortable reading tweets at that level but it wouldn’t be super-strong connections.

I doubt I’ll get past 1k any time very soon. Certainly not this week. It’s a different approach, I know, but I think the results will be positive. If not, at least I tried. -Seth

Nathan Creitz · 7 months ago

Very Bold!

The people you follow should be a reflection of who you trust.

You and I probably don't have a lot in common (other than the Boston connection) so no worries if you don't follow me back. I'm happy to keep you in my network though, because you consistently make great points about trends in social media and that's something I value.

Keep up the good work my friend.

Seth · 7 months ago

I have the distinct feeling that I didn't start a trend in social media on this one....then again, you never know. Once enough people get frustrated with low-value connections, anything can happen!

Catch you on Twitter!

ellen kraftsow · 7 months ago

understood.

bummer though, yours was one of the ones i like!

sorta new to twitter & having trouble with direct messaging feature. think i've lost meeting a few great people over that.

and yes, agreed - have stopped following back marketers and people who seem to have no reason to have followed me other than numbers hunt.... but at first i followed everybody.

best wishes either way -

- snowandstars (ellen)

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Ellen!

Imagine; there was a time when Direct Messages were twice the number of characters as regular tweets. It actually encouraged long-winded people to drop out of their streams and reduced the noise on Twitter. But that is gone now.

If you take a couple moments and go to your "settings" tab, you'll find a space to put your name and some stuff about you that will show up on your Twitter profile page. That way everybody will know you're Ellen and some cool things about you!

Marcie Ciampi · 7 months ago

Well said. Although, I use Tweetdeck sometimes, only because it's easier to see the dms and @people without going back and forth. I still try to "listen" in on what most folks are tweeting. I applaud you for following people you value; I try to do the very same. And, I do un-follow people who are not following me back, because I want to have a 2-way conversation and be able to provide feedback, etc. I enjoyed your article. It was easy to read and interesting. : )

Seth · 7 months ago

I have absolutely no problem with Tweetdeck. I simply named it as a popular 3rd party Twitter program. It was king before Twitter switched up the @replies to reflect the search function. Now I think a combination of something like Tweetgrid and the web interface provides the best connection.

It's okay that you're unfollowing me. I get the notion of the "2-way" and I'm trying to find more of that myself.

The strange thing is that if I hadn't announced it, most wouldn't have known I'd unfollowed. Will my action cost me "social standing" on Twitter? Probably. Will I be okay with it because I believe I've done the right thing? I hope so.

Best!

Kelli Lawless · 7 months ago

this is a thought process I am totally on board with. :) I've stayed twitter small because of it... either that or I am totally boring... but it means I can follow streams like yours more closely and enjoy what you share.

Thanks for the value you add Seth!

Seth · 7 months ago

Kelli, you and I both know that my late-night rants about how people don't appreciate waffles enough don't add much value. Unless you're looking for a conversation. THAT I can do! =)

Grace · 7 months ago

Waffles? Waffles? I didn't know you do late-night rants about the fabulous nature of waffles!

I have an old-style cast-iron on-the-stove type waffle iron. It means I can make waffles on a camping trip with a camp stove. I suppose in a pinch I could even make waffles over a campfire. (Don't tempt me, I will try it!)

Yay, waffles.

And if you don't follow me on Twitter, I'll just haunt you on all your blogs, so there. :)

Seriously, no issues on that. I'm pretty selective about who I follow, and I've always wondered how in the world you could even begin to keep track of all those folks you followed!

Seth · 7 months ago

Don't think for a moment that I didn't find you on Twitter. You can't keep me away. Not even with your campfire and waffle pan.

That kinda sounds like a challenge.

Twitter camping trip with Grace's waffle maker!

=)

eb · 7 months ago

Holy crap, waffles? You need to see my Twitter background!

I recently un-followed some guy who was literally tweeting article links about 10 times/ second. I'm only following 210 tho. How in the world did you get to 45k?

I also block followers who a) offer "special deals" (or whatever) b) seem to have latched onto certain keywords. Bots, in other words. Every so often I'll do a purge after I announce "If you're following me, tweet or I'll assume you're a bot and block your ass!"

I don't expect follows, or even replies, especially from those w/a huge number of followers. I don't take it personally. I have greater concerns.

Anyway, excellent piece.

Oh, my Twitter profile (so you can see the background): http://twitter.com/ebrown2112

Seth · 7 months ago

I will follow you based only on that. Waffles.

When people ask my why I follow you. I shall utter the word: Waffle. And they shall be confused.

Which is rather the point.

I got there one at a time. All done with that. It's a bad idea. I shouldn't have done it. Should have spent more time eating waffles...well, and running too.

zechariah aloysius hillyard · 7 months ago

seth, if you have time, would you tell me more about the script you use?

Julie N · 7 months ago

Well put Seth and something I hope other tweeps take to heart. I don't follow everyone that follows me because there are just too many "spam"followers now. Twitter is an amazing community with so much to offer for those looking to connect and not just build a huge following.

Seth · 7 months ago

It's getting a mixed response on Twitter. Haters are just fans with frowns! =)

I find myself challenged, amused, saddened, and enlightened on a daily basis because of the connections I've made through Twitter. I'm hoping to strengthen existing connections and expand to new ones. An adventure, methinks!

Seth · 7 months ago

@Zac

http://untweeps.com clicked a bunch of times. =) It's a scorched earth method that I only recommend if you're really set on clearing the entire account.

Henie · 7 months ago

Good for you Seth! I just had no idea you felt I wasn't a valuable part of your community anymore! Take care!

Seth · 7 months ago

Henie...what are you talking about? I unfollowed EVERYBODY. I said that a bunch of times on Twitter and here. Be angry if you like but realized that I said I'd follow people back as I have time. Don't make this bigger than it is.

Henie · 7 months ago

Seth,
There's certainly no anger from me. I value whom I value regardless of reciprocity. I think it is not I who is "making this bigger than what it is." You know what you're doing...it is transparent by the very nature of this blog.

Best Always!

Seth · 7 months ago

Slowpoke. I was supposed to be asleep 2hrs ago but I got you. It's hard to forget your vintage tequila-induced drunk tweets.

Steve · 7 months ago

Good for you. I made a decision early on that a policy to blanket follow everyone was not what I wanted to do for this tool. I follow many people that appear to have similar interests or provide useful, interesting conversation. Occasionally, I realize a following is not beneficial and it becomes an annoyance, at which point I unfollow the connection. I constantly see my follow numbers fluctuate, but realize the number is not what is important. If the conversation is interesting, people will continue to follow and contribute.

Continue to be bold!

Seth · 7 months ago

Thanks Steve!

If we were to compare our expectations of Twitter to those of our analog experience, I think we'd relax more about losing 20 followers over something. If you were speaking to an auditorium with 1500 people in it, you'd not panic if a few walked out. I'm hoping to be better about that here as well.

j a n · 7 months ago

Well... good for you. :-) I'll probably never know what it's like to have 40,000 followers. But then I already figured out that's okay.

maikeru76 · 7 months ago

Right on,

I do auto-unfollow and cutting down on the noise too on my end.

narchos · 7 months ago

Fully agree. Becomes rather useless if everyone follows everyone.

Time to go unfollow some peoples...

Ricardo Bueno · 7 months ago

If I follow somdone and they don't follow me back, I consider that a major dialogue FAIL. With that said I don't think there's anything wrong with unfollowing people. Greater relationship symmetry and quality is what I'm looking for.

Seth · 7 months ago

And yet you follow Kevin Rose. A quick search reveals that, as expected, Kevin has never said a thing to you. Make sure of your footing before you start bloviating about relationships and the value of "relationship symmetry and quality".

Ricardo Bueno · 7 months ago

Don't get me wrong, there are several people that I follow who I'm sure don't follow me back (Kevin being one of them of course). I'll continue to follow them even if they don't reciprocate. Take @missrogue for example, she hasn't followed me back but I like her new book "The Whuffie Factor". And for that reason, I'll consider keeping on eye on what she's doing.

Seth · 7 months ago

Point taken. Sorry for any sharp tone.

I think what you say, about value added to the point where reciprocation isn't necessary, rings very true with what I hope to encourage. If we get enough of that, we'll have networks based on perceived value that goes far beyond the simple number in a side bar. Good stuff!

darya · 7 months ago

It's interesting, Seth. Time is so valuable and I find sometimes it is tempting to autofollow rather than review every new follower and decide if I want to follow back. But Twitter loses all value when your stream is stopped up with douchey internet marketers and followfriday bots.

Now I use Twimailer to help manage my followers and decide who is worth following. It takes a little more time, but it is oh so worth it.

I commend you for your bold move. I hope to be someone who adds value to your life.

Seth · 7 months ago

Well, at least add some snarky remarks about great food, Miss Tomato! =)

kent · 7 months ago

I had to comment because i didn't know you or care until you started following me lastnight. I read ur tweets because you started following me.
What is disingenuous is to unfollow all the people you follow but leave the people following you. Many of them will still be filtering with tweetdeck. If you really want to start over why not block all your followers and build only new connections.
How did you get 45k followers in the first place, you were the one adding people blindly.

But its your twitter to do as you please. just my opinion on the issue.

Seth · 7 months ago

They're unfollowing at a rapid rate and many of the rest are reaching out in various ways to see where I went. I'm not entirely as small a fry as you infer.

I'm not trying to build entirely new connections. I'm trying to improve the ones I currently have and add additional ones. Blocking everybody would be a bad move.

Sarah Joy Albrecht · 7 months ago

How freeing! Good for you!

Why stop with decluttering Twitter? You might enjoy the book Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley (aka "The Fly Lady from http://flylady.net/) to help declutter other areas of home and life. This book has been life-changing for me.

Ozh · 7 months ago

you unfollowed 45K people because following 45K people is utterly stupid, maybe?

Seth · 7 months ago

Precisely. =) Good think I corrected that, huh?

san · 7 months ago

Interesting. I, by default, do not follow anyone that fits the type described in all your "goodbyes" and I still find myself thinking that I have to "purge" my list of just 300 and something followers. On the other hand I do not unfollow people because they unfollow me nor I always look for people that have something in common with me..., on the contrary sometimes I find it more interesting to read what people different to me have to say.

On the other hand I guess it has to do with what you are looking for in Twitter. I am not looking for people I trust but for interesting people, interesting links or interesting opinions. And being an eclectic myself I just can't follow people in just one area... it will simply bored me to death to do that.

But I do understand your point, it can get overwhelming sometimes...

Seth · 7 months ago

Eclectic is where it's at!

I'm sorry if you took my post to mean that I think all people use Twitter in a certain way. If I truly believed that were the case, I'd sign off and not bother coming back.

The truth of the matter is that there are many users like you who create a lot of value and bring a lot more to any table than most of us can ever hope to. I'm excited about building stronger connections with those people, not the bots and posers.

Susan · 7 months ago

I had decided to "unfollow" some people too. They seemed interesting, but then not so much, thought we had something in common, then didn't. Sort of like dating!

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes. A lot like dating.

Right down to the part where they freak out like you're breaking up when all you said was you needed "a bit of time off to figure everything out."

=)

Nictos · 7 months ago

I don't agree that being followed obliges me to follow back. I treat Twitter like a Greek agora, traveling from teacher to teacher to listen and then pass it on, hopefully adding some value in the process (and attracting followers). Attraction rather than promotion allows me to act natural.

On the other hand, I hate it when someone tries to teach me something. I like Seth because his conversations have always been inclusive, asking his audience/participants what they think. The results have been interesting and enlightening. Just seemed out of character.

Seth · 7 months ago

I agree.

This was something I'd been thinking a lot about and, after getting responses that split near-even on both sides of my idea, I decided that I had to vote with what I thought best.

I think the results will be better conversations without any regard the the numbers. I should have done this long ago.

dvdsea · 7 months ago

Yes, as others have commented above, I'm new to Twitter and I certainly follow people out of courtesy or a feeling that it's the thing to do. Some of my followers who I don't have much in common with post rarely, if ever, so I just let them be. I'm currently unfollowing incompatible people who do post a lot. I'm interested in just riffing around and having fun; I don't have anything to market and I'm not interested in growing followers exponentially.

In any case, I find your twits interesting and will continue to follow you. If I didn't think I was a fun feller worth following, well I wouldn't be on Twitter.

Seth · 7 months ago

I can be caught just having fun the majority of the time I'm on Twitter.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from a "concerned citizen" warning me that I was diluting my personal brand by talking about random things on Twitter. I've decided that talking about fun stuff, strange stuff, interesting stuff, is what gives many of us the opportunity to interact on a very human level without having to initially worry about the business stuff we all deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Best!

Chris Foley · 7 months ago

Seth,
Bold move, and a wise one, I feel.
The only thing that annoys me more than being "autofollowed," (yes, it annoys me) is when I see some B.S. get rich quick profile-bot acquiring thousands of followers due to autofollowing.

I vet each and every person who follows me. It doesn't take that much time to do. I follow those whom I feel add value to myself, and my friends. As a result, my feed is full of conversations that I WANT to participate in; the signal to noise ratio is perfect.

I would hope that one would follow me because they find my feed to be of value to them, and not because of some rote reciprocal model, like a missionary handing me a book at the airport and expecting a donation in return.

Autofollow simply creates a Twitterverse of bots following bots. It clogs the stream and makes what we're here for more difficult.

I'm @foleypod, and you and I have had a few meaningful exchanges in the recent past.

Check me out, if you find my feed to be of value, please follow me. And if you do not, that's cool too. Who wants party guests who aren't having fun anyway? It's not about the numbers, people only think it is.

Thanks for posting about this, I hope it gets people thinking about shaking loose the parasites. spammers, and strippers.

~ Chris

Seth · 7 months ago

Hey Chris! I think that clogged up situation is precisely what has happened recently. The auto-follow issue has become such a staple of Twitter that you can actually go on Ebay and purchase increments of followers! Ack!

You know its bad when you see a NSFW account taking a break from tweeting xxx links for a long rant about how Twitter just isn't any fun. Always good for an ironic laugh.

Thanks for swinging by!

Angelo · 7 months ago

Often I find myself counting to ten when I read blogs like this.

My first instinct is to say how it is nearly impossible to "connect" with 100k people on a daily basis even if it is via the speed of the Internet. It's unfair to pick on Tweetdeck users who set up favorites so they can communicate with those they regularly interact with. We ALL have our favorites. I do. So do you.

I've heard and seen it before with Twitter Guru's who talk about community, sharing, providing value -- yet they won't engage in a conversation with the everyman unless he shows interest in purchasing their services.

I provide value in my tweets in the form of information, education, humor, empathy, support, insight and motivation. However the value I offer has to do with the entertainment industry. Perhaps this value is of no value to you. This might explain why you've never responded or replied to ANY tweet I've sent you. It's totally understandable. But this blog gives the connotation that you have unilaterally removed Twitterers who offer no value, and thus you do not endorse. However there is "zero value" and " "zero relevant value." These things are very different. In the same way indie film tweets may have no value to you, your endorsement may have no value to others. But that's neither here nor there.

To unfollow many followers is everyone's right. But to blog about it, attempt to call-out Tweetdeck users as if they are doing something deceitful, detracts from your message of your desire to "build something truly powerful and show the world all the beauty we can bring..."

Beauty starts with HOPE. Perhaps this blog would have been more insightful and inspirational if it were titled, "Why I HOPE To Connect with the 45K People On Twitter That I Don't Regularly Exchange Thoughts and Ideas With"

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Angelo,

I'm glad of your response because many people hesitate to state a dissenting view. You did so eloquently.

A couple things I'd like to clarify:

1st, I think Tweetdeck and other programs like it can be very useful tools to increase the value of communication. I have a problem with users following 50,60, or even 100k people and saying that they do so "to connect" when that simply isn't the case. They're following to get followers.

2, You've never sent me any tweets. The only time our names have interacted on Twitter is here:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=angelobell%20seths...

In which you retweet a link from Chris Blake.

Our paths have never crossed. We've not spoken. I cannot say whether/not I find your tweets of value because today is the first time I've read any of them.

You are right about my post, in some ways. Yes, I could have been more specific about what I meant about Tweetdeck and how I went about the unfollow process and why I decided to unfollow everybody at once. I dropped 350 words in my final edit because I wanted the post to flow and figured I could explain myself more in the comments.

I like your idea for a new title. All except for the number. I knew I'd lose 15-20k by doing things this way. I really believe it's the best thing to do though.

Thank you for taking the time to hit me up with your thoughts.

LouLou909 · 7 months ago

Makes so much sense Seth! It's very easy to get carried away and think that you have to be polite and follow everyone who follows you, but at the end of the day, do you really want pages of advertising giving you advice on how to attract people to your website? I think not.
It is a difficult decision to make though, to unfollow people that you followed. I can see why you needed to explain your action as people do take this to heart.
If someone follows me, I check them out for a while before I decide to follow them. I'm amazed at how many stop following me if I haven't hit the 'follow' button in about 48 hours.
I judge those that I wish to follow by who they follow, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
That said, I'm not about to follow someone who has 500,000 followers but only follows 2 people. Are they really that egotistical that they believe no one else has anything to say?
Anyway, good luck with rebuilding your follow list into something that is meaningful for you!

Seth · 7 months ago

I don't think the 500k account is necessarily egotistical for not following back more than a few. Once you get to that sort of number, simply reading @'s is enough to take up more time in the day than most are willing to spend on Twitter. Ask 500k users "what's your favorite sandwich" and you just got an afternoon's worth of reading!

The best accounts are the ones with sales pages promising "to boost your twitter following by the thousands" ... and there are 1700 people following the user. Zing!

Thanks for taking the time to find me here. I will catch you on Twitter!

Debrah6 · 7 months ago

I totally understand with numbers like yours why that is necessary- sad tho- as some of us dont sell anything, dont use tweetedeck and actually subscribe to you.. and your blogs..

Will miss your insights but will still look forward to your blogs..

Seth · 7 months ago

And those are the accounts I'm finding and following back when I come in contact with them...just as I have with you. =)

Thatonetallguy · 7 months ago

I'm still learning but I usually check out a profile before I click follow. I have always tried to follow people IRL I felt I could learn something from so your move makes perfect sense to me Seth.... peace

Sal · 7 months ago

So the other day this dude named Seth Simonds follows me. So I follow him back. I follow anyone that follows me until I see strings of automated crap in my feed. I don't mind someone giving their products or sites a plug here and again, but AUTOMATED and SOCIAL just don't seem to be mutually inclusive. Makes your feed look like an uncategorized google page. If I want to deal with google I'll search or master up some SEO. Social to me means ranting, sharing, and some intellectualizing mixed with some good BS here and again.

That's why I enjoy follow friday - everyone seems to go the extra mile to actually post real stuff on fridays. Last friday I had fun here. Here it is sunday and outside of one or two pals it's been an actual drag. Then I get your post.

Anyhow - Seth. You remind me of an Alcoholic who wakes up sober one day and realizes that he's been sotted for most of his adult life and just pours a cup of coffee and starts thinking instead of just popping the tab on another beer.
LMAO.

Welcome back to the real world.

Sal (Heysal)

Seth · 7 months ago

I'm going to assume that you're drunk. Your site is a landing page: It says:

"Would You Like To Have Radiant, Flawless Skin and Thick, Shiny Hair Without Spending a Fortune?" And you promise this miracle for $14.95. You fall under the very first category of goodbyes! =)

Thanks for the welcome back!

Sarah Joy Albrecht · 7 months ago

Burn!

Poor Lucky Me · 7 months ago

Oh man, your exchange with Sal made me spit coffee all over my desk!

I think Twitter has gotten a lot like the Red Hot Chili Peppers were in the 90's: really cool until everyone was into them. Then they started sounding wussy. Then you peeled all their stickers off of your locker but still listened to them when you were home alone. And you still really liked them, even if a bunch of tools though Under the Bridge was the best song ever.

Seth · 7 months ago

I'm glad to provide a bit of entertainment. Apparently, I'm much more amusing when I'm short on sleep.

I shall have to try that again.

Yes, the groupie mentality of Twitter has been due for a bit of a mix up.

I don't know if this is it or if something down the road will make a difference. We'll see.

I'm going to keep plodding along and calling things as I see them. In this case, I missed out on a freaking awesome party with drinking and random commenting!

Dani Alberti · 7 months ago

Bravo! I only follow like 60 people, but I'm going to do the same thing. Following someone on Twitter should mean that I support/endorse them as quality contributors, rather than simply having heard of that person. I can assure you, I will continue to follow you, as I've really appreciated reading your tweets and blogs. Thanks so much!!!!

Seth · 7 months ago

Whoa! You should be able to click through and check things out with that number. No need to add any drama by unfollowing/refollowing people!

I've only done it that way because it wasn't feasible to lower my number manually in a decent amount of time.

Good luck and have some fun out there in CO!

Uhura Jones · 7 months ago

I agree with you 100%, Seth. Twitter for me isn't about having the most imaginary contacts and inflated number so people think I'm awesome. Since I made my profile private, it's much easier to manage these relationships. When I receive a follow request, I still read their bio, visit the website listed, and read through a page or two of tweets. Same as before, only it takes a LOT less time. What I take into consideration:

1. How did you find me? / Why do you find me or my tweets interesting? Do we have a mutual friend? Are we interested in the same topics/ideas/etc? If I can't figure out why you want to follow me and you couldn't be bothered to send an @ message clarification, please don't get mad that I declined your request and/or opted not to follow you.

2. Why do you tweet? - If 75% of your tweets are links, I probably won't follow you unless I'm interested in 50% of them (unlikely). Ditto if you're part of an MLM, get rich quick, SEO, or fail to engage others regularly.

3. How often do you tweet? - I can only handle a few prolific tweeters at a time, and right now the spots are all full. I use the twitter mobile and website clients. I don't use TweetDeck, etc as a management program to filter people and groups. I read the majority of tweets that come my way, and check @ replies regularly for those I'm not following (yet).

4. Unintentional Spammers - This is in conjunction to Numbers 2 & 3. If you're a prolific tweeter of things I'm not passionate about, you're an Unintentional Spammer.

5. Salespeople. Most Marketers: I don't want my twitter feed to be full of ads.


Lastly, it's OKAY not to follow people back. I follow people because I want to hear what they have to share. It would be arrogant to assume they would also be interested in me just because I followed them!

Seth · 7 months ago

Well said! I'm a bit different in that having a "secured" twitter profile doesn't appeal to me at all. I like the idea of people being able to bounce in and out as they please. Just my taste though.

Great process you've got!

Ron Jams Lead Kutz · 7 months ago

I use tweetdeck for convienance not for filters,I like the spread sheet format and the search engines are good for grabing tweets that are points intrest and can run several at once thus creating a frend finder in a maner of speaking, I have only un followed a few so far unly the ones who so enwraped there cant do eneything els but spam, I am still weeding them out, and that guy who wants to overthrow the government of Brittania by killing his father. but for the most part I found I can use tweetdecks group feature to colomnize the people who are most important, and let the all frends colom take the bulk. even the public posts are bufferd. I set the search engines one day to grab the alphbet so I could see all the trafic well all that the colom limit would allow, I was so intence that I had like a thousand tweets a second. needless to say I had to dissable the interface to get where I could deleat the colomns and get it back to normalbut for the record I dont conceder aney one a place holder. I dont nessasarly folow to get folowers but I like to find out what there about before I unfollow My main criteria for unfollowing is, are they brain dead or totaly selfsurving or a bot ? otherwise I like to catch most of what is being hashed. I need to know who is receptive to the issues that are most important in the world.
Thanks tweetya later

Seth · 7 months ago

"My main criteria for unfollowing is: are they brain dead or totally self-serving or a bot?"

Ron. You are THE man! =)

Nathalie Molina · 7 months ago

constraints = creativity

Still understanding how that translates into Twitter, but you're following in the steps of Tim Ferris, and I guess that can't be so bad :-) Still having my own internal debate though, I vet every follow, but then I'm just starting.

Seth · 7 months ago

If you're vetting, you're good.

You knew that already though.

I ate a huge handful of haribo today and thought of you: "haha, Nathalie doesn't get any" was my thought. =P

Nathalie Molina · 7 months ago

Hm, not sure whether to giggle or go have some candy. Wait I'll do both. Sounds like you have a large stash of Haribo. I tend to think contraints should not apply when it comes to candy and good cheese.

Uhura Jones · 7 months ago

Natalie, the natural constraints of Twitter led to much creativity - notably the creation of every third party app based on it (TweetDeck, Tweetie, TwitPic, TweetPhoto, etc).

Nathalie Molina · 7 months ago

Interesting idea, but not sure the greater twitter reality reflects it, at least not consistently. I think we often confuse busy work with creative work. I really like the 'find your great work' concepts on this subject: www.boxofcrayons.com

I guess the challenge is being able to tell the difference.

Clay Franklin · 7 months ago

Time to turn off auto follow again.
I have also gone back to the beginning and reviewed all my followers one by one. Then, later I realized I was spending too much time every day reviewing new followers and turned on auto follow.
Now I am not enjoying twitter as much as when I followed fewer people and really got more involved in the tribe. It's time for me to do another review.

Seth · 7 months ago

That's what I did on Friday. 5hrs in and I was only through a few hundred follows though! Yes it's dramatic because the initial number was high...but I think it was time and I think I did the right thing.

Time will tell, right? What's the deal with the tribes?

karenloye · 7 months ago

Being with Twitter only about a month, I originally sought opinions about "what to do to get started." The advise was heavily skewed toward building the biggest list of followers possible. Hmmmm. As a marketer, I was originally predisposed to finding folks that had something quite obviously in common. However, through trial and error (or happy accident) some of the folks I've come to enjoy the most have very different occupations, backgrounds, political perspectives, and the like. Although they may not fall into a predefined and self-imposed "niche," some of my favorites simply delight me with their posts, have insightful info to share, or provide me with something else of value.

I do choose NOT to follow (or will unfollow) those that fit into the buckets below:
* Post only with no interactive tweets at all
* Include a self-serving link in every post they make (even a supposed non-pitchy post)
* Start a large following list to solicit followers before they make a single post
* Hog the page with excessive strings of pre-scripted and prescheduled posts
* Are pitching continually

By using my own "rules" I'm using Twitter (as limited time allows) to meet new friends, enjoy the chatter, learn from some masters, and enhance my time online.

Whether you find me worthy of following back, I will be following you. Appreciate your insight, enjoy your personality, and respect your bold and public decision.

Seth · 7 months ago

I tweeted about prescheduled tweets earlier today.

Every time I reply to a "tweetlater" or similar tweet engine and realize that the user isn't online, I feel like I've just been duped by one of those answering machine messages that starts out with "hello? hello?" Hate that!

You've learned a LOT in a month! Great to meet you!

b1tzmast3r · 7 months ago

Seth, You deserve that floating pillow more than ever now!

Like I always say, I'd rather have 30 followers who care to hear what I have to say than 30,000 who don't listen to me at all.

I've been amazed at how fast I built my account from 50 to 800+ followers. After a quick test, I found only 14 of them actually hear me. There's certainly something to be said about that!

Seth · 7 months ago

Haha. Maybe someday. There are some people willing to carry one with me on it so long as I'm dead. =)

Yes. There's something to be said about that. Some of it has to do with people's frequency of use, some has to do with people simply being oversubscribed and unable to see things. It's a vicious soup but I think we can make some sense of it!

Orlanda · 7 months ago

Right from the beginning I have checked out every single person that follows me. And I follow those with similar interests in play as well as work. Which to me is the same thing.

I have less than 1000 followers. Yet 90% of them either work/play as screenwriters, prose writers, lyracists, composers, directors, producers, cast, crew, musicians.

It might read like a fan list, but when you are a screenwriter, book editor, lyracist, who has done extra acting, produced and directed your own short movie and play drums. It makes for an awesomely fun work day.

Thanks for the great insight, Seth. Networking = friends in my book.

Seth · 7 months ago

Ooh, you must have a lot of fun! =)

It's great to hear that you're using Twitter as a way to connect and improve communication. Really great!

Ray Hartjen · 7 months ago

While I'll miss you :), your integrity is noteworthy. Keep up the good fight.

Seth · 7 months ago

Miss me? yuh. You don't get away that easily, Ray. =)

giedrius · 7 months ago

I think it is up to you how you use twitter and if you follow back everyone or not. The question is what you plan to do with twitter: a) share b) share and get response and a) know what your "friends" are buzzing about b) know what your audience are buzzing about.
Options b) kinda forces you to get proper desktop client and/or follow your followers back, at least for me.
And no, I am not thinking to stop following someone just because they unfollow me. Or follow someone just because they do same. My criteria is that person is active, real person that does not feed me their products only. I believe that I can learn more from broader spectrum of users than from focusing in single niche only.

Seth · 7 months ago

I think your approach to Twitter is very healthy and probably renders a lot of value in return for your efforts!

I think you can track the "buzz" if you have well-connected friends, no? I'm with you on the real people who don't force-feed products. Especially twitter-related products!

charl pearce · 7 months ago

Is this the most activity you have received from followers?

for me, i still follow all of my followers (i have a lot less than you). I know i can't read all of their tweets & find myself digging through tweetdeck,. Then I jump on the web to view specific twitter accounts. I use search words to find people with similiar likes (surf, fashion, socialmedia). and finally I review my new followers to see what they are like. On a good day; I can review a new followers bio, tweets, blog, blips & know they're pretty cool so I follow, engage & wait for a reponse.

Bonus of following everyone: On an odd day, I can notice a "new" twitterer post something interesting so I comment back and they comment back and W"OWZA we have conversation and connection. It's prett cool.

My tight twitter group; are the people I meet outside of twitter and engage with IRL. (past my husband =) Like at Tweetup or SMCSeattle. I find friends I want hook up with & we meet at a bar to talk abut technology, marketing & social media. I have another group that I "hang" with through blip.fm

So many non IRL engagement possibilities; how do you manage them?
Have fun!

Seth · 7 months ago

Conversation-wise or activity-wise? The first, no. I've had wildly huge conversations about mostly random things. I didn't sleep much at all a few months back and I'd often tweet crazy questions late at night. Lots of interaction.

Activity-wise...yeah. I've never been unfollowed by 10k people in a few hours' time before.

There are a lot of options! I'd like to spend some more time on blip. I setup the account but need to make some connections and spend some time to get it going.

I like your use of Tweetdeck. Seems very honest and effective. You're a good egg! =)

Alex Newell · 7 months ago

I follow people who I think will add to my life in some way - perhaps with witty remarks, perhaps they have a good blog.

And I do not routinely follow anyone...
Rather I block people from following me if I dislike their profile.

So far I am not sure about twitter - I don't know how significant it is in my life. So far it looks good but it is changing fast and it may change again when it is sold and monetised...

:-)

Alex

Sasha Kane · 7 months ago

Funny how you still have you still have the cute little face. Could have picked your baby picture out in a stack of thousands. My only comment to the Twitter Follow - Unfollow issue is ...Do what makes sense to you and brings you some peace. When did Twitter get so complicated. It used to be .... FUN! Wishing you the best!

Seth · 7 months ago

I don't think so...I looked like a baby...which is unlike what I look like now.

=)

Sarah Joy Albrecht · 7 months ago

Couldn't resist.

This e-Card is too perfect for you today - http://tinyurl.com/dlw2lc

BTW, I will keep on tweeting (and following your tweets) whether or not you're following me.

It's impossible to keep up with 45k people and you have every right to pare down numbers for the sake of sanity.

Congrats, though. To piss people off by no longer following them shows you have quite a loyal following.

Seth · 7 months ago

And that's laugh #2 you've provided in this comment stream so far. E-card is amazing. It's so weird how we've built these odd social constructs in social media that really don't reflect much of real life.

45k is too high. 15k is manageable. Unfortunately, this was the quickest and most honest way between the two. It'll be a bit of a grind before I get everything sorted.

The idea wasn't to piss people off. If I wanted to do that I'd have asked you to guest post. =P

Lee · 7 months ago

Humm... I perhaps come into your TweetDeck category. But I'd like to defend myself. I follow a lot of people on twitter and for a lot of different reasons. I have two main groups on TweetDeck - my close real life friends and people I don't know. The more contact I have with someone the more likely they are to be moved onto the 'friends' group. I have this group as it's smaller and I absolutely do not want to miss the posts in it. This doesn't mean I don't read the second group I have - there are plenty of interesting things in there (for example a link to this blog post :)) I find that while it could be seen that I'm choosing to "ignore" some people it actually has the inverse effect and I end up being in contact with more people.

Further, some people just write too many god damn posts on twitter for me to possibly follow - however I don't want to un-follow those people as a lot of the time they are interesting posts - it's just that they detract from other equally as interesting posts that are more directly relevant to me.

In short, I read most every twitter post but I filter to make sure the most important ones to me definitely get through and read.

And finally - I won't be unfollowing you, I like reading your tweets and your blog seems very interesting (I especially enjoyed the post where you waterboarded yourself - very brave)

Cheers

@lvturner

Seth · 7 months ago

Heya. I'm not out to get Tweetdeck users. I think it can be very useful. You're using it to maximize contact with a specific group of people and you readily admit that in public places. I only have an issue with those who filter their tweets then refuse to admit doing so when asked about why they follow so many people. The truth? If you aren't famous, the only way to get a ton of followers is to aggressively follow people and bank on them following you back.

You've given me a good reminder to keep an eye on the frequency of posts. Sometimes I shoot full and fast when a smaller amount of more thoughtful content would do the same thing...and be less annoying.

Thanks!

moonscribe · 7 months ago

We all need periods where we take stock, reassess and move the detritus from our lives. The ideal is that every action and word is the consequence of thought, and not a reflex; and that all relationships are genuine, complementary and bring value to both parties.

Like you, I don’t wish to be the victim of marketeers and bots. I would rather have a smaller number of follower with whom I have a sort of connection and opportunity for sharing my world, than be another notch on the bedpost for someone who is only concerned bout getting “out there”. True networking is about connection, not numbers.

Seth · 7 months ago

You're doing it the right way. I'm trying to do a better job of putting my actions where my mouth is and leading instead of suggesting. Here's hoping my existing network will take the shift well. If not, that's okay. I'll start again. It looks like things will be okay though. =) Thanks for the support. It's really encouraging to know that you're keeping it small and really finding a lot of value!

Cara · 7 months ago

Thank you for this article.
I learned about if from one of my followers on Twitter and I really appreciate to read there are more people out there
who care .

Keep up the good work!

Seth · 7 months ago

I will do my best. Make sure to get on my case if I start slacking, eh? =)

Melissah · 7 months ago

No one held you down and made you mindlessly follow everyone that follows you (although you know better than I could. Maybe that is exactly what happened, in which case that is the saddest thing I've ever heard and I'm sending you astral love).

The point I'm trying to make is that it's all on you. I've read the comments; you seem to understand this. So what /doesn't/ make sense is the accusatory tone of your blog post. I'm sure that you didn't seek out and add 45 000 people on Twitter and that some of them may have added you. So why the hate?

Next time you feel like writing a blog post, wait until you're feeling slightly less bitter. Otherwise people like me, complete strangers, might think you're a jackass.

Seth · 7 months ago

There's no hate unless you fall into one of the categories of people I said goodbye to. And even then, there's no hatred, just silence.

You infer a tone that isn't there and suggest how other people are reading this entire thing...have you been drinking as well?

How many people drink and tweet on Sunday nights? This is getting ridiculous. I'm also feeling like I missed out on a huge party.

You should have told me. I am now bitter. I'm bitter that you didn't tell me about the drink-and-comment-on-new-blogs party you and Sal had without inviting me. =(

Thierry de Baillon · 7 months ago

Hi Seth,
I understand why you unfollowed quite anybody. Great move, quite similar as @jimconnolly did a few weeks ago.
What I don't understand is why you open the door for people asking you to follow them back. It's your choice, your move... isn't it ?

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes. Entirely my choice and my move. So far, the only people who have asked me are those who have earned the right to do so by having previously connected in any number of ways. They're doing me a favor because there are thousands and it takes time to pull them all back in.

It's actually been really refreshing and fun so far. I've been able to catch up with a lot of people I would have missed out on otherwise. Good stuff!

Jim cleared his account of followers as well. I'm not doing that because I have a lot of followers who have expressed contentment in being just that. Most of the conversations I have on Twitter are a result of questions I've asked. They're a result of other people responding to my tweets. I initiate most of the conversations. As such, the typical follower/following experience is a bit different in this case because I often start conversations.

Does this mean I talk too much? Perhaps. I shall look into that. =)

Ruben Olsen · 7 months ago

Very good posting - it reflect my own thoughts on this:

Ken Camp states that Less is More and the value of following few people on Twitter. It is a well written piece that a lot of people should read - and then re-read - and then try to understand.

Actually - I believe that it is not the number that is the issue here, it is the quality of the people you follow. This may seems like a no-brainer for old timers for (non-verbal) communication - but it is really not a no-brainer for a lot of people. I have seen the same of Facebook - people collect contacts. Even on LinkedIn some people collect contacts.

In principle I do agree with Ken that quality trumps quantity any time of day. However, there are exception to the rule. I do follow a very few people that are following a couple of thousands people. My reason for following these people are not that I need them to listen to what I have to say. I really do not care if people listen to what I have to say - it is not important for me personally. I do follow these people simply because they provide high quality content.

On the other hand - if people decide to follow me I do sincerely hope that it is because that I contribute good content. That is fine with me. It does not boost my ego - it does not boost my self confidence (yes - I know I am an arrogant pri*k). I contribute because I seriously believe that I have something worth reading. If not, I rather shut up.

One issue is the current crop of Twitter clients (in lack of a better word). Most (all?) clients do not support something as simple as filtering. Unless there are filtering capabilities built into those clients sooner or later people will move on to less crowded services. If I had such capabilities today I could have filters for "friends and family" and then work related matters (which is my primary reason why I use Twitter). I can not ditch my friends and families from my Twitter feed. I also refuse to have more than one Twitter account.

----

Since I wrote the above piece on my blog have sinned and in face added another Twitter account for my Norwegian contacts, which are most not interested in my primarily use for Twitter, i.e. VoIP and other kind communication related connections.

I was only able to do that when I found a client which did support more than one account AND adhered to what I need in a Twitter client (and, no Tweetdeck does not even reach the half-way mark on my needs).

Thanks for your time.

Seth · 7 months ago

So do you need something with more search flexibility or is it a matter of the current Twitter API's limitations? I know there are a couple programs out now that support multiple accounts and a lot of different search features. Yours is a very interesting case indeed that you cannot find a solution yet!

Miz Liz · 7 months ago

Hey Seth - I've had a rule since day 1 of engaging on Twitter - I only follow folks who I find engaging, who I believe I can learn from and who may add some sort of yet to be defined value to this experience we all call Life. I also decided that I would limit my numbers to around 500 so that I could actually follow the stream.

We all have to make decisions that make the most sense for us. Follow your heart. I'll continue to follow mine - by following you.

Cheers,

Liz

Seth · 7 months ago

Unfortunately, I had to blunder around a bit before I came to the same conclusion.

Thanks for your patience!

Sarah Turner · 7 months ago

Good plan Seth. I'm fairly new to Twitter (started this year) but I've already culled my following list. Including my friends! Hey, they can talk to me on Facebook. :-)

Enjoy your Tweets. You seem to be one of the few peple who ask questions. Loved the challenge from a few weeks back. Getting swine flu and oragnic (?) into 140 characters. Good stuff.

Sarah

Seth · 7 months ago

Haha, buzzword challenges! I need to bring that back. Hard to find more than 3 that a really fresh. Feel free to hit me up with ideas!

Facebook. Ahh. I'm still learning to navigate the flotsam of random invites and surveys that is myfacebookspace. We'll see if it ever takes off for me. =)

Carter · 7 months ago

Who gives a shit? Twitter is lame.

Seth · 7 months ago

YES! My first comment from a TechCrunch reader! You guys are awesome. I think you used one more word than you're supposed to though. Drop it to "Twitter's Lame" and you have a winner! Digg Digg! =P

Matt · 7 months ago

Great post, as usual, Seth! Very bold, I might add. We can all learn from your mad Twitter skills! I find I only follow the people I truly am interested in what they have to say.

I "hit you up" on Twitter, as I would love to keep our connection going. I've learned a lot from you in the past months - I would hate to loose one of my best relationships on Twitter!

Let me know what you think. I'll definitely retweet this post later this afternoon when everyone is awake. ;)

Seth · 7 months ago

It's a deal. I still don't get how you can love WDW so much. I mean, I had fun as a kid...but it never went beyond that. Perhaps I'm missing out on some of the true vibe?

Matt · 7 months ago

You must be missing something. If you haven't been recently, maybe that's the problem. Also, I think that there are people that "get" it, and others don't. It's okay, you might not "get" it. ;)

Thanks for the follow again on Twitter - look forward to more helpful tips!

imjustagoyle · 7 months ago

Wow! That's a monumentally status changing decision, isn't it? I admire that you felt strongly enough to do so. I personally scan through my new followers and decide based on some of their previous tweets (as well as their bio) if they are someone I want to follow. I don't follow everyone that follows me. Since I am in business for myself and Twitter is a useful place for me to network, it's important to me to be authentic. I expect the same from my followers. There is nothing I hate more than following someone because they seem interesting, only to get the "auto-DM" from them urging me to check out their site. That just tells me they don't get it. If they engage with me, I'll eventually check out their site anyway. If they send it to me in an auto-DM, fat chance!

By the way, I hope I'm still one of the remaining few you are following! ;)

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes, in a way, it is monumental. Only in a numerical sense though. I don't think it will change my interaction style at all. This simply means I'll be throwing my weight toward helping certain people specifically instead of random boosts.

I don't mind the auto-dm's directing to a regular blog or simple site because most people don't know any better. It can, to the uninitiated, seem like a positive engagement practice!

imjustagoyle · 7 months ago

You're a more forgiving person than me in that sense. ;)

Gankaku · 7 months ago

Hi Seth!

I totally understand what you've done. The first time I started using Twitter seriously (last month, new BlackBerry) :) I did for one day the "follow everyone that follows you" theory. I realized extremely quickly that some folks build up lots of followers, and how could I ever follow that kind of count back? The tweets would just pour in, I'd get frustrated because I'd never be able to keep up, and I may never see the tweets I want to see due to all the junk posts. Doing that would turn Twitter into something that was not what I wanted to experience.

My method is kind of simple:

1. I follow those I know, or whom I'm interested in only. So far my group is manageable, and I have time to go through and read posted links, and reply to messages. There's value in the information I get from whom I follow, whether it be just what they're doing today, or my favorite tech guy posting a link to a new how-to article.
2. When someone follows me, I check them out first. I don't have a particular method, I just get a feel for them. I scan their first page of tweets.
*I'll follow if I find one interesting link or some interesting tweets.

I won't follow if:
* They appear to be spammers - if it's pretty bad, I'll block them
* If they have marketing or entrepreneur in their bio, I look very very hard to see if I want to follow (usually it's no)
* If they tweet so so much that my twitter pages will be full of only their tweets, I give a lot of consideration to whether I want to read them or not. (I decided not to follow several celebrities because of this).

If I do follow them, they'll get a trial period with me. :D Sorry but I don't want to spend my time and fill my brain reading a bunch of inane posts. I just unfollowed one guy because all he talked about was drinking and bars - all day, all night! Why, when my screen can be filled with positive, motivational, inspirational posts, or ones that are thought-provoking, or when there are links I can learn something from? I'm also considering unfollowing one famous author - he never follows anyone back (typical of celebrities) but unlike a lot of the celebrities that @reply to questions asked them, this guy doesn't seem to @reply anyone. It makes his Twitter seem one sided, and I see this as an open communication tool.

Seth · 7 months ago

If that system works well for you, and it seems that it does, then there seems to be little danger in sticking with it. You'll probably find the most value in it anyhow. It's definitely more fun to read fewer tweets but have more content you enjoy responding to. That's what I'm shooting for!

Rompompom · 7 months ago

Like so many others, from the get-go I've only followed people I've found interesting, I've unfollowed based only on people cluttering my stream with ads, begs for followers and/or retweeting the same links in the exact same message 5 times a day. People who (in my concept of twitter usage) are "doing it wrong".

I follow people I agree with, disagree with, people I know in real life and people I'm never likely to meet. That's the beauty of twitter.

I have to wonder at the advisability of auto-following, or auto-unfollowing - since in the first case you're leaving yourself open to the worst sort of spam, a cluttered stream that holds little of value to your interests, and in the second you can lose people from your stream that are interesting to you every time the twitter servers have a hiccup.

"Having" to unfollow 45k people to get a stream worth reading seems to me the only (albeit extreme) response to a worst-case scenario. It's just unfortunate that you let things get to the worst case stage.

Good luck with tweaking your stream to one that you enjoy!

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes, you're right. I could have partially fixed the problem by filtering my stream with a 3rd party program but after a few conversations, I realized that if I was filtering people out then there really wasn't any reason to follow them.

Jim Mitchem · 7 months ago

Good for you Seth. I've always admired your unabashed, straightforward style and this is another example. I too feel (even at such paltry numbers) that many of the people in my stream are completely worthless to me. People who don't reply when you engage them - which only makes you wonder whether it's because you're not smart enough, not valuable enough or don't have enough cleavage for these idiots to reply to you. Who needs that? I agree with what you're doing here. Bravo. I may follow your lead soon - albeit when I do, I'll lose a lot of my numbers which will affect my twittergrade and of course we all know that our true credibility here doesn't lie in our contributions to one another, but our numbers alone. Thankfully, I can always get 16K followers again by joining an affiliate program at any time.

Seth · 7 months ago

I think the price dropped, too. $14.95!!

Your twitter grade may not drop as much as you think. I thought mine would...I'm still in the top 200 of whatever number the numbers numbered ate a sandwich.

=)

Alexandra · 7 months ago

I *love* your tweets. I found you because SummerTomato followed me early on, and I was curious about the responses she seemed to be sending out in response to random questions from you.

Some of what you have written in this post flies over my head. There seem to be nuances to Twitter use that elude me. I read through all the comments on this post and found myself thinking, uh, what? a couple of times. (Like: "that's how I'm supposed to be relating to Twitter and tweeting?")

However, I'd like to still be able to DM you about what's in my cup. I don't know whether I've ever re-tweeted one of your tweets, and I don't even know how to find out. :) So I don't know whether I make the grade!

Seth · 7 months ago

You don't have to retweet anything to have me follow you. Some of my favorite people in the whole world have never retweeted a thing from me. Retweeting is guest-posting on a microblog and I don't expect behavior to be any different than it might be on a full-scale blog.

Be careful of Darya. She's very tricky. =)

Welcome!

Alexandra · 7 months ago

Oh. Duh. I'm @moneygal on Twitter.

frekky · 7 months ago

I follow people if there is a common interest, or i find their tweets and/or blog posts to be thought provoking. I started following you because I find your posts to be thought provoking. Usually when i follow someone I give afew weeks to see if they post any content of value (provkes thought, a good read, related to subjects im interested in). If, at that point they are providing little, I merely unfollow them. I've done my best to keep my follower count relatively small, because to me this is not a popularity contest.

~cheers

Seth · 7 months ago

I don't think it should ever be a popularity contest either. I had thought it would become less of one when the "movie stars" moved onto twitter. I thought that then those caught up with their microfame would get back to work. Instead, many seem panicked.

It's not a good time to be a "twitter expert" =)

I shall do my best to up the "thought provoking" tweets and go easier in the silly stuff. Not too much easier. We have a lot of things to frown about. Sometimes it's good to be silly.

Grace · 7 months ago

Absolutely do NOT go easier on the silly stuff. Please. With waffles on top!

Seth · 7 months ago

And strawberries. You got it!

Alicia Anderson · 7 months ago

Seth, I've got you right in my "Chatty Fellas" group (where two others live) in TweetDeck, and it is where you shall remain because I like to watch the way you interact with people, and have always been a fan of those quirky and "what if" kind of questions that you ask. I am still struggling with figuring out how I can best use twitter for my own growth, and how to keep up the best online (both w/ reading and posting) without losing control offline but I know you're a good model for interacting with the world.

Seth · 7 months ago

"chatty fellas"

Yup. I talk too much. Part of the problem is that I ask a lot of questions then try to respond to as many people as possible. It's not like I'm just blathering into the twittersphere....most of the time.

It's very possible and not altogether difficult to maintain a small and vibrant community online. (15-20 people is enough to keep blogging fun) A bit tricky to get going but once you have a system you can stick with, it gets easier, even on days when you feel like being elsewhere.

Alicia Anderson · 7 months ago

I didn't mean the "Chatty Fellas" as a bad thing. I merely lumped some people who had a lot of tweets into their own category so that I could pay attention. It's actually been easier to keep up since Twitter changed my ability to view everyone's replies even to folks I'm not following. That's made you almost disappear from my feed and I've noticed... I've been missing that other (more human) side..

Seth · 7 months ago

Ahh, getting empty nest syndrome without loud-mouthed Seth running around with muddy feet? =)

Tweeting link after link just doesn't make sense to me. I wish people would try to make better communication "go viral". We'd have a much better time of things.

Sherb13 · 7 months ago

I'm glad you saw the light. :-) I only joined Twitter early this year but decided from the outset I wouldn't be a blind follower. I'm also not going to play a part in promoting medical tourism to Thailand or help get rich quick scammers. I want to connect with interesting people who can add to my knowledge or amuse me. Also, as I want to read everything they tweet, I can't follow those with Tweetoriah nor follow too many.

Seth · 7 months ago

Tweetoriah...would you mind explaining what that is? =)

Brett Borders · 7 months ago

My thoughts: lopping off all your followers in one sweep is one of the lamest trends in social media. The ultimate in passive-aggression twittering. It's your business... you can justify it however you want to... but the end result is a lot of people feel like you've suddenly changed your policy and kicked people to the curb for the benefit of your ego / convenience.

Best of luck!

Seth · 7 months ago

Brett. You also follow 2,600 which doesn't put you in the "I've been there and this is what I learned" club. Sure, a change in policy will always have some blow-back. That's accounted for in any basic planning process.

Yours is the ultimate in passive-aggressive commenting. You know your post about "being nice to the little guy"? There's a part II. It's called "never intentionally be a prick to anybody".

I am also going to assume that you are a lovely man and have simply been drinking. It's inconvenient and goes against my ego to do so...but it lets you out of the prick box.

I can't have kicked you to the curb because I don't believe I was ever following you. I have limited tolerance for people who announce themselves as social media rockstars.

Regular people are quite through with social media rockstars, I've seen. We'll see where this all ends up. I don't think as many monsters and bear traps await me as you'd like to think.

Don't wish me the best of luck. Slur out a "screw you" or something else that's at least honest.

Ben Waxman · 7 months ago

I'm proud to not be followed by you. Thank you. Frankly, I don't typically post on Twitter, I listen. I follow those who have something of value to say. Why in the world would I be insulted by you NOT following me? The culture of Twitter is something I find fascinating. My prediction is that the culture is going to evolve drastically over time and the early adopters are going to find the change hard the swallow.

What exactly is a follower who does not listen? Keeping them is a form of false advertising on the part of the person building that follower list. I applaud your move and will continue to follow your tweets for insight andc humor.

Seth · 7 months ago

Apparently, you're supposed to feel as if you've been kicked to the curb because I decided to clear the stables of spammers with a Herculean redirect of a script river.

The early adopters are already finding the change hard to swallow because what was only rumored to be microfame has been proven so with the influx of traditional media celebrities on Twitter.

Thank you for listening. I hope you'll speak up if it seems I've gone astray. I'd appreciate it!

Thanks Ben!

dcgrrl · 7 months ago

Hey Seth -
I don't know how much we've interacted on Twitter, but we think alike often, including this weekend, when I was writing a post on my blog for people who are just getting started on Twitter. I recommended that folks choose to follow folks that inform and entertain them, and review their following list often.
I almost unfollowed you because you often tweet about Twitter, and that does get on my nerves, but we seem to have something in common.
Anyway, you'll find me on Twitter at @dcgrrl. I'd be just as happy to see your comments on my blog, though.
-Heather

Seth · 7 months ago

Do I tweet about Twitter more often than I tweet about food or ask ridiculous questions?

I try to have a balance. Perhaps I talk too much. This keeps coming up. A lot of people think I talk too much.

Part of that is a result of my approach to Twitter. I try to respond to as many people as possible. If 15 people ask me 15 different questions about Twitter, I'll try to answer as many as I can at the same time or through DM but direct messages are really boring and a pain. If 15 different people as me 15 different questions about anything, I'll try to get back to them.

Over 100 people have commented on this post. If you read all of my replies to each comment, it would also seem that I talk too much and that some of it is redundant. I don't like missing people. I don't like being missed.

If I get on your nerves, unfollow me! Now's your chance! I'll never know! Do it!

dcgrrl · 7 months ago

Wow, replying to every reply is really tedious. You've obviously got quite a following and are quite attentive to your fans. I'm certainly not going to read all your responses to other people here on your blog, and I definitely pay less attention to replies and RT on Twitter. I'm interested now in this experiment of yours, so I'll be watching. But I suppose it's all about how different folks use Twitter - and I think all of us are truthfully still figuring it out at this point.

Anna Barcelos · 7 months ago

Hi Seth! You're going to find that this post will probably get you record comments because there is more to this post than just following/unfollowing - psychology. I can clearly see from some of the comments that those that say they are not bothered really are. That's just human nature.

Me personally, to be honest, I had to contact you because you are one of my favorties on Twitter that I feel I've built a good connection with, and I enjoy interraction with you, although not often enough.

I have had people unfollow me that I really liked interracting with, so you can't take that personally, but at the same time, it would be total BS to admit that it doesn't make you sad a little inside. I have no problem admitting that.

Best of luck with your Twitter strategy and don't get obssessed like @ariherzog did LOL Talk to you soon!

Seth · 7 months ago

Those that are bothered will be okay. They get their smile back when I follow them and send them a mean DM about how they need to get on the ball and start updating their blogs at a more regular pace. =)

As I said in my email, had I known that all I had to do to improve our relationship was to unfollow you and follow you back, I'd have done so months ago!

Let's not slip back into random tweets every so often. You challenge me and I make you shake your head in disbelief. It's a good combination.

Jim Brochowski · 7 months ago

Netter told me what you were up to as I was driving into work today. She said, "Just read the post. It makes sense."

She was right.

A few weeks ago I found friendorfollow.com and was amazed at the number of people who had followed me to get me to follow back, then unfollowed me once they had secured me for their what I call their twitter popularity contest.

I even emailed one of them who was trying to sell me his "how to gain followers videos."

Since then I have spent a lot of time thinking about my policy of "following everybody who follows me just to see what conversation they have to offer."

Keys to unfollowing for me included DM's that said, "Read my blog..." and "Want to know how to gain followers...?"

I've never been a fan of what I call "The broadcasters," i.e. folks who never interact. (Unfortunately, this includes whoever runs my employer's Twitter account.)

Still, I follow newsfeeds and celebrities who don't follow me back, and I follow some co-workers who don't follow me back. (so I don't miss anything work related)

The rest I've just left to chance. This morning you've made me rethink that, and I've spent quite a bit of time looking at my follow list and reconsidering my criteria. (Unfollowed 3 people already.)

In other words you've made me think, which you always do, which is why I follow you.

But you knew that. ;-)

Thanks!

Seth · 7 months ago

Jimmer! The big question is...did you buy the video and get your 16,000 followers in 90 days like @smashadv is going to if his TwitterGrader score drops? hehe. What rubbish.

I'm glad you've taken a moment to reconsider how you approach Twitter. If the only value derived from my experience is in the form of others taking another look at how they approach Twitter, I think it's worth the effort.

Tell Netter I said hello! I still can't believe you guys just clicked and everything worked. Such a dream, man.

Misty Belardo · 7 months ago

Hi Seth,

Finally, I can sit down and do a comment. I was at first surprised when I got a message saying you have unfollowed me. then i said, maybe there was a glitch again, as this was the 2nd time.

As I mentioned to you earlier, I will not unfollow you just because you were not following me. But i'm glad this was sorted out at least between us. You know me, I'm the persistent one.

I enjoy our conversations, whether on your blogs and on Twitter. The only thing I can say is whew now you can truly concentrate on connecting. I can just imagine how difficult it was having 45K followers.

Thanks Seth for following me back, cause if you did not then you would miss my bantering about your blog not having new articles for me to enjoy... just kidding. I'm just happy to connect. See you on the tweet stream. = )

Seth · 7 months ago

Misty! Er, yes. You are persistent. I appreciate it though. You're always there to nudge me when I'm slow with content or if I seem to be losing my edge.

I really, really appreciate your support and the effort you put in to make sure I stay on top of things.

Yes. Paddle on. I shall see you on the stream. =)

Angelo · 7 months ago

Hi Seth,

I appreciate you posting my "dissenting view." I have some thoughts about why my tweets have not shown but again that is neither here nor there. I think you were one of the first folks I "noticed" on Twitter who regularly shared more positive thoughts and opinions. I shared my thoughts, but that was months and months ago, before @chrisblack and I hooked up. (btw, his song, "Happiness" will be featured in the World Premiere of my film, "The Broken Hearts Club") Alas, the fallibility that is Tweetdeck could be the culprit.

Nevertheless, I completely agree with a point you've made. I don't think it's possible for one person to communicate and manage a "relationship" with 20,000+ people on Twitter. Without a six-man team answering tweets and emails it's an exercise in futility. I think the trick is to build slowly and profoundly. I wouldn't mind being a part of that slow build :)

Ang

Seth · 7 months ago

Twitter doesn't seem to be good about searching back more than 30 days so I might be the one entirely in error.

Whether or not that's the case, I'm glad to connect with you now. I liked reading your comment, aside from the fact that it was addressed to me. The punch at the end was brilliant!

"Slowly and profoundly"

Yes. That is the aim. I'm glad to have you along!

Jeanne · 7 months ago

Seth,

Before I read this post, I spent a good portion of yesterday cleaning up my account of people that I don't really connect with for various reasons. My followers/following is not on your scale #wise, but I thought it was important to get it under control now while it was still somewhat manageable and to move forward with a conscious plan for who(m?) I interact with. (Sorry I was never very good with grammar!)

Anyway, I've said it before that you are a guy that loves to speak your mind. I'm hoping that a few more here on twitter will hear what you're saying and at least give it a little thought.

Jeanne

Seth · 7 months ago

I'm terrible with grammar as well. No worries. =)

Yes. I often speak my mind. There's some disagreement as to whether or not I should take a vacation from doing so.

I don't think that will happen though. Just focusing and moving forward. I have a lot of fun and even more fun now.

Thanks for swinging by. Talk soon!

Patsy Terrell · 7 months ago

Don't know that I'll make your cut, but I enjoy your tweets and will continue to read along regardless. Always something to think about... some days new media... some days old boyfriends.

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes. Goodness, I do kinda ramble on about everything, huh? Welcome to my world. =)

Next post on TDP is about catching lies. Perhaps authenticity and communication will be the trend for this month? Yes!

Marie · 7 months ago

I can understand most of why you unfollowed so many people - but for using a great application like tweetdeck - I don't get it. It is so easy to get your @replies and DM's and best of all - I LOVE the RT button. I love being able to RT with ONE simple click of a button.

I don't use it to filter out people, it is quick and easy to see the stream and refreshes automatically for me.

You are probably missing out on some great people simply because they use tweet deck.

@spreadingjoy

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Marie!

I have no problem at all with TweetDeck. It's really great for some things! I simply mentioned it as a popular third-party system that many use to filter out much of their streams.

I'm not against people using TweetDeck. I just have a bit of a problem with those who claim to communicate on a certain level when that level isn't honestly taking place.

Before Twitter changed @replies to include the search function, I ran TweetDeck and the web interface at the same time because I liked TD's search functions & the web interface's speed. Now it's all a mess with beta versions bumping into each other. Wait and hope!

katbron · 7 months ago

Hi Seth - I missed all your tweets about unfollowing all your followers. Just now caught up with your blog. You are one of the folks I found interesting and knowledgeable. I had you in my favorites on Tweetdeck - I will definitely miss you. I think that as Twitter evolves and we grow as tweeple - we all find what we need and what works for us individually. Good luck!

Seth · 7 months ago

Er, why will you miss me, exactly? I haven't gone anywhere. I unfollowed everybody and I'm working my way back up.

I suppose, after much arm-twisting, some heavy arm-twisting and lobbying my multiple private firms...that I'll follow you again.

Except, it's much simpler than that. We talk on occasion and I like the idea of actually seeing more of your tweets again. Sound good/

Global Patriot · 7 months ago

Interesting perspective Seth, the statement "Everybody following everybody isn’t a networked community; it’s a madhouse." really gave me pause. I've often said that Twitter is like a 7/24 cocktail party, where you walk in, talk to who you want, then walk out.

And the thing about attending such a party is that you may speak briefly with dozens, yet have real conversations with only a few. So why go to a party of 45,000 if what you really want to do is connect with those you resonate with.

Good stuff Seth! (Still hope to stay connected and that guest post offer is always open!)

Seth · 7 months ago

People rarely find their true love at Ibiza raves for a reason. It's all about bouncing around.

I like house parties.

My stream is slowly turning back into a big house party where we give context to inside jokes so others understand them and offer to help each other just because we can.

That's the good stuff. That's what I'm busting butt to bring back and perhaps bring a few along with me.

Welcome!

dianaejennings · 7 months ago

I have never blindly autofollowed and I too routinely prune my followers. I don't want more than about 700 followers because that would be more than I could handle.

Seth, I hear you on the brand thing. I don't use twitter to build a brand, I use it for the SOCIAL part of the social networking. For me, the whole advantage of twitter is the diversity of ideas, topics, perspectives, and voices. My nature is eclectic and so is my tweeting.

Good luck with your experiment.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi!

"my nature is eclectic and so is my tweeting"

Exactly! If you walk into my house right now, I doubt you'd be much surprised by anything about me. I'm taller than most people expect but the conversation is usually spot on.

I don't want to think of it as "pruning" or any of the other terms we use for choosing "accounts" to follow on Twitter and elsewhere in social media.

I want to see them as people. I really do. I think it becomes a better experience for me and everybody else involved if I do. This doesn't mean that I'm going to try to be best friends with everybody. Just want to up my level of caring and be in other people's corner more often.

AJ in Nashville · 7 months ago

I've seen your name but never known anything about you, Seth, however I'm going to follow you specifically because of this post. You've verbalized everything that I believe Twitter should be about and I'm anxious to hear and learn more from you.

Thanks for writing this and special thanks to @mayhemstudios for RT'ing it!

Seth · 7 months ago

Isn't Calvin great?

If you have any specific questions, grab me here, on Twitter, or in an Email. I'm best about email. my first and last name at gmail.com

Akhila · 7 months ago

Interesting post, however I only have about 300-400 people I am following and already feel overwhelmed...I have no idea how you manage with that many people! Also, 10-15 k is still a HUGE amount....can you actually say that you know many of those people?? It seems like reducing to 10k is still not much of an improvement.

Seth · 7 months ago

I won't get to 10k for a long time, if ever. And yes, they'll all be people I have a history of some sort with. I read very quickly and find that most people get antsy if you respond to every one of their tweets. I know I do!

I'm a work in progress. Thanks for letting me know what's up. I need a lot of that. =)

Adam Pieniazek · 7 months ago

Good call Seth. When I really started getting into Twitter I'd take a few hours every now and then to go through the people I was following and clear out the clutter. Haven't done it in a while and have really noticed the negative impact on the quality of my stream. Thanks for posting this and showing us that just dropping everyone isn't going to the be the end of your social world. If they're quality people you'll probably reconnect with them.

Seth · 7 months ago

You're right. I've already connected in better ways with more people than even I had expected. I wasn't entirely sure what would happen but I decided that I would be happy with 20 people if that's what it came down to.

Once I was sure of that, it was easy to make the bigger step.

Now it's all about little steps and making sure I reach out fully and speak openly. An adventure to be sure, sir!

See you on Twitter!

Jayne · 7 months ago

Ah yes, I just wrote a blog post on this myself today... Though I am just starting on twitter and have very few people relatively- I go through my list every few days and don't ever follow back without first looking at the website, blog, etc... I completely understand- real connections are important! Or maybe, I am just sensitive like that :).... the idea of someone seeing me as only a number or marketing possibility really bothers me.

Thanks for posting.

Seth · 7 months ago

It hadn't bothered me as much until I really started going through the list of people I followed and realized how many people have Twitter accounts but simply don't do much with them. That's entirely their right but I'm not interested in some mutual agreement to pad our respective follower numbers with dying weight.

Thanks for dropping by!

Josh Chapman · 7 months ago

Seth...

Honestly I'd never heard of you until I saw a link to your post via @tonysteward -

NOW I follow you, whether or not you follow me, because you're right. Twitter isn't about follower numbers, because a lot of times when it becomes about that, people aren't really 'following' you in the true sense anyway. I like you're purist mentality (at least how I took it) with the uses/values of social media... so that's why I'll follow you now...

Unless you lose that attitude, then I'm not making any promises ;)

Seth · 7 months ago

Josh, will you do me a favor? If you start to feel like I'm losing that attitude, find me and let me know what's up. Be mean, scream, yell, talk very quietly with a silly accent, whatever it takes to get my attention. If I start to lose it, set me straight.

I'll be in your debt.

Josh Chapman · 7 months ago

I will on one condition...

That you do the same for me. Seems like that's the point of it all, yeah?

Thanks for the encouragement bro!

Seth · 7 months ago

I think it might very well be the point. Yes. You've got a deal!

skylarking · 7 months ago

Hey, now, maybe I'll be able to reach you now that you've got fewer messages flying at you. 8-) I've tried contacting you but was never able to get a response. Personally, I've taken the slow growth approach to followers. I've blocked a few who didn't seem to be interested in anything more than being followed back. Then there were those auto-DMers who said they looked forward to getting to know me, but we're never heard from again.

Seth · 7 months ago

Did you ever send me an email? My address is right in my Twitter profile. If you emailed and I didn't respond, I'd feel terrible. Seriously. I make a point to check my spam folder daily and keep a priority list so I respond to everybody. Did I miss you? I'm sorry if I did.

On Twitter, it can be a different story. I tend to ask a lot of "icebreaker" questions that can sometimes get a lot of responses. If you only responded to questions that got hundreds of responses, there's a chance I missed you. We can fix that now, fortunately!

skylarking · 7 months ago

Hi, Seth, sorry for the delay. I read your reply a few nights ago but I literally have been unable to sit still long enough to reply (and now I've remembered too.)

I did send you an email (maybe two), but who knows what happens once an email leaves your PC. (well, I know what's supposed to happen, at least). There's always a chance you did reply and some glitch occurred in that direction.

Thanks for taking the time to respond amid the deluge, and I look forward to reading more from you here and on Twitter. (I'm 'robertsaunders' on there); and have a great Memorial day weekend.

Davette · 7 months ago

I am fairly new to twitter, and I have learned some of the very things that you have said in this blog. I thank you for your insight for I am still making my away around, I do definitely agree with unfollowing those you have nothing in common with or who does not enrich the conversation or have positive or similar views. I have never heard of you I came across your link on twitter by @problogger and I am glad I did.

Seth · 7 months ago

Problogger is a great resource! A great sense of humor as well.

I do think that it can be a great idea, is perhaps very necessary even, to have a few people you follow who get you riled up sometimes and make you think outside of your normal patterns. I have a few of those and even though we think the other is completely nuts, we have great conversations and find mutual growth results from our interactions.

I'm glad you're taking a thoughtful approach to Twitter and your networking adventure. I think you'll find the most value and see it last for many years.

Douglas Karr · 7 months ago

Fantastic post and I hope everyone else comes to their senses.

Leisa Hammett · 7 months ago

I was amazed, stunned, overwhelmed, kinda turned off how many people started following me when I began following you....Most of them wanting to sell me something. I followed some but most not. And I'm new at this.

Seth · 7 months ago

I think it's a common practice for "sales" accounts to try to pick "follow backs" from any large account they can find. I was apparently one of them and a lot of them picked you out.

I'm sorry about that. Perhaps If I hadn't followed so many people this wouldn't have happened. I hope things are going better for you now! I'm glad to find you!

tim · 7 months ago

Wow. Not only did the article get me thinking but so did all of these great comments. I've enjoyed the journey through this conversation. Thanks for getting us all talking and interacting about it.

Tweet responsibly!

Seth · 7 months ago

If that's a reference to the previous comments inspired by some sort of inebriation, you have even greater wit than might seem apparent at first glance. =)

I love reading comments. I don't say that because I like getting comments. I'd be fine with everybody emailing me their responses and having ever post on my blog with a "0 comments" marker. The conversations make me think, they make me wonder, and sometimes they make me laugh out loud at the gift of humor so many people seem willing to give.

Nothing like it!

kay · 7 months ago

Hiya Seth,

I am loving the baby in the air picture. I hope no one got hurt during the process, especially the baby.

I wish I had so many followers as you had. I have just over 1200 and because I follow over 2000 people Twitter have capped me and I can no longer follow anyone else, I need to acquire more followers in order to get my follow capacity increased which I think is slightly unfair. I am sure this is the least of your worries, but I felt like sounding off to someone. Sorry- you can go back to bed now or whatever it was you were doing- Thanks. P.S. Follow me if you would like- I'll follow you back!

Seth · 7 months ago

The baby looks positively THRILLED.

Why do you need more followers? Really. Are your current followers all rabidly hanging on your every word and begging you to please find more followers because they just can't take all your goodness?

Unlikely.

Take a close look at what you're trying to do with Twitter and see if your focus on the numbers is hurting the communication level you have with people who already feel you worth following.

Matt Geib · 7 months ago

Seth:

Very Powerful POST!! AMEN!! Your words ring so true with me!

Your very well stated Logic is the same reason I have not been in a rush to add 1000's & 1000's of Followers thru different automated sys. that are out there.

To Me The QUALITY of who Is following me is always worth more than The QUANITY I may gain in followers,,,& same w/ me Following Folks....

One element I love about TWITTER is I can CHOOSE who to follow & be followed by.

As my Great Old Auntie would have said( & folks from miles around came to see her cause they loved Her & Her views on life) Socializing is as Old as the Hills it has been & always will be about the RELATIONSHIP.

Thanks Seth, for Pointing these truths out to us!:):)

The Great Matt Geib

Seth · 7 months ago

First off, props for quoting a very old lady in a conversation about a new media platform. Yes for Auntie!

Yes, Twitter is your all-you-can-eat buffet and you get to fill your tray. Some people get so caught up in not making any dishes feel badly that they miss out on filling up on the things they really enjoy most.

Kelson · 7 months ago

I've only been on Twitter about 6 or 7 months, but I always took the approach that following someone meant I was actually following what they were saying. And that means keeping the number to a point that I can actually keep up with the number of posts.

I can barely handle following ~45 people -- I can't imagine trying to keep up with 45 thousand!

Seth · 7 months ago

I've been on a few months longer. The numbers don't matter though because our respective experiences have been very different. You probably found 45 amazing people who are connected with hundreds of thousands. Great reach.

I'm fine with the road I took to get here because I've met thousands of really cool people who like to tweet fun and informative bits to the world. Now I'm sorting through and making sure none of them are trying to sell anybody some bogus Twitter Success system. =)

skylarking · 7 months ago

Of course, I wouldn't equate "not following someone back" with "send my 9 foot tall, 550lb, lady friend to make out with you" as being the same, but if I did the former and they felt compelld to do the latter, then I would have to unfollow/decline.

Seth · 7 months ago

I think that's a fair deal. It would be pretty impressive for them to go to all that work just because you unfollowed them. =)

Michael Dowd · 7 months ago

Seth, this is the first thing I've ever read of yours, and I love it. It strikes me as the kind of integrity we need in the world. Bravo! (BTW...today is my first day on Twitter and my first real day on Facebook. So I'm just learning these worlds. Delighted to find this post of yours!

Co-evolutionarily,

~ Michael

Seth · 7 months ago

I'm kinda sorry you started your experience in Social Media with me. I'm more of the young professor in a very old school who throws shoes and drinks far too much tea. =)

That said, I'd be interested to hear about your facebook experience after a few weeks. The engagement levels can be very different depending on the platform. It's always interesting to hear new perspectives!

@One_Line · 7 months ago

Woah that baby's REALLY high in the air.

I'm happy that you deciding to stop "drinking through the firehose" as you put it last night. Must feel a bit liberating to be staring down a really manageable, quality-filled stream right now. I just did a similar thing with my email, cleaning out all the subscriptions except a few. Soo nice. But now I've added your blog so maybe the cycle's starting again?

We've only talked a couple times but in case you still want to read my tweets go ahead: http://twitter.com/One_Line If not, its cool. Have a good one.

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes. It has an enormous smile on its face too!

Yes. I shall do my best to clog your RSS feed with lots of rubbish. Not really. I don't have time to write for the sake of writing. Only crazy ideas here!

Thanks for the link. Your avatar is a hard one to forget! =)

Victoria · 7 months ago

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I agree with everything you have said...well with the exception of Tweetdeck. :P I think so many people in this most recent astronomical growth period of Twitter have decided it is a popularity contest. I vet every follower and yet I still have problems keeping up with my <1000 followers. I don't know how you could do anything with 45K! But alas, I have a question for you. I don't auto follow. I don't follow spammers, those who post only and don't converse, etc. My problem comes in with @replies. If someone replies to me or even directs something specifically to me I feel a certain responsibility to follow them at that point despite whether or not I find them interesting. Just the simple fact that we conversed makes me feel I am SUPPOSED to follow them. This is one reason my followers continue to increase. What are your thoughts on replies (especially in your new system)?

Seth · 7 months ago

I have no problem with Tweetdeck. I simply take issue with how some use it.

My answer is simple: do you date every man who asks you out just because he took the time to ask you out? I hope not. Apply real-life networking logic to Twitter and things get much simpler.

Hope that helps!

Tom Voirol · 7 months ago

Welcome to reason, Seth.

I couldn't help but be reminded of a bulimic behaviour. You pig out on following tens of thousands of people with no real reason (other than bragging rights I presume). Then you purge by going right back down to zero.

Building back up to 10,000-15,000 followers is going to lead you down exactly the same path.

You don't need to get into an endless cycle of gobbling up and then vomiting followers. You can do like the rest of us and actually follow people you're interested in and who have something to say that's relevant to you.

Somehow I doubt there's 15,000 of them.

Seth · 7 months ago

Great imagery!

Yes, I doubt there are 15,000 of them as well. My point was that I can easily read that level of flow on Twitter. If it turns out that I never come across that many people I think offer value, so be it.

Thanks for calling it like you see it! There's a very good chance that my view about the number of great people on Twitter is too generous? I'd rather err on the side of generosity.

Tanya · 7 months ago

Wow, really loved this post.
Coming from a different angle though, we don't want to offend anyone by unfollowing them. We try to be as real as possible, and as a brand, we really dig what we do and like to talk about it. We try to help others too though, lets face it, what you show the world determines how other people see you, might as well look fabulous!

Anyway, personally, I happen to love some of the idle chit chat that happens on Twitter, makes me know that other people don't always have it as "together" as we all like to act like we do. With that said, we don't follow and are not followed by anywhere close to the numbers you have...and we are totally cool with that. Like I said, we dig what we do, and we chit chat away on Twitter with some incredibly cool people.

Enough with the bots though, completely agree, bots have nothing to do with being social and are way too much like spam. We use no bots...never will, not ever. Golden rule in social media, or should be. As for Tweetdeck, we don't filter, we just find it easier to manage replies and DMs.

Not to name names and all, but I think it was Mack Collier who said in a blog post long ago (as in last year! tee hee) better to follow than be followed on Twitter...there is much to learn from others. And you, Seth, have much to teach, so we will continue to follow you.

PS I hope you follow @katbron back if you unfollowed her...gotta love @katbron! Great communicator!

Seth · 7 months ago

Mack makes a great point. There is definitely much to learn from others.

Once again, Bonnie leaves you to do the dirty social media work. =P

Don't change your avatar! That's all I have to say.

Dinus · 7 months ago

I can't believe there's so much discussion on this topic. Either you're a follow-whore (just in it for the numbers), or you actually value who you follow. Following tens of thousands of people is crazy - you can't possibly keep up with all the content. And to expect reciprocal follows is ridiculous, or simply ego driven. Just because I find someone (or at least what they have to say) interesting, doesn't mean I expect they'll find me interesting. It's not rocket science...

Seth · 7 months ago

You just boiled it all down into a quick paragraph.

Dude, hit me up next time! I'd be down for a guest post. Save me the work and let me know ahead of time!

Allison Sumpter · 7 months ago

Ok, Seth, I can't dissect the psychology of what you've done here...not yet anyway. I'm all flustered. Feeling like a boyfriend who's playing hard to get and getting sucked into the lure of longing. All I know is you've got this girl in Memphis a little too fixated on wanting you to take me back! This is some reverse psychology thing, isn't it?

Your blog post makes perfect sense. I'm new to Twitter (been "on" Twitter for months but not really ON Twitter until really exploring it over the last month). In my short time of tweeting experimentation and engagement, I've found your writing (tweets and blog posts) to be of great value. So it goes without saying, you are a keeper.

As for following and unfollowing guidelines, I'm still learning. Your bold action and eloquent explanation of dropping all your followers aligns with my instincts. As a newbie, I was bombarded with Twitter advice to follow back everyone who follows me. I quickly learned that not everyone who "found" me was looking at/for me as someone of value, but just a number or potential customer. Nevertheless, I'm still following back everyone who's following me until I can find the time to vet them. (Well, I think "vet" is too strong a word. I'll say until I can invest a few minutes looking at each follower's profile and tweets.) The point is, I applaud what you have done, and I am encouraged to find a Twitterer with such a large following taking a stand for authenticity.

I wasn't sure what I would find by immersing myself in Twitter, but what I have found is that Twitter - like life itself - is a process of filtering good and bad; holding on to the good, letting go of the bad. I don't know how I found you on Twitter, but I'm glad I did. You make me laugh, think, evaluate, feel good, question...basically feel human.

In one of your responses here, you wrote, "I’ve decided that talking about fun stuff, strange stuff, interesting stuff, is what gives many of us the opportunity to interact on a very human level without having to initially worry about the business stuff we all deal with on a day-to-day basis." I WANTED TO TWEET THAT! (But it was too long.)

What I love about Twitter (and you) is that mutual gratification of "interacting on a human level". Keep doing so, and I'll keep following you! :-)

(NOW TAKE ME BACK!!!! Don't make me beg.)
Allison (@Allisoncds)

Seth · 7 months ago

The truly psychotic part about this is that I was following you back long before you posted...this.

I think "take me back" counts as begging.

ahha. You make me laugh all the time. Yes. Okay. I'll take you back.

Allison Sumpter · 7 months ago

It's official. I'm hooked for life now. You make me laugh too...and beg. ;-)

Mike Jones · 7 months ago

You sir are the only serious Twitterer who gets it, I wrote about this (kind of) on my blog as well http://votemikejones.blogspot.com/2009/02/you-d...

Seth · 7 months ago

I think a lot do. I know Ev wrote about it on the Twitter blog. Made a note of it being disingenuous to follow many back.

100% on the same boat with you. I'll check your post out next!

Raquel · 7 months ago

Great post - so well articulated. If you follow too many people, you might as well to searching on Google for the topic you are interested in. This might be of interest too: http://bit.ly/wj791

Seth · 7 months ago

Wow. You really market those posts!

I like your style. Way to hustle.

Does tagging your posts's URL onto the tweet with my headline count as black-hat tweeting? NO idea. I thought it was slick info distribution. Great post, btw!

Gogo The Small Biz Coach · 7 months ago

Seth,

Great reasoning.
Some of the reasons you've listed are why I just unfollowed about half of the people I was following even though I was being fairly selective in the first place. Eventually I only want to be followed by thousands of people who are keenly interested in the useful information I've been sharing.

Coach Gogo

Seth · 7 months ago

Coach Gogo!

I think, given time, that you will find success. Selective, careful, joyous interaction will get you very, very far!

Janet Bailey · 7 months ago

Building on Akhila's comment: Not clear to me how going from 45,000 to 15,000 reduces the "madhouse" feel of Twitter (fewer DMs to deal with?), but then, I'm still in the hundreds and finding even that to be a lot to process. Unless you mean the madhouse aspect in a more broad sense -- the question of why are we on Twitter, and what's it for? And if most of us shifted toward, "If I follow, that means I fully endorse," I can see how that could change the nature of the community in potentially powerful ways. Anyway, interesting challenge, thanks.

@janetbailey

Seth · 7 months ago

15k is a flow I can deal with. I won't ever get there unless I somehow find that many people I think are oustanding and incredibly worth my time.

To not follow somebody is not to say they aren't worth my time but simply that we've not yet had an interaction that strikes us both as indicating something more than casual conversation.

Follow those you can fully endorse. Yes. The numbers don't matter beyond that.

Huxley · 7 months ago

@MsGourmet shared your post with me this morning Seth, very provocative and certainly very timely. I am now following you on Twitter. Right now, social media needs more 'disruptive voices' like yours and I am challenged by your point of view. I also share your opinion on the power of social media to galvanise people of common interest and shared belief, to effect change and make a difference. The context of building a legitimate, community of peers, is the only way of leveraging

Whilst I see the value of Twitter to reach vast audiences of followers for good, the overwhelming number of '3 Short Step' offers being peddled through the network, in my humble opinion, devalues the overall integrity, authenticity, and ultimately, power of the network. I am passionate about this topic as I don't see any value whatsoever in establishing an empire of strangers. Whilst I auto-follow on Twitter, wherever possible I make a point of communicating with people directly and personally. So, thanks for speaking your mind and taking radical action. I am inspired and glad to have come across your blog.

Enough of the madhouse!

Huxley

Seth · 7 months ago

I'm very glad you did!

I think there might be very valuable 3-step programs for doing great things. For instance:

step 1: brush your teeth
step 2: climb into bed
step 3: fall soundly asleep

That is a 3 step program that I endorse with my entire being. =)

Brett Borders · 7 months ago

Seth,

You did something bold, blogged about it, and publicly opened up a discussion.

I'm not insulting you or calling you names, and I didn't say "screw you" - that's not what I feel.... I sincerely said "best of luck" - so I find your reaction to be a bit extreme.

I still believe your behavior is "aggressive" because it appears as if you've spent a good portion of the past several months adding friends and pimping up your numbers on Twitter (unless you are some kind of offline entertainment or television celebrity I've never heard of). I think that by actively & "aggressively" befriending hundreds or thousands of people a day - establishing a mutual relationship and then suddenly unfriending 99.99% them...

Some might see it using people and then dropping them... actually a whole city full of people... or call it 'Twitter spamming.'

And it does leave a sour taste in some people's mouth.

Good luck! :)

Seth · 7 months ago

Now that you've switched it to regular aggression, it makes more sense.

I think there are a lot of people who agree with you. They have been unfollowing me since I started this process.

That is their choice. If they feel I have wronged them, so be it. I hope they get pissed about it, too. I hope they realized that perhaps it's not a good idea to follow people without a good reason. I hope they realize that they should follow people that they like without worry if that person follows them back or not.

It's very rare that people marry each other after one conversation. There's a reason for that: Relationships take time.

If I let a city down, you can be certain that they'll tell me.

Susan Taylor Brown · 7 months ago

First off, great post. I read all the comments so I could get a good picture of people's reaction. And boy did people react! I found it interesting that you unfollowed 45K but only 150 or so bopped over here and left a comment. That's a bit telling in itself though I have found that many people who follow and comment to me on Twitter do not go visit my blog.

I know you got a lot of RTs but I wonder how many DMs you got as a result? People who cared enough one way or the other to let you know how they felt?

I guess it's like anything else in life, there's no way you are going to be able to please everyone. No way. No how.

And even when you think you are, you're not. :)

I'm still trying to figure out how to best use Twitter for interacting and increasing my fan base. As a children's author I use a combo of my blog, Facebook and Twitter to interact with people.

I want to use these tools to let people get to know me better, offer support to writers starting out, help teachers with getting kids to write, connect with other like-minded writers, let people know about the writing process and, of course, let people know about my books and events. I figure if I do all the other things first, they won't mind the sometimes comments/posts/tweets about the last two. And I figure they are more like to buy a book from someone they feel like they "know" even if it is just online.

But the balancing act is really tough.

I'm following 1,900+ right now and have 1,200 or so following me. My head is spinning. Before I saw your post today I had started to try and sort through my people to figure out who I really wanted to follow. But it's hard. If I want bookstores to know about me, I need to follow and interact with them. Ditto teachers and librarians. I don't see any way around it.

I was recently named on a Mashable list as one of the top authors to follow and that's been great to build my following (and to make sure I have high quality tweets) but it also brought a bunch of followers whom I know aren't interested in learning more about the craft of writing and aren't very likely to buy one of my books.

I do interact with people on Twitter that I don't connect with on Facebook so I guess that is expanding my base but I don't feel like I am connecting as much on Twitter as I could/should and that makes me think that I need to do my own level of cleaning house.

I only follow a few people in your area of new/social media. You're one of my favorites because you are real and approachable, which is how I want to come across to people as well. I learn a lot from you and I will continue to follow you regardless of what's going on with you. I don't keep track of who "unfollows" me.

I hope to get the chance to interact with you more, if not via Twitter (which I understand as our fields don't wholly overlap) then you can bet I'll still be back here on your blog, checking in and speaking up.

Thanks for always being so generous in sharing your knowledge with those of us still figuring things out.

@susanwrites

Seth · 7 months ago

Here's the thing. Just when you think you have people figured out, they always prove you wrong.

That guy in Singapore you thought you'd never have anything in common with? He may tell you a short story someday and inspire you to write the book that wins all the awards and turns you into a household name (for librarians, 3rd grade teachers, at least).

Look for people who don't think like you do, who have little in common, who like to exchange ideas without judging those who share them.

They are the people who will prove to be the difference-makers in your life. The other part of the network...that stuff is required. Not much of a chance that you'll be surprised there.

Good luck in your adventure. It's always good to talk to you!

Meredith · 7 months ago

Wow...I'm getting close to 200 and cringing at how many people that is. 45,000 is beyond my comprehension. Good for you for wiping the slate clean and reconsidering your approach.

Seth · 7 months ago

No need to cringe. I wasn't bothered by it. It was fun most of the time, actually. I just was bouncing around too much.

As soon as you start to feel like the numbers are taking place over the conversations, it's probably time to reposition and rethink what you're doing.

That's what I did and I'm quite glad about it!

Lisa Hickey · 7 months ago

Wow, I wasn't sure if I agreed with your unfollowing strategy, but I sure was impressed by the way you responded to almost every single blog comment personally. That says a lot about you Seth!

It's just odd to me, and I don't know the answer. But, for example, now, to follow back, you have to "judge" the value of people in some way. That in and of itself makes me squeamish, although I have no doubt you'll do it thoughtfully. But, for example, you and I have had exactly two conversations on Twitter. Is that enough for a follower of yours to be of "value"? Probably not, although I certainly valued both our exchanges.

I follow 10s of thousands of people, in part, because as a Social Media consultant to marketers I want to be able to advise them intelligently on how to handle 10's of thousands of followers. Is it better for big brands not to followback? And..how could I know what it's like unless I've been there myself? But the odd thing is that I've found I value all of the people I follow in some way. I just like them. But you did say you thought you could handle 15k or so, so maybe I'm just at the threshold.

It's all so interesting.

I'll be watching to see if this is indeed a trend (I know several people who have done similar). It will be fascinating to watch what works for people as Twitter grows. And...let us all know if you change your mind again. : )

Seth · 7 months ago

Eh, that doesn't make sense.

I don't get how following lots of people enables you to explain what it's like to be followed by people unless you're worried about losing your followers and some sense of "street cred" that a company might see in the numbers.

Nobody can follow more than 1k per day. That's the rule. It makes sense. Big brands can talk to people on Twitter and direct them to a secure link for help, comments, etc. I don't see why anybody would find any value in being one of 1million people followed by Coca Cola. That's rubbish. Complete rubbish.

Lisa Hickey · 7 months ago

So forget Coca-Cola for a minute -- what about a brand that starts out relatively unknown but whose growth, like yours, gets bigger than they can handle. Would you advise a brand NOT to follow back *anyone*? OR to "judge" somehow who is worth following? Or to unfollow once they get to an unmanageable level of people they are following? Or is there no place for brands on Twitter? Just trying to think of it from the perspective of a client who gets to 45,000 people they need to interact with and then says "whoops!" Just, like everyone here, trying to figure it out.

Seth · 7 months ago

Treating a cottage brand like an individual and trying to make a switch later on can have disastrous results. Just saying.

Why would a client need to follow 45,000 people? They wouldn't. A business isn't going to spend resources trying to connect with @username about how she feels about her day unless there's a direct benefit.

I don't think it's a good idea to follow everybody back.. At all! The notion of growth resulting from following people back should have blown out of the water months ago. It simply doesn't reflect reality. There's a whole slew of scam artists offering to sell "established" twitter accounts with thousands of followers. That isn't how real networks work. I can't walk up to you and say, "Hi, Lisa, here are all my friends. They're yours now. Have fun!" and expect all of my friends to treat you just as they did me!

It seems very popular right now for many to forget that social networking hasn't changed much even though the platforms we use for it have been altered dramatically in recent years. We're still dealing with people who want to feel appreciated.

We're back to the -if you don't have the spokes, you can't make a wheel and if you don't have a wheel, it doesn't matter whether or not you know how to ride the bike-

Yes, there's lots to figure out! =)

LoneWolf · 7 months ago

Seth, you are the 2nd major Twitter personality that I follow to have done this. I applaud you for it since it is a realization of what following really means.

I struggle with following just over 800 right now, mostly due to the constraints of my pathetic dialup bandwidth problems and also time.

Joel Drapper did the same thing and had a huge backlash against him, even though he explained it before and after quite eloquently.

I don't think people understand the concept of following vs being open to communication in Twitter. Many people suggested that he should use TweetDeck or a similar product to make sure he was connected with his special friends and filter out the rest. But at the level that you guys were following (and Gerald Weber, the main proponent of this technique continues to follow) I have shown that this wouldn't work either. At least not to truly follow.

http://blogs.wcnickerson.ca/world-wide-web/soci... is the post where I explain this (and it has links back to Joel's original post as well as Gerald Weber's if you want to see some of the discussion on this -- it is a pretty good discussion and gives a really good presentation of multiple sides of this issue).

I think you have done the right thing for your needs. You will lose followers, but they weren't truly following you in the first place if that's all it takes for them to say goodbye. Those who value your tweets will continue to follow whether you follow us back or not. You need to follow those who you get value from whether they are your followers or not as well.

Communication can take place even if you are not following someone. You can reply to anyone. I've had Twitter conversations with people who I don't follow and who don't follow me. Sometimes it leads to following and sometimes it doesn't.

I use TweetDeck just because it doesn't need me to refresh all the time to see new tweets and I can dive in to the stream for interesting stuff when I have the time. I'd love to have it running 24/7 so I can see my replies whenever I'm on the computer, but as it stands that is impossible with the technical setup I have right now 8=( Please Mr. WiFi Provider. Please....

Christopher · 7 months ago

Brilliant idea. Shoulda just done what I did: When someone "followed me" I checked out their profiles, motivations, and followed those I thought might add value (a realization you seem to have come to after the fact). Easier, more effective this way, don't you think?

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes. That would have been the best option. I'm only fixing things now.

Way, way more effective. Thanks for leading out, Christopher!

David_Mann · 7 months ago

Without stating what has no doubt been said somewhere in the myriad of comments, this is your community, Seth. You're the "steward" among us - and it's entirely within your purview to tinker with expectations every now and then. I applaud it.

I look at every follower I have and find myself occasionally questioning "Why in the world is this person following me?" or "What have I possibly done to hit this person's radar?" Undoubtedly, when I look into them, it's a scam waiting to happen. So...by wiping the slate clean today you bought yourself some time to rebuild our community here. Somewhere up in the comments you made mention that this strengthened the community - I wholeheartedly agree.

There's a real fad amongst twitter-ers to focus on numbers. Personally, I don't get it. Quality over quantity. I prefer to interact meaningfully and authentically among friends and colleagues than just blurt out to the masses. Maybe that's why only a few people are following me...I dunno.

As always, never a dull moment here. I thank you for that my friend.

Seth · 7 months ago

Or perhaps thats why you'll, as Angelo says, slowly and profoundly build something powerful.

If we take our time and act thoughtfully, I think we'll be able to do just that.

I'm grateful for your support and humbled by your praise. Now, to get you blogging! =)

rfwilkins · 7 months ago

Absolutely agree with this approach. Seth I do follow you, but I don't expect you to follow me back. Nor do I think that somebody I follow should have to follow me. There is only so much time in the day, and of that only so much time to read and communicate. For the people we follow we should just be happy that we get a little peak into the way they think, to learn from their gains and losses, and feel for their good and bad days. It's really amazing what you can learn in 140 characters or less.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Seth · 7 months ago

I've also found that many users have a great fear of giving their email addresses out.

You know what happened within hours of my unfollowing everybody? They saw my email address in my profile and started sending me emails. Questions, comments, notes just to say hello. It's amazing. DM's are very limiting. 140 chars doesn't do much for conversations that would like to grow beyond the character limits. I'm glad I've found the wiser path. There's so much value to be had.

I hope, if it turns out that we don't follow each other in the end, that you'll still feel free to drop me an email with some crazy idea or question. It's that next level of connection that reveals Twitter to be a truly powerful mixing pot of ideas and ideologies.

I get a kick out of it. That's for sure!

rfwilkins · 7 months ago

Agree that 140 chars is not enough to have a conversation with. But that's what I like about twitter, I'm not looking for a conversation there. It's my rolling headline of what's going on with people I'm interested in. It's quick and easy just like an RSS headline. If the headline looks good I'll click the link or check out their blog of friendfeed for more information to get engaged in the conversation.

Even just skimming 40K twitter accounts seems like an incredibly daunting task, let alone have a conversation, not sure how you had any time to do anything else.

Sheila · 7 months ago

Wow--Thanks a million for sharing your views. I started feeling really bad for not following others, but like you said in your post, I wanted people who I could "learn from, who make me smile, who inspire and challenge me to improve myself and give back to my community".

I also felt "cheap" when someone would actually auto-follow me back and then never respond to my personal tweets and RTs. Now, I won't feel so bad and do what my heart says is right! Thanks!

Watchout...unfollow will become a useful way to "communicate" that you may want to look at your sincerity!

I'm a follower now! I hope I can bring a smile to your day and family and channel some inspiration when you need it the most...til then, I wish you well!

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi!

I'm not sure that unfollowing will ever become much of a useful tool for communicating.

I hope you never, ever feel bad for doing what your heart tells you is the right thing to do! If, at some point, your heart tells you it's time to unfollow me, do it! Don't feel badly! In the meantime, I'm glad to meet you and look forward to talking soon!

somecalmejim · 7 months ago

Hey Seth,

Good call man. When someone does this, especially when it's someone more well-known, it makes a serious statement. What's the point in following someone if you don't read their stuff?

Even in the mightily diverse world of social networking and new media, some things are superfluous.

Seth · 7 months ago

There really isn't any point. Not unless you're trying for numbers...which really doesn't make any sense because there are people with massive brands who will always win that game.

I'm cool with doing my thing and talking to the people who rock my world. @Aplusk is doing his thing with the people who rock his world. The numbers, I hope, were also just a game for him. Just something fun to do.

Wolfie Rankin · 7 months ago

That's pretty much how I feel too.

@GenuineChris · 7 months ago

Yeah, this is about it for me. I want my people to be an endorsement of sorts. Not there yet. I can't decide if I want to broadcast or connect, and that's what I'm wranglin' with.

Seth · 7 months ago

If you connect, others will broadcast for you.

fddlgrl · 7 months ago

I wondered awhile back why you followed me again on Twitter. Now I know! (By the way, I wasn't offended in the least, nor did I give it any more thought than, hmmmm... maybe he's on a Twitter purge! Or maybe just tired of my Baby Jesus comments... Meh!) I completely agree with your rationale, and I applaud you for taking action! I have been increasingly annoyed even at the talk of follower numbers, etc. It's makes me feel like I'm in high school again. I hated high school. And you know what? I don't give a fuck who is the prom queen and king! Never did! I don't understand it when people on Twitter get caught up in that teenage way of thinking and behaving. That is NOT what contributing to a community means.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hmm. High school...everybody knew me but none of them voted for me to get a senior superlative.

Thinking back, I believe I asked them not to because I thought it was dumb.

I probably would have been voted most likely to run a garbage collecting business or something similar. Hateful insects!

Like I said before, I was glad to get some blue back in my life. =)

@KirstyWrites · 7 months ago

Overall a good article and agree with most points.

But still ... isn't deleting all the people you follow, YET keeping your followers kinda a little self serving? Surely you have to know that new tweeps would look at your profile and go "wow, that many followers but he's following so few? He must be good/popular/awesome" etc

I don't know ... probably not your intention but does make you appear like another annoying SEO/Twitter Expert/Marketing type person that I definitely wouldn't follow (kinda like the ones you yourself unfollowed)

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes, it's self-serving in that I figured I could let people decide to follow/unfollow based on their personal feelings. It isn't for me to choose whether/not others follow me. I've made my profile open. They may do as they like.

I think you're getting caught up in the numbers. The point is to avoid that. Focus on you. Focus on what you want out of this experience. Let others do as they wish. Give them that freedom. I found a lot of joy when I made that leap.

Julie - Inspired to Write · 7 months ago

Well, you followed the same steps as @joeldrapper and I have made comments on his blog about it. While I support both of your decisions (and still follow you both), I see it differently. I just wrote a blog about how I chose who I follow (if you have 2 minutes, check it out) and I have to say the most unexpected people have added value. I am one you unfollowed because you did not think I added value and I respect that. I hope those you value always stay as valuable. You just never know where a good idea will come from and it may be those you chose to unfollow.

Seth · 7 months ago

I unfollowed everybody. There was no selection process. That happens as I go through the list of people who choose to follow me and connect with them. If they choose to reach out in return, then we'll have something. I think that's a fair way to do things, yes?

Tony Rush · 7 months ago

I'd love to know what script you used to do such a mass unfollow. My follow list isn't nearly as big as yours was but I definitely need to do some trimming.

Got a tip?

Seth · 7 months ago

Untwollow works well. You can only drop 2k at a time but it's fairly quick and gets the job done.

That said, you don't get to choose. It just chops.

@rebeccamezzino · 7 months ago

I was unfollowed by you. And I unfollowed back. Then read this blog and was embarrassed!!

I had a bit of a self-analysis when I realised I was an unfollower, and that I certainly did use Tweetdeck as a filter sometimes (as soon as someone interacts with me or posts something valuable to me they get in a group that's then always seen).

I agree with your rationale. Haven't had the courage to rationlize my following list in the same way but I think that maybe I should at some stage. Maybe before the numbers get so high it takes me hours and hours ;)

I still feel mildly insulted (maybe 'rebuffed' is the word) when I'm not followed back when I follow someone, but if I can still interact with them, and still gain value from them, I shouldn't unfollow them. I need to get over myself!!! LOL!

Seth · 7 months ago

I had a bit of the same sort of experience today. Somebody I know well who reads my blog regularly unfollowed me early this morning before I could follow back.

My first instinct was to be pissed. I thought "WTF is this buzzard doing thinking its all cool to dump me because I disappeared for a few hours?"

Then I realized that it didn't matter. I could still email. I could still skype. I could still, gasp, use a landline and call!

We all need to get over ourselves a bit. I'm right in this with you and I really appreciate you stopping by to let me know about your experience. I shall see you on Twitter!

Jorin Cowley · 7 months ago

Ya when I first saw you unfollow me yesterday my first reaction was to unfollow back, because that is what I usually do. And then I took a look at your blog and realized that you have some great information here that I haven't looked at for awhile, for instance this great article, is an eye opener.

Congrats on getting back to the basics. That is why it is called social networking. Interaction. I look forward in learning more! Have a great day Seth!

Jorin.

Seth · 7 months ago

Isn't it weird how that gut reaction takes hold so quickly at first?

But now I get a chance to grind through this. One person at a time. One email at a time. One comment at a time.

I'm glad you dropped by. It made you easier to find. I can remember avatars but not as many names. Green tea ftw!

William Gaultier · 7 months ago

Hey Seth,
@wgaultier here. yeah, the reason i followed you in the first place was because i thought your comments were pretty bold, and made sense. So I am happy that you had the guts to do some house cleaning and re-connect with your followers.
As mentioned in my tweet, would love to be able to DM you once in a while, if you think I tweet about interesting stuff that is. My focus being corporate strategy, integration of marketing across all channels, multi-channel analytics, and international marketing.
Anyhoo, look forward to a lively exchange once the "storm" has died down.
Take care,
William

Seth · 7 months ago

DM's aside, I'm a huge fan of email. Huge. Searchable. Organizable. Lovable. Seriously.

That said, you've forgotten our past chats? I hope not! You may DM me whenever you like. Just know that not being restricted to 140 characters typically results in better conversations in slow-mo.

No storm at all. Just lots of explanations.

Thanks!

Kapil Dalwani · 7 months ago

i THINK the same!
I am not following my friends at Twitter.. I think Facebook is a good place to catch up with friend... Only useful, intellectual people should one follow

Seth · 7 months ago

I've found the same thing with Facebook. I like seeing pictures of my friends doing crazy things on facebook. I really don't have any interest in getting information overload from people I've never met before who just want me to join this group or play this game or throw cybersnowballs.

I guess I wasn't cut out to be a facebook mob leader. =)

Charlie · 7 months ago

If you followed that many people, you weren't USING twitter to begin with. It is not supposed to be a one-way broadcast communication medium (unless you're famous).

I think you just didn't get it. So now, limit your follows to the amount of tweets you can read (and care to read) while still keeping a life away from the computer. Now you're using twitter.

Seth · 7 months ago

Twitter is supposed to be what you make of it. That is the glory of it's simplicity and the reason it appeals to so many.

"unless you're famous"

Are you kidding me? The famous people we all like to follow are the ones like Kevin Spacey who respond and give genuine answers to things. The broadcasters, at any level, are annoying.

Even Guy Kawasaki takes time to respond to people and he's a broadcaster to be reckoned with.

I agree though. My current use is much more manageable.

DenverSings · 7 months ago

I do this with Myspace occasionally and have to deal with all the emails, "What did I do??? What did I say??? WAAHHH"!

Seth · 7 months ago

Hehe. re: the "please take me back" comment? Yup.

Kevin Kute · 7 months ago

Seth, as with a previous comment, am truly impressed that you personally respond to every blog comment. Hard to see that around.

My other comment would be on Twitter search. I stand to be corrected here but is there a time limit on the searches...I have done a search on my own tweets that i know i sent out, and results only show me the last couple of dates. You might initially think that you've probably never tweeted with someone, but I for instance remember topics and individuals I tweeted with, such as football.

As for my own twitter philosophy, I've never unfollowed anybody, rather I've never always followed the obvious no-nos (read 1800 following 296 followers 2 updates), and i don't regret that part either.

Also, everyone you need knows something you don't, learn from them. You gotta continouslly look for opportunities to be of value to others.

Hey, at least you're making twitter work for you.

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes, you're right. I've already stood corrected and told Angelo that I recognize the limitations of twitter search to prove anything.

You know what's cool? In spite of how things started out, I made another friend in the guy who stormed over here all pissed off with an axe to grind...and use!

That's the best sort of social media ending!

Thank you for that reminder. Pushing to always offer value is really important. Do this for me? If I get stale, blaze in like Angelo and rip me a new one, yeah? I'll owe you!

@Domhain · 7 months ago

Ok, was thinking about following you on twitter just because you were making sense. Then you used the word "Methinks" and that sealed the deal. Tweet something witty. Twitty, hmmm. My new word for the day.

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes, I'm rottenly unorganized when it comes to sentence structure. "methinks" just seems to fit sometimes.

"whilst" on the other hand. That's a word I have little use for. Why add a letter to an already good word?

Anyhow, thank you! I'm glad to be of service. I will see you on the tweetground!

Elle · 7 months ago

To be perfectly honest... I don't quite get this, actually I am royally perplexed by this. If you found little to no value to begin with, what was the peer pressure to continually add... and add.. and add? Was there guilt involved?
Out of 30K followers, you decided to start fresh with just the few you thought held value? You disregarded ALL previous value that your followers had brought to you.. out of what?? Fairness? And now you think that about 15k followers 'sounds' about right??? What about just adding those who you felt added value- period. It was obviously a popularity contest for you to begin with... and now you are making it more so be making such statements as "I want to have my “follow” count for something." What does that mean anyways? Like the rest of the people DON'T make a difference or add value?? What does a follow count mean at all?? Because someone who has 20k spam followers and 100 good ones you think I will discount the value of his/her REAL input to my Twitter stream? I am not that shallow. Don't get me wrong... I UNDERSTAND not wanting to follow spammers or IMer's that treat you like sheep... been there done that. But, this... nope, I don't quite get this move.

Seth · 7 months ago

You do seem perplexed. Once you've had a chance to let the topic simmer, I hope you'll swing by and ask some non-rhetorical questions that I can answer? If you like, drop me an email and I'll answer whatever I can. firstnamelastname at gmail.com

I hope things make sense for you soon!

guruvan (Rob Nelson) · 7 months ago

The interesting thing to note is how many of those people you had autofollowed back in the first place. And how well would you have built your following without doing that? It sure makes a splash to say now that you don't want anything to do with the majority of those accounts that helped you build the following that you have now.

On the one hand it sounds commendable that you have the "guts" to unfollow all those people. On the other hand, what cost did it really have to you? You lost a couple thousand spambots as followers? Big deal.

Want to show me you're really serious about using Twitter correctly? Block and then unblock them all. That way they aren't following you either. but you can both still decide to be friends again.

Doing what you did just just makes it so you don't have to look at all the noise. It doesn't show that you really have any courage.

Loic Le Meur did the same thing. Before you did. So did a few other people. But they didn't have the guts do delete their followers either. And they didn't have the guts or stamina to try to filter and listen to them all either. If you're not going to delete al of your followers then you ought to have the decency to try to listen to a few of them.

You know who impresses me? Robert Scoble. He follows everybody back. And uses his tools so that he can find the things that they all say that are interesting to him. And he responds to them when they do say something interesting.

You don't seriously think that you need to find everything that everyone you follow says is interesting do you? You don't seriously think that you think all that your real life friends say is interesting.

Quit lying to yourself and your followers. Unfollowing everyone is nothing like a hero's work.

Seth · 7 months ago

Blocking people you have nothing against is always a bad idea.

I haven't mentioned anything about thinking I have courage in anything. At least, not that I recollect. I can see how you'd be pissed if you thought I had said something about some courageous action. That'd be just plain loony.

I'm glad you're impressed with Robert Scoble. Thank YOU! Let him be your hero. Let him lead you into the promised land of FriendFeed!

Really. I mean it. Follow The Robert and enjoy your life. He says a lot of funny stuff and tweets cool links. Do it!

Nitin Borwankar · 7 months ago

Could you explain why you were following 45K people in the first place? I have never really understood that - it makes the friends timeline pretty useless.

Seth · 7 months ago

That's why I stopped.

I'm glad you found that out for yourself early on!

@MaVinBKK · 7 months ago

I can never understand the people who follow me who have no connection with anything I tweet, where I live, or what I do. It makes it even worse if they are following hundreds of people and have only made a couple of tweets - are they waiting until they have hundreds of followers so they can spam them ?

I am selective with who I follow - and in my view that is the way everyone should be !

Seth · 7 months ago

I fully agree.

You might have a point about the accounts that just quietly follow/unfollow people. I've seen a lot of ads for "established twitter accounts" and I can only assume that's what is going on.

Chase · 7 months ago

this was a great post. I hope more people "follow" your lead here. Like you said, everyone following everyone is simply a tweeting madhouse.

Promote true community.

Seth · 7 months ago

If you have any ideas about how that should be done, I'd be glad to hear them, Chase!

Gloria Jean · 7 months ago

Actually I find tweetdeck a great way to help me see everyone as they come in and at the same time see people that I don't want to miss. But understood with 45K people.

Seth · 7 months ago

I'm sorry if it seemed like I have it out for Tweetdeck. I think they have a great product and provide a useful service.

The added search functions can be really handy especially at a lower volume. For faster pace, sites like tweetgrid seem useful as well.

annoymous · 7 months ago

Seth. a Useful idiot

Seth · 7 months ago

TechCrunch reader #2! I love you you bumbling oaf!

Brett Borders · 7 months ago

I don't aggressively follow hundreds or even thousands of people a day, like you have been doing (you added over 25,000 friends in the past 9 weeks)... using them for a follow back and then using scripts to expediate dropping them like hotcakes.

I added you as a friend because I thought there was some kind of connection, and took some time to check you out and read your Tweets. You followed me back - leading me to think there was some kind of desire to connect on your part. Then I wake up see you dropped me... and I wonder "Hmm.. why? Did I do something wrong?" and I see you have a blog post bragging about how you spammed and used 45k people to build up a following and then ditched EVERYONE at your earliest convenience....

If this isn't the textbook definition of TWITTER SPAM... shady behavior that wastes peoples times and weakens the community... by increasing the noise signal, hogging system resources and lessening trust... I don't know what is.

You try and rationalize it and it works for some of your noob followers and close personal friends... but not for my crowd. We understand that there are people on the other end of the line - people with feelings. You can't drop 45,000 people and expect no one to notice or have any cheefeelings about it. Or for some people to question your motives and sincerity.

I'm not saying this will be the end of the world for you - i'm sure you'll carry on and most people won't notice - but your public bragging about it and your hostile response to my comments = the end of respect for 'Seth Simonds' in my world.

-Brett


p.s. As for your insult about my blog name, I have never claimed to be a "Social Media Rockstar" any more than you claim to be a "Primal Stride." It's not a personal blog. I own dozens of other domains that contain keywords I'm interested in.

Seth · 7 months ago

Your initial comment was hostile. It's right up there above if you want to read it. Read very closely and understand how it would be taken by 90% of the population.

At least I responded to your comments. And you keep coming back. And I keep responding.

Brett, it nearly looks like we're having a conversation.

If you want to hit me with an email and say anything you want off the record, I'd welcome that. If you'd like to continue this here, so be it.

However, if you didn't mean to instigate a negative response in your first comment, then clarify that and I'll apologize for my response and any insult delivered.

You're right about the URL. My bad. It kinda begs for...no. It doesn't My bad.

You've put the time in. Might as well clarify and figure this out, no?

Brett Borders · 7 months ago

There's nothing to figure out... your true colors and motives have come through.

I've got to hand it to you as a marketer (don't read hostility here... I am in genuine awe of your PR prowess) ... you did an amazing job of using / spamming 40,000 people and then making it seem like a virtuous "self-discovery" step. Good job.

I don't need to waste my time play games with people. You're blocked and I will never be back.

Seth · 7 months ago

Brett, this one is for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdUpxch4F8M

I know we all have a lot of stuff to be stressed about and I'm sorry things aren't more relaxed for you right now. Chin up, bro! Just breathe.

Drop me an email when you feel like chatting. I know you'll be back.

@sfosbinder · 7 months ago

Thanks Seth! I am learning from your mistakes, as I'm sure many others are as well. I think following is kind of like dating (I think anyway, hard for me to remember that far back) you follow, they follow, one of you gets bored and unfollows, etc. Eventually we should all end up with the right people, don't you think?

Enjoy your week!

Stephanie

Seth · 7 months ago

So you're saying that somewhere, out there, is the perfect Tweep for me? =)

I don't believe in only one soulmate. I think I'm compatible with quite a few. hehe.

Jef Nance · 7 months ago

No subterfuge on Seth's part here, he's told the world what's he's done, and in the process he's reminded (better said, informed) everyone what Twitter should be about: Connections that matter.

The numbers have become the focus. Relevency is more powerful.

And WOW... It's interesting how personally people take all of this! They get unfollowed (along with EVERYONE else) and their feelings are hurt.

Seth, you're directness in addressing this is refreshing... and it blows a lot of wigs loose. They've been conditioned to put more value in feelings than principle & truth.

Give all of them one of your Bear-Sized Man-Hugs.

-jef

Seth · 7 months ago

I know you didn't cry. You cold-hearted ex-cop author dude. Not a tear.

I think the fact that it IS personal means it's an important discussion to have. To some, I'm a complete moron. That's cool. You know why? The only truly eloquent dissenting comment cast here or on Twitter or in any of the emails I've received...resulted in yet another valuable relationship with somebody who knows a lot about many things I have yet to understand.

I say it's win-win so far.

The rapid appearance of numerous inside jokes based on earlier remarks has been astounding and highly amusing today.

Thanks Jef!

Bradley · 7 months ago

Just wanted to say that I agree with your perspective on Twitter.

I saw that a lot of people on Twitter are only interested in increasing their follower count, as if it's some sort of popularity contest.

I'd rather build a network of people that are actually worth following, worth listening to, and have interesting things to say. In that spirit, I'm only following about 10 people, and a few businesses for updates on programs I use, or for news.

I get tons of Twitter "spam" in my inbox about people following me. When I first started using Twitter I would check every single one, but after a while I realized that most of them were garbage and now I don't even open the e-mails anymore. I just delete them all. The mass following on Twitter has rendered that notification service unusable.

If I decide I want to build up my network more, I'll look at the people my Twitter buddies recommend, but keeping a small audience is fine with me.

Quality over quantity right?

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes. Some argue that they are getting "quality-in-quantity" but I'm not sure that's really the case.

But what do I know? I only know about my personal experience. Others may be experiencing dramatically different things. They probably are.

The popularity contest has been won. It was over the moment mainstream media took an interest in Twitter.

What can little guys like us do to make a difference? Exactly what you already do: keep it real for yourself and create an experience that continues to make you happy.

That'll probably serve a lot of people very well in the future.

Thanks Bradley!

Rena · 7 months ago

I guess that I'm just not as nice as you. I never just follow someone who is following me. I actually spend time reading their bios and looking at what their tweets are about. I follow people that I think can make me better at what I do, friends and people that I think are funny. I never thought that it was curtious to follow someone and not read their tweets.

Seth · 7 months ago

I don't think it's about nice. I think, once it went past a certain point, it was disingenuous and I'm trying to make that right.

It sounds like you've made a really great go of Twitter and you'll continue to enjoy your experience!

I'm getting more of that feeling for myself already. =)

Artem Russakovskii · 7 months ago

So let me get this straight. First, you follow thousands of people to get your follower count up high, really high, whether by following them first or by blindly following back.

Then, when you decided it looks bad to follow so many people because you look like a spammer, you drop them all.

And make a blog post about it, thereby getting 200+ comments.

Genius.

Seth · 7 months ago

Sure enough. Let's definitely get this straight!

"First, you follow thousands of people"

Yes. That is exactly what happened.

"Then you decide it looks bad to follow so many people because you look like a spammer"

No. That part isn't the case. You picked that up from reading some of the other comments. Not your fault. There are lots of comments. If you look at the original post, I never mention anything about looking like a spammer. I want to connect with fewer people in a more powerful way. That's rather atypical for a spammer. Moving on,

"You drop them all"

Yes! All of them. No selection. Just all of them. Nice and clean. Nice and fair. Nobody gets treated any differently than the next.

"And make a blog post about it, thereby getting 200+ comments"

Isn't this part circumstantial? We never know what the response to something will be. I certainly didn't. I intended the post to be something I'd point people to when they yelled at my for unfollowing them. I expected a lot of people to unfollow me and probably very few comments other than a few mean ones. It's pretty rock-solid that so many people are glad I did what I did...but I hadn't expected that.

"Genius"

Which part? Certainly not the first couple parts. Those weren't very smart at all. That's why I expected the negative response.

If you'd left a response like the TechCrunch readers and said something simple like "You're an idiot", that would have been easier to answer. =) I probably wouldn't disagree with you much either.

Artem Russakovskii · 7 months ago

You certainly are a bright guy, Seth, but to me, getting your follower count up by randomly following thousands of people (surely, you don't know 45k people in person and were not remotely interested in what they were doing - hell, it's impossible with even 1000 people), and once the count is at a decent position, dropping them looks very, very much shady. Maybe not a spammer, but the technique is low-life and is frowned upon.

You're the guy who clutters my email with a new follow notifications, which end up meaning nothing and are only created to generate a potential look back at your own profile and *maybe* a follow-back. A solicited one in my book. OK, maybe that's not you, but the likes of you who had created this image before you.

SEO, SEM can go **** themselves. Again, that's not you. You're a writer. No hard feelings :)

Seth · 7 months ago

It's frowned upon because the next step in the spammer handbook is to follow 45,000 people who aren't following already and hope for some percentage of them to follow back, right?

That's not what I'm doing.

My approach to Twitter has been one of conversation. I don't tweet a lot of links. You could say that I'm one of those people who just creates noise by talking to people all the time. Random icebreaker questions like "If you were going to drown in chocolate, what type of chocolate would you want it to be?" and hundreds of people would respond. We had a lot of crazy conversations. It was fun. But it wasn't sustainable. I was being entirely serious in the original post.

I am entirely serious about using any influence I might have to help other people reach their goals. If people decide that I'm just another spammer and they want to get rid of me, freedom from Seth Simonds is only a click away! =)

Yes, the image is bad. I'm not interested in that image. I was aware that I, in part, was furthering that image and I'm glad that I no longer do so. Hopefully?

You're allowed to swear in comments if you like. =) I don't mind. Just know that Fddlgrl probably will out-curse you in a contest.

No hard feelings whatsoever! I visited your blog and, unfortunately, I have no idea about what you write on. I know a little bit about setting up databases but I'm lost otherwise.

Let me know if you write a human interest post and I'll swing by and plague you in return. =)

Artem Russakovskii · 7 months ago

Due to your ability to write well and respond in a timely fashion, I am going to force myself to a conclusion that you are not indeed a spammer but perhaps quite a nice guy. There are certain exceptions in every rule, and while they don't normally happen often, they do happen sometimes. I was simply conveying my first impressions.

Yeah, I'm mostly a technical blogger. Let's see... maybe you can relate to this one then and practice your bashing skills here: http://beerpla.net/2009/03/17/twitter-autocompl...

Tony · 7 months ago

I write funny & philosophical stuff, & people follow.
When a follower is all about marketing, I don't follow back & I don't tell them.
If a follower is new, or young, I check out their tweets. More than not, they are writing about what they ate, or the worst = "I'm so bored...."
I sometimes send them a direct message and suggest that if they wrote interesting things, more people would follow.
=====
What's really frightening is to view the Twitter Public Timeline. Pages and pages of the most boring posts. Once in a while, tho, I find interesting people thru "Public..."

Seth · 7 months ago

If you look above your input section on the web version of Twitter, what does it ask you?

"what are you doing?" is that it asks.

Not how is a new user or anybody else supposed to know that the existing social structure of Twitter has decided that "What are you doing?" is not the question to answer?

That's awesome that you give people tips on how to liven up their streams. We need more like you around!

I'll check out the public timeline. Wait, how exactly do you get to the public timeline now? The sidebar shortcut has been gone for some time.

Paula · 7 months ago

As a relative newbie to Twitter I intuitively would check out a person's tweets before following them, if it was someone I didn't know. If I didn't care for what the had to say, I wouldn't follow them. And occasionally, I would unsubscribe from a person if I found them to be irritating, or if I felt I wasn't getting anything from their posts.

I have had people unfollow me, and I just figured that happened when I unfollowed them. I still haven't figured out how some of these people found me. I don't have a blog or website, so for people that don't know me to follow me is still quite new.

I found you through a retweet, and have found many other interesting people that way.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Paula!

I think your approach to Twitter probably reflects how you approach real-life relationships. That, I think, makes for the best results in the long run.

Oh, if I'd only had your wisdom!

=)

Good job guy · 7 months ago

Bravo. Well said.

B.E. (BJ) Johnson · 7 months ago

Well, a lot of mixed feelings. I know we spoke some months ago about being a guest writer on my blog and you wanted to know what the blog focus is. Good point. That started me on a program of separating blogs into various themes. That led to installing WordPress Mu. That has taken a while.

Anyhoos, I found the Tweetdeck generalization to be a bit off the mark. Might have been designed that way, to be controversial. Whatever. I guess that I don't use it the way most do, evidently, but I surely don't like being labelled as if I did by default. It wokrs for me, where the default web interface doesn't. If it actually were written so that tweeps in one category could be removed from "All Friends" that would be different and, in some ways, better. AFAIK, that isn't the case.

A very interesting approach: seeing who wants to be follower/followed by getting them to clear this hurdle. With 45K followers, what's to lose? They vet themselves by taking the time to come here. (hat off)

For myself, I have auto-unfollow set due to the follow-unfollow-follow-unfollow clowns looking for auto-follows. Don't see why that is an automatic bad thing.

I vet each and every follow to see if they have merit.
No Bio? Bzzzzt!
No URL, so I can learn more about you? Bzzzzt!
Default avatar? Bzzzzzt!
Your URL goes to one of those cookie cutter, butt-ugly, 10 page-long come-ons? Bzzzzzzzzzzzt!
No, or very few, tweets but tons of follows? Bzzzzt!
Protected your tweets & profile? Bzzzzt!
Nothing but links in your tweets? Bzzzzt!
Nothing but platitudes in your tweets? Bzzzzt!
All of your tweets are jibberish? Bzzzzt!
All of your tweets are three words or less? Bzzzzt!
Everything you say is a rant? Bzzzzt!
Nothing but politics? Bzzzzt!
"Guru" of any sort? Bzzzzt!
All about getting followers? Bzzzzt!
All about how to make money? Bzzzzt!
All about internet marketing? Bzzzzt!
Know anything about marketing *my* field? Maybe.
Know about marketing my field but don't follow me (and I follow you)? Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!
Work in my field? Probably.
Might I learn something from you? Probably.
Might you learn something from me? Probably.
Conversational and interesting? Definitely.
Humorous? Definitely.
Have a clue? Definitely.

In short, if you seem like you'd be fun to hang out with, I'll follow you. Anything else... take a hike. I don't have all this many followers but, just the same, I culled a bunch using the above criteria a while ago. Quality, baby! It's what matters.

OT: What is the comment threading plugin you're using? Works really well.

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes, I've said this a few other places so far but my Tweetdeck comments weren't meant against Tweetdeck or many of it's fine users. I simply take issue with those who follow more than they might otherwise because they have Tweetdeck or another 3rd party system to "reach into the stream" as it were and pull out only the bits they predefine.

I started laughing out loud at the final Bzzzzzzzzzzt!

Quality, yes. That's what I'm set on.

No plugin. It's part of a customized Hybrid theme. http://themehybrid.com if you want to check it out. If you're looking for a plug-in, Disqus and IntenseDebate are two good ones.

Talk soon!

Alicia · 7 months ago

hi, from the other side of the Ocean!
I started twiterring last month. As soon as I logged in, more than 50 people started following me. I felt like all the paparazzi came into my privacity so I bloked them all. I did'nt think if they would feel bad with me, the were pushing my door and I felt I was in my rights to do it. Internet is part of our lifes not the jungle. In my live, I like to give and take the best from my friends and my collaborators on a friendly social rules. It doesn`t matter if I am in a party in my sunny terrace or in twitter. And it demands some personal attention and quality time... or this is the way I try to do it.

I started following you some days ago because I thought you could make me to understand the value of twitter for our life. After this post, I really believe it. I hope you don't blok me ;-)
(I hope my spanish-english is clear and accurated enough to be understandable)

Seth · 7 months ago

Of course I wouldn't block you! Your English is quite alright. Twitter is probably a good place to practice your language skills...not sure if its a good place to look for new ones though. =)

I think you do well to treat your online social interactions the same way you do those in a more tangible space. You'll find it much easier to move between the two that way.

I don't think Twitter has any real value for our lives. I think great communication does. For now, Twitter seems to be one of the best tools to do that with. I'm glad I get to use it!

Liz · 7 months ago

@JimConnolly did this back in February & @AriHerzog a few weeks ago. Might be a change to the mass Auto-Following blitz that's been going on for six months now.

I don't know whether you'll follow me or not but I think it's better to follow those people whose Tweets you want to read rather than follow everyone back. I still follow probably 80% of people back who follow me but it's important to me to weed out that 20% who are mostly spammers & marketers trying to sell me something.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Liz!

Don't you get bored of posting about Twitter over and over again? I checked out your blog and, I know it's a project you're doing, but still, aack! Of course suggested users and celebrities will have a lot of followers.

It's not like new users sign up and think, "hmmm, I'm not going to follow anybody famous. I'll just search off on my own!"

I'm with you on being selective. 80% is probably a little high for me. If it works for you, I'm glad of it!

Reverse Cowgirl · 7 months ago

Dude, you need to implement DisQus/Facebook Connect/Google Connect on this blog. Entering a 'real' name and email everytime gets painful. DisQus lets u sign in with Twitter.

Seth · 7 months ago

Every time...what?

Probably going to try out Disqus on this blog at some point. I kinda like the current format though.

Sorry to disappoint. Perhaps set up your browser to auto-complete fields for you? Works well for me. I also use the comment platforms though.

Thanks!

Richard · 7 months ago

I've only been on Twitter for a week or so and am still finding my way. I honestly can't imagine ever following more than about 100 people - once I get to that level I will start purging. I'm still at the point of being interested in who follows me and I check their pages and any links in their biogs, but it wouldn't cross my mind to automatically follow them just because they follow me. And I certainly don't expect to be followed by all those I follow.

I follow maybe one third of my followers (plus of course many folk who don't follow me) and I'd estimate that to be a reasonable level for most people apart from celebrities or news/commercial organisations.

That said, if someone follows us it should be because they find something of interest in what we say, on some level - it should therefore be likely that we might find something interesting about them, too. Which in theory covers most folk not included in your categories for unfollowing. I've not unfollowed anyone yet, but there are two candidates - guys I started following cos they came up with short strings of interesting tweets, but those seem to have been out of character. But I'm willing to give them a chance to redeem themseves first...

I don't think it's ruthless or impolite not to feel obligated to follow anyone, and I think the reverse is very much true too - anyone who takes offence at being unfollowed (or their follow not being reciprocated) needs to get a life, or at the very least take this all just a touch less seriously/personally....

Seth · 7 months ago

I think you've come into this fresh enough that you see the platform as you see regular life. It's possible, for many, that a custom of reciprocity has become so ingrained that they go numb at the idea of not following somebody in return.

You see, that's the idea that much of "web" advice is built on. Reciprocity.

Comment on others so they'll comment on you
Give away links so people will link to you
FollowFriday recommend 500 so they'll do the same in return
RT the entire world and 15% will return the favor

It's turned into quite the mess, Richard. I'm glad you're taking things at your own pace and making something good happen. I'm glad to meet you!

Richard · 7 months ago

Thanks for the reply, Seth.

I think you misunderstand one thing, though - I've had an online existence since the WWW was a babe in arms (I remember when Yahoo was still just a student project...) and I'm no stranger to the ins and outs of internet etiquette.

The odd thing I find is that it's generally newbies who expect and insist that their every utterance will be followed by millions, and spam everywhere they can, begging people to join them on Twitter/Facebook/Myspace - people who've been around the block once or twice tend to be more sanguine about it and are prepared to wait to be found, and for other networks to find them.

Just today, I found the Twitter presence of the crowd I hung around with 15 years ago and realised that I really have little in common with them any more and haven't bothered following any of them (or indeed admitting to my own presence on Twitter). Like real-world friendships, online relationships move on... Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.

Internet friendships are built on reciprocity to the same extent that real-world friendships are - the only difference is that internet ones are quantifiable. We know how many friends/followers each of us has and of course it becomes a bit competitive. This is something the netwroking sites bank on, because it's how they get ever more users and ever more interactions.

Of course, like everyone else, I want to be popular, but frankly, I'm not *really* interested in how many friends/followers I have; after all, just like real world relationships I can only realistically expect a few dozen to be meaningful before it becomes unworkable. Putting names to usernames and/or being able to remember my last interaction with people is far more important to me. That's why I'm not really that concerned about following celebrities' Tweets - I don't need yet another medium to have them let me know how wonderful they are, unless their tweets have something of actual value to add to my daily routine.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Richard,

By "fresh" I meant "human", not green or inexperienced.

Think refreshing, not just off the pumpkin truck. =)

I think you make a great point in noting that our online relationships see few genuine differences with our analog ones other than how we quantify them.

I'm with you on taking little interest in whether or not Demi Moore is enjoying her iced tea. That's a fascination for an entirely different breed.

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. I've learned from you and am glad to find that I'm not entirely off my rocker in thinking a focus on a limited number of high-value connections will render the most value and joy over time.

I'll see you on Twitter, Sir!

Vanilla Cokehead · 7 months ago

Well put, Seth. While I consider myself pretty liberal on adding people back on Twitter, it by no means is a "numbers game" for me to add followers. I'm not a "rubber stamp" Twitter user in terms of adding back followers.

I use a simple test called the "VIP" test when I get a new follower: I look at a Twitter user's following and follower numbers ("Vitals"), posts ("Interaction", to see if they interact or just spout off), and their "Profile". By using this quick test I can usually tell within 10 seconds of opening someone's Twitter page whether I'll follow back, ignore, or block said someone. If someone shows no apparent intent to interact on Twitter, that person usually gets blocked - or if I'm not sure I'll wait to add that user back.

And I manually review every follower - no use of bots or scripts. They kind of fly in the face of the whole concept of "social media".

Props to you for being willing to scorch the earth and rebuild on Twitter...

Seth · 7 months ago

VIP, huh VC? I like it!

You don't happen to write conference literature for small-mid size corporations, do you? It's just got that vibe to it. =)

I typically don't block a lot. Not following seems to do the trick. There's a batch of spam accounts that follow/unfollow just to stay near the top of various user lists. When I recognize one of those, it's block time.

Thanks for sharing your method. I hope I haven't scorched the earth too much. Perhaps just enough to bring up a discussion. Thanks for chiming in!

Steve Gaines · 7 months ago

Twitter sanity and value. Finally!

Seth, you said it all with this:
"Everybody following everybody isn’t a networked community; it’s a madhouse. Enough of the madhouse. Let’s build something truly powerful and show the world all the beauty we can bring about with that power! "

I'm only a month into this and still haven't understood the so-called etiquette of "if you follow me, then I'll follow you." When I get the alert of new followers I just check their most recent tweets and can tell quite quickly if there's any real value or not. And I find no reason to click "follow" if the value for me isn't there.

Cheers to value, Seth!

Seth · 7 months ago

There isn't any such etiquette. It's a construct built to support the spammish marketers.

"I find no reason to click 'follow' if the value for me isn't there"

And that's exactly why you'll probably really enjoy your time on Twitter!

Yessir. Cheers to value!

wakasmir · 5 months ago

Exactly. I guess so many spammer scripts are just making lots of newbies so energized thinking that they will be "valued" IF they have a large following. In other words they are fooling themselves for being followed by people who don't even care for their marketing "sales pitches"

laanba · 7 months ago

Wonderful post, and I agree 100%. I have always used Twitter this way (blogs and Flickr too) because I want to really be able to "follow" the people on my list. I don't want to miss their tweets, posts or photos. I regularly go through my list and add or remove people as my interests change or as their media streams change. I'm a school teacher so I am not in front of my computer all day. That really forces me to keep my lists small to really be able to keep up with my selected people.

The biggest problem I have had with this method is people being offended because I didn't follow them back or because I unfollowed them at some point. It heartens me to see people in your comments who feel the same way that I do. Everyone should be able to use Twitter the way they want to. People shouldn't let their self esteem get wrapped up in whether someone follows them or not. That is certainly easier said than done because I do struggle with it sometimes as well, but I will not follow someone just because they follow me. And if I unfollow it doesn't mean I think any less of that person.

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes. They'll be offended. I have a lot of people who are unhappy with me right now. They feel that I've broken some social media code. A twitter pact, as it were.

But it is fully within our rights to follow only those who bring value into our lives. It is necessary to do so, I think.

I'm glad you've found some confirmation in these comments. Many strong people have taken the time to share their viewpoints and I think it's great that others can bounce around and look at other ideas!

andyjacobson · 7 months ago

Agreed. Here's my visual take on social networking: http://twitpic.com/5hf7d

Seth · 7 months ago

The last.fm users are really THAT cool? I've been missing out!

Joost · 7 months ago

I don't get this. First you start following a ridiculous amount of people and then brag about unfollowing them all?

It just doesn't make sense.

I think I'll write a blog post about how wise I was to decide not to climb mount everest today.

Seth · 7 months ago

Well, it doesn't make sense if you see it as bragging.

Typically, I post to my blog about things I do that may interest the people I talk to regularly. This is one of them.

Were you planning on climbing Everest today? If so, that's a post I'd like to read! =)

Meji · 7 months ago

I actually did this before I read this post. It's worth it. I'm still yet to finish. I only follow people I know, I'm interested in...etc...I actually wrote a post about it a few days ago

Seth · 7 months ago

That sounds like the best way to do it! I'll check the post out right now. Thanks!

Sally Williams · 7 months ago

Excellent! Thank you for the insights. I am relatively new to using Twitter for anything beyond personal friend updates. I've found much that makes me think and smile. I've also found a lot that makes me clench my jaw. I unfollow the ones that make me clench my jaw. :)

I only have a few hundred I follow and a few hundred that follow me. I see tweets like 'how to get 34,000 followers in 3 days' and wonder why anyone feels there is much value in that. You have confirmed my belief.

Best regards,
Sally~
bleumoonsattic on twitter

Seth · 7 months ago

Hmm, 34k in 3 days? That sounds terrifying! =)

I don't really clench my jaw much but I'll remember your tip in case I'm ever about to follow somebody and my jaw tightens up. It's amazing how we all have different physical manifestations of very similar feelings. I like people.

Brian Casel · 7 months ago

Just found this article (through a RT) and it's funny because I just did the very same thing yesterday on my account (@CasJam).

I used this website to handle the mass-unfollowing work:
http://huitter.com/mutuality/

Seth · 7 months ago

Hey Brian,

I tried Huitter but it didn't work very quickly. I think it might work well for accounts dealing with different numbers. Not sure. It's a big leap to unfollow everybody and I don't recommend it as a first action.

I'm glad we're on the same page!

ozestretch · 7 months ago

I only just started on twitter, but I manually scan all follower before deciding to follow or not. I look at what they tweet, if all I see is marketing tweets, no follow... if I see no tweets, no follow... if I see just auot tweets from softaware, no follow and ofcourse if I see tweets that just are not my cup of tea, no follow.

Good post!

P.S. Confucius say: He who thinks only of number one must remember this number is next to nothing.

Seth · 7 months ago

But tweets about tea? I'm always a fan of those. =)

Thanks for bringing Confucius to the party. It is very true and good advice. Thanks!

ozestretch · 5 months ago

I just created my disqus account and found your reply here... weird part is... my girlfriend just asked for a cup of tea!

Laurie Gripshover · 7 months ago

"Why not publicly own up about who you find valuable?"

Thank you for sharing that thought with us! Hmmm, transparency--I believe we can ALL benefit from more of it.

As a new follower, I am enjoying your thought provoking posts and tweets. I look forward to being challenged by your topics. Thanks for trusting your readers enough to call 'em as you see 'em!

Warmly,

Laurie

Seth · 7 months ago

Thank you, Laurie, for taking the time to let me know where you stand. I'll do my best to keep moving forward and improving as best I can.

The moment you see me stumble, I know you'll reach out and set me straight. I'm so very glad of that!

Ann · 7 months ago

I love the values that are underlying this post, and this action of yours. I'm fairly new to Twitter but I think what you've written here will inform some of the choices I make going forward. I love the idea that what we do on Twitter can (and should) actually reflect what we really believe in, rather than false propriety. Thank you for sharing!

Seth · 7 months ago

I just got a chance to check out your site. I'm still smiling. I certainly hope you approach Twitter with the same joy and pep!

I look forward to finding out. Thanks Ann!

Michel Fortin · 7 months ago

Excellent post. I talked about this at great length on my own blog because it's something I've been debating, especially on Twitter. The fact that it's rude not to follow back is a blatant myth perpetrated by spammers. I think following someone with the sole expectation of a follow-back is just as rude.

In fact, I talked about this at great length on my blog (please delete this is it's inappropriate with my apologies, though I believe it's relevant to this discussion):

http://www.michelfortin.com/autofollow-fiasco/

Seth · 7 months ago

Great post, Michel!

from the post:

"Do you deserve a follow back just because you’re following me? Something’s not right, here. I believe one should earn the follow, not extort it."

100% with you. Thanks for taking the time to outline your thoughts so well.

Readers, if you're up for an in-depth discussion, check out Michel's post!

Change will come. We are dragging it in with us!

Dan · 7 months ago

Hi Seth,

I love what you have decided to do. It's one of the things I wrestled with when I first started using Twitter. Your post just reinforces those decisions I made back then and have used as I move forward in my Twitter evolution. I want to interact with people who value what I value. Thanks for your words of encouragement and positive thinking. Keep up the great work!

Dan

If you decide to follow me again, I am honored.

Seth · 7 months ago

Thanks, Dan. Will do!

All the systems set up to assign numerical values to our behavior really make it easy to forget that you can't put a number on a relationship. You can only look over the course of a relationship and find snippets that involve numbers.

Some of the most valuable interactions I've had in social media and otherwise came through complete accident. We love to plan things but its rare that those plans ever turn out.

I'm seeking value and letting the numbers lie as they like.

Debberzz · 7 months ago

I found your post through a retweet on Twitter and was fascinated by the responses.

Part of the reason I sometimes follow people is because they are in a work field that I'm not in, but would like to be in or at least know more about. I notice their conversations with others in their field. I'm mostly just listening and learning. Some don't follow me back, but some do. I'm hoping they don't unfollow me for just listening (or do we still call it lurking?) And I'm hoping I don't ever mess up and unfollow someone who is just listening to me. Your post is making me think that having a follower who is just a lurker could be uncomfortable for someone who is in the mood to crop. I'm going to reconsider how quiet I've been toward some folks. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh?

I have a question. You might help others by letting us know what led you to follow so many people in the first place? Did you just tend to autofollow and so the numbers grew too quickly? Did you get caught up in the fun of getting to know a bunch of new people?

I'm a little older than most of the users of Twitter. Most of my friends in my age group don't "get" Twitter. On a happy note, no one on here has called me an old fogey yet. :) Twitter is having growing pains and we're all learning. The fact that what you said evoked this much response tells me that people are at least thinking about how best to use all this. So thanks for lighting the fuse!

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Deb!

Yes, nothing ventured, nothing gained for sure. Say hello to people! Let them know when you find them funny, terrifying, or just educational!

I don't think I'll ever get over my love of meeting new people. It's fun. It's a sort of social high, I think. Yes, my account was set to auto-follow. Anybody who followed me got the same in return. Getting caught up in the fun of meeting new people isn't a bad thing, I think. Letting numbers climb without assessing the trajectory of an experience can be a bad thing though.

Yes, Twitter as a platform has had some growing pains. It's still very much in development. That said, I don't think a platform should dramatically change the way we think about people or the communication process. The logistics have changed but the product is the same: Valuable interactions.

Always glad to give a light. =)

Justin Parks · 7 months ago

I have been fortunate enough to begin using twitter at what could be considered a late satge (its 2 years old or so) but at a time when its user base was exploding and the debate over massive follower counts or select targeted followers was a debated topic.

Sethsimonds was one of the early people I choose to follow as I found my way around and I remember performing the search and findingyou talking about something I was interested in (along the lines of blog design, wordpress, seo or some other term) but I do know that it was NOT your follower count that attracted me but the fact that you where interesting.

I have continued to be quite selective in who I follow back and resisted many temptations and urges go splurge out and give in to the "need" for thousands upon thousands of followers. This post only helps me to continue this manual process of deciding who is of value to me and my network and how I can be of value to them in return. Sure its not easy, its slow and quite often frustrating but recently it proved to be to my benefit when a post I wrote went viral through my network and the traffic to my site rocketed (this post: http://www.justinparks.com/favourite-tweets/). All with people interested in the information I had provided. The feeling of satisfaction was immense.

I followed up by giving back more with a break down on the effect this viral surge caused in another post: http://www.justinparks.com/social-media-viral-p.... Honestly I dont believe that this would have happened if I had not been selective in the followers I choose and who choose me. The whole experience is helping me refocus and build even stronger relationships with these other twitter users.

I support you 100% Seth and understand your reasoning completely. Hope to get in touch with you again once the storm settles but only if you reckon its worth it (and no offence and unfollows from me if you dont, i enjoy reading your tweets far to much!)

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Justin!

Great work with the posts. I started re-thinking some of my twitter relationships with the posts on FollowFriday and how much of a mess it's become.

That said, I think it's important to focus on communication. Twitter is a tool that should supplement a communication style and method, not BE the style and method!

We can call each other. We can email. We can meet up for drinks. We can go to SXSW and sleep with people we'd never talk to otherwise. There are a lot of options! =)

Thanks boss!

CanadaGood · 7 months ago

Thanks for making sense.
I follow 137 others because they are worth following and I read almost everything they say. Anyone "following" more than 1 or 3 hundred others is obviously not actually reading what their followees are writing.

Seth · 7 months ago

One of the immediate results of following less is that I tweet less. 15 tweets in a row is now an annoyance to me. It never was before when I had thousands rushing by. It's a revealing change and I think it's for the better!

I'm really enjoying getting to reconnect with old friends and establishing better ties with new ones. As we figure out what works best to keep our contact vibrant, I think expansion may come in time. Not much though. Not much at all.

Pamusl · 7 months ago

The point you raise in this post is one that I questioned innocently when I first joined twitter just a couple of months ago. I asked the question publicly (see below). Why do people follow 10, 000 plus? Is it a marketing numbers game or it is as the last post states, "Did you get caught up in the fun of getting to know a bunch of new people?"

Here are the posts I made, no one responded, other then a personal friend.

And don't you risk by casting such a wide net, your prospects not feeling special? Don't prospects generally want to feel special?
1:36 PM May 1st from web
How do you stand out among 33000+? Recently I was flwd by a handful of mtkrs with 33000+, isn't that casting a wide net?
1:35 PM May 1st from web
Is SM a popularity contest, does that fact intimidate new users?
7:31 AM May 1st from web

Just trying to understand the social media thing. Thanks for being brave enough to approach the topic.

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes. It's a HUGE amount of fun. A wild crazy "cocktail party" as people have often referred to Twitter. But at some point you have to stop drinking, get some sleep, and take something for the headache. I've done that. =)

A lot of people follow huge amounts for the numbers game, yes. Obviously, there are a few who say they wouldn't have it any other way...but I think that's a very small number. The rest seem to understand that, because of the reciprocity issue, they will lose many followers if they "abandon" them. It's not a relationship of value. It's a mutual understanding of non-information exchange resulting in inflated numbers.

I'm not sure it was bravery. I knew that if I was going to do this, I didn't want to try to explain myself 40,000 times in 140 characters. I'd rather field questions here and have some space to clarify.

Let me know if anything else comes to mind!

Bryan · 7 months ago

Complete respect for this article! I am in 100% agreement and don't understand the fascination with having 100,000 followers who ignore every post tweet you make. Give me 300 followers who have the same interests as me and want to see what I am posting! In return I want to know what they are talking about and cool articles that they have to share. And another thing I hate is when I accept a follower who seems to have the same interests only to recieve an 'increase your followers to 10,000 in 10 days' message....I am not adding you for that reason!!

Good for you Seth making the clean break, and again great article!

Seth · 7 months ago

Apparently, the number is up to 16,000 in 3 days. Astonishing! It only takes 3 days to have a large number of people who ignore you. =)

The smaller network is also the more powerful network. Sure, you'll have more people call you out if you mess up, but isn't that a good thing? I enjoy being challenged and educated. It makes this whole experience a value-added one.

Can you imagine being in a room with 300 people from different countries and walks of life who all have the same sense of humor? THAT is what I call a party!

Thanks Bryan!

Rob Bunting · 7 months ago

Great post Seth! Somehow the sheer number of followers became the key metric for determining the value of a person's Teitter stream. As an online marketing professional, I have tons of multi-level-marketing shills and other 'entrepreneurs' following me for no other reason than to boost their numbers and pitch their products and services and since that's not my thing I don't want follow out that 'noise' and promote those people. Thanks for saying what so many of us are feeling.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Rob!

You don't want a 3 step program for 16,000 followers in 3 days that will make money for you while you sleep?

The first step always involves paying them money. It'd be a disservice to fish to refer to the practice as fishy. =)

I asked last week "how many people would come looking for you if you dropped of the face of your social media earth?"

The responses were along the lines of "very few" to "none at all".

That says a lot about the nature of many networks. We need to do a better job of looking out for each other. A better job of caring. I'm trying to do a better job of that.

Cassie Whitt · 7 months ago

Ah, the dreaded un-follow. I have prevented myself from ever having to take such drastic measures as yours by simply not following people back. I do not care if it is "rude". This is internet-land; things shouldn't be taken so seriously.

There is also a sort of stigma that has become attached to following more than one is followed, which is just as ridiculous as the "rudeness" factor. Haha!

Seth · 7 months ago

Fresh air!

Even if it weren't the internet, I think the concept is approached with too much gravity.

It's okay to not like somebody. it's okay to not be liked by one, or even many!

Rudeness=inconvenient for internet marketers

A bit more rudeness might not be a bad thing, eh?

=)

Adrienne Doss · 7 months ago

What a strange post. Even stranger is that you're getting so many compliments for it.

You know what this reminds me of? When a celebrity gets caught doing something wrong, and suddenly they're in rehab or finding Jesus. We're all supposed to congratulate them for seeing the error of their ways, when the truth is that it's all a calculated public relations ploy.

It's especially funny to me that you mentioned Guy Kawasaki ... that he "takes time to respond to people." Guy fully admits that he has employees who tweet in his name. And while I don't agree with Guy's tactics, at least he's upfront and honest about his motives.

Seth · 7 months ago

It is a little strange, isn't it?

And since I consider any comment a compliment, thanks for the compliment on my post!

$10 says you came here from Brett's site. Another SEO/SocialMedia mishap riding in to make a statement.

Statement made.

Take a deep breath. You'll be okay.

ErikSchwartz · 7 months ago

I unfollow anyone who tweets about twitter.

They remind me of the people who when airphones first came out, used to call from the plane and say "you'll never guess where I'm calling from".

Seth · 7 months ago

"I unfollow anyone who tweets about twitter"

Awesome!

Is blogging about it okay or, hmm, I suppose it's just another case of blogging about blogging. =)

Robyn McIntyre · 7 months ago

I don't get why a "social media rockstar" would call you (of all people) out for passive/aggressive following. What I thought he was talking about in his post has nothing to do with what you're talking about here. If anything, the ideas are complementary. But if he valued your interaction, why did he not ask why you unfollowed? Twitter is sometimes goofy and I never assume that when I'm unfollowed a few times that it's because the person is trying to boost numbers. I certainly wouldn't assume that if I knew from their tweets that there was something going on with their account. Well, all I can say now is that, being in a hurry, I didn't follow the link to your blog to see to whom he was referring. Sorry about that. If I had, I would have called him out on it.

Seth · 7 months ago

I don't mind, Robyn! I liked his post and thought me made a lot of great points...other than making it quite plain that he thinks I'm satan.

I was flattered that he found my writing so compelling. It's a compliment.

Don't be sorry. The only thing you should ever be sorry for is if you start posting to your blog in Papyrus.

I would unsubscribe. =P

You offer a lot of great ideas and content. I'm glad to know you!

Ron · 7 months ago

I like your rationale. I reciprocate because, what the hell, you never know who you'll stumble upon that way, and I have stumbled upon quite a few. I'm afraid I'm probably no longer following you as I have socialtoo set to unfollow. You can't not do that if you autofollow because of that weird group that tries to rack up their numbers for social proof purposes or something.
Just so you know, I don't think we ever interacted, but I was seeing your tweets in a tweetdeck group I created. If it's ok, I think I'll refollow you now.
Thanks for writing this, I'm currently wondering what to do with all those Friend Feed subscriptions I have, and I think I may treat that more selectively than I have Twitter. I'd actually like your thoughts on that, if you have any.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Ron,

We're changing that now starting with this interaction!

I think it's a great idea to be selective. Friendfeed, facebook, linkedin, Twitter, any of them. Choose for value and let the rest do what they like. You'll get the most that way.

Worried about getting the word about a new post, site, or event? Your tightly-knit group will do a much better job of getting the word out than a massive account of apathetic users because your network will know you and value what you say. Seek the value.

We're in this together, bro. It's an adventure of the grandest sort.

Sheila (@stinginthetail) · 7 months ago

I stopped reciprocal Follows in my first week or so on Twitter, though initially i followed everyone who followed me and got a lot of spam for my troubles. I now look at people's Tweetstreams before i even consider Following back.

Yes, it takes a little more time, but I like that i can do a follow friday and say "or anyone else I'm Following." Glad others are realising this is the way to go.

Seth · 7 months ago

Yes. I do the same now. I look at the last 20 or so tweets and if there's nothing there I'd consider retweeting, I keep moving. Is that harsh? I don't think so. I also look at sites and read their blog if they have one. Focus is all on interacting now. Numbers are long gone. Well, not entirely. They're dropping a lot. =)

I don't mind. I'm excited to meet everybody who decides to hang around when the dust settles.

Way to lead out. Thanks Sheila!

impact · 7 months ago

just a thought:
make a private account? or a second account?
having a lot of followers is one of the new crazes. remember when having the most friends on myspace was the sh*t? lol

Seth · 7 months ago

Haha, YES! Until everybody pimped out their myspace and everybody was oversubscribed and nothing was fully read anymore. We don't learn very well, huh?

I don't think I've ever had more than 20 people as myspace friends. I'd need to check to know for sure.

What would the private account do? In place of this one?

Cynthia · 7 months ago

Nice article. I share your thoughts…

I like reading the tweets of the people I follow… after all that's why I follow them: I find them interesting & want to read what they have to say. Sometimes we have thing in common, sometimes not, but there's something there, something that caughts my attention & makes me want more…

I see that as one of the purposes of twitter: the interaction with others that comes from reading their tweets, paying attention to them & then replying or retweeting… I guess that's why I don't understand why people follow such large amounts. I'm following about 100 & I'm already thinking that's a large amount as to really follow & wish to stay around or below that number.

Having many followers is somewhat good for the ego (oh, people like me… they think I'm smart & funny! -& don't mind my abuse of ellipses-) but at the same time, being followed by someone who follows thousands is a turn off… they don't pay attention to what I have to say, they are simply interested on increasing numbers!

I do not follow everyone who follows me… if they find it rude it's their problem & they are welcome to either convince me I'm wrong by replying to me or to leave. Not everyone I follow follows me back & I'm ok with that… I don't unfollow them because of that: I added them because I wanted to read their tweets & that hasn't changed.

I am now following on twitter because of this article & because of your twitter bio.

Take care,
Cynthia

Seth · 7 months ago

Ellipses are welcome ( I use too many of them as well).

Yes! I'm happily discovering a lot of people who share my belief that we should follow value and let the numbers fall to the wayside. I wonder what it would be like if you couldn't see follow/following numbers unless you were following somebody already? That might be interesting.

Ahh, the twitter bio. If you can't be brilliant, be crazy. Heavy on the crazy. =)

Thanks Cynthia!

Daniel · 7 months ago

Well, I guess you're not following me any more, Seth, so this may be my only avenue for communicating with you now (no bitterness whatsoever; I know our twitterpaths will cross again). And I haven't read all the comments (would take HOURS!), so despite the fact I'm almost paranoid about repeating a sentiment without adding anything new, I'm going to give you the one thought that occurs to me. Because I actually love what you've done (the Big Unfollowsky).

I often think myself that I shouldn't follow everyone who follows me. And when I check their profiles, tweetstreams, etc., if I'm absolutely convinced that we share nothing in common, I won't follow back. But I'll also give a good dose of benefit-of-the-doubt, and follow anyone who looks even vaguely interesting to me. My "thing" is that -- and I speak only for myself -- I hate to be judgmental, especially in a snap-judgment kind of way.

So, sure, there are people I follow assiduously. And people I stay more loosely aware of. And others who get scant attention from me.

But the one point I'd make about judging is that one runs the risk of missing out on the crazy, wonderful, astonishing diversity of views, opinions and voices on Twitter. Frequently people I've barely noticed will tweet an absolute gem. Reminding me that, all too often, I tend to narrow my lens and only see the views that are similar to mine. I might not have had an interaction with them for months -- or ever, but then it's all on.

That said, if I had 45,000 followers, I don't know how much I'd be able to take in without plunging into a super-hyper-overstimulated state. So yes to ditching the spammers, robot-jockeys, trolls and those who are obviously not on the same planet.

Seth · 7 months ago

The dude abides, eh? =)

Yes, I agree with you about being surprised by people. I think 40 tweets is a decent chance for people to prove themselves so I tend to glance over two pages of tweets to see what the trend is.

If a guy replies to @aplusk and talks about his new motorcycle for 40 tweets, there's a good chance he's going to keep doing that.

And no, this isn't the only way you can contact me. My email address is posted right in my profile and I welcome emails, comments, etc. This post has taken some time but I reply to every comment that offers insight, says mean things, or asks a question.

"great post, dude" Is probably not going to get much of a response. "I liked your post so much that I printed it out and mailed it to my friends" will definitely get a response. =)

Because I've been in that "super-hyper-overstimulated" state for a month or two, I've been able to connect with a lot of really random people. If you look through the people I'm following now (and I add a few more back daily), you'll see a really varied group from all over the world. Would I have gotten that had I not tried to follow the planet? Yes, I think so. It just would have taken a different process to get here.

But here I am. Thanks for your comment! I checked out your site but didn't see any links to Twitter accounts. Hit me up on twitter and I'll say hi!

Shelly · 7 months ago

I do this every now and again. Especially at this time of year - it's a "spring cleaning" thing. I see nothing wrong with making sure who *you* follow has value to *you*. If people unfollow you because you unfollowed them - well so what? It's not a numbers game - like you said, it's about value. Like the saying goes "The people that mind don't matter, and the people that matter don't mind."

I actually found you because you followed me first. I'm very glad I followed you back - you provide a LOT of useful information, and I'm glad to listen to you. (I will say I miss the old avvie of you eating the sphinx though :) ) When i saw you'd unfollowed so many people, I immediately logged in to see if i was one of them - I hope not! But you know, if I am, it's not a biggie. I'm still keeping you around because you've got some great info.

But I really wouldn't worry about you numbers - Twitter is meant for value to each person that holds an account. If you aren't getting value from your own account, then what's the point?

Seth · 7 months ago

I grabbed Roger to reply to the parts of this that apply to him. I don't live in Egypt, etc. =)

I completely agree with you about the numbers thing.

If every person we followed sent us a daily, thoughtful update about what they did during the day, I think we'd start weeding very, very quickly. When the engagement level goes up, the number of connections must drop for it to be sustainable.

Some people follow me just because I ask random questions and they find it amusing to answer. They never DM me (if they need to get in touch, my email is posted). They're just having a good time and don't mind if I don't see what they fed their dog or the video they just posted on YouTube of a cat running into a wall.

It's okay. It's real. I'm glad you're on board! =)

Mario · 7 months ago

Why not realize this from the get go? seems you wasted your time ... following, un-following and then having to write this post and follow up on comments. Made lotsa work for yourself. But we have to learn the hard way sometimes ;)

Seth · 7 months ago

It wasn't a complete waste of time because I've had the chance to reconnect with people I hadn't talked to in months. Yes, it's more work. But do I get more out of it? Yes.

Will we talk on a daily basis now? Nope.

I just see a little bit more of them.

Roger · 7 months ago

Hey Seth

Don't agree with some points but disagreement makes the world go round ;)

I don't auto follow but I do auto unfollow to catch any sneakers...

I believe that in business and in networking we should do all we can to give as many communication layers as possible you have just closed one off for many...

But like I say each to their own there are no rules and the main plan in Social Media is to have flexibility and quick reaction to what you feel you need to do!

All the best! Rog

Seth · 7 months ago

Hey Rog,

I don't think I've taken away a communication layer in that I like email more than DM's. I'd be crazy to say that I was seeing everything people tweeted though. The stream moved faster than I could click through sometimes. Connection was very shallow at best.

You're one of the people who follows a bunch of people and it works for you. I get that.

But you don't follow everybody back. You still maintain a sense of choice.

Yes on flexibility and quick reaction! I can @reply anybody on Twitter = fastest. And anybody on Twitter can email me = strongest response from me.

That's how I'm doing it. You do it differently. I still think you're a cool dude.

There was that time when you sent me 3 DM's in a row because you couldn't didn't make sense the first two times... caffeinated much? See you on Twitter, Rog!

Judith Brown · 7 months ago

I get you. Since my purpose in using twitter is solely for business reasons, my policy is to view the profile of anyone who follows me and decide whether they fit that bill (someone I'd want to conduct business with). My reason for using twitter isn't to find new friends; it's business. I have friends. Lots of them. Those friends have invested hundreds of endless hours and meaningful phone and/or face-to-face dialogue with me - which is why I chose them as friends. For ME: twitter is just business.

Seth · 7 months ago

You have a very focused goal and know just how to meet it. Bravo, Judith!

Really. Your straightforward take to Twitter is refreshing.

Shelly · 7 months ago

Dude - apologies. I thought @styletime had posted this (and I thought he had a redesign too LOL)

This is why I should drink more coffee in the morning before I get involved in really good discussions, I come off like an idiot.

Seriously - sorry about that. (But what I said before still stands - it's your perogative!)

Seth · 7 months ago

No. You don't come off like an idiot.

What you say makes a lot of sense. It just would have involved more exclamation marks had you been fully-caffeinated.

@brassblogs FTW!

Now, get some coffee. =)

@fleurdeleigh · 7 months ago

Seth-

No question that you can shake it up like with the adeptly as a blender on puree. I credit you for taking a bold approach and I agree with some of the points in your blog. I noticed this morning that your face popped up in friendorfollow and I was initally surprised. Then disappointed. Then I adopted a stance that I a) bugged the shit outta you b) provided no value to my tweets or c) you've suddenly become horribly elitest.

Your unabashedly Seth. And that appeals to me which is why I not only follow you, but recommend you to others. Like you, I am bold, real, and a risk taker. But, I believe what you've done with the mass unfollow is like sinking a ship full of people whom admired you (like me) and enjoyed the connection. Now those tweeple are in a sea without a boat and you're selectively throwing Seth life jackets (dramatic analogy I know...but I am watching Scooby Doo Ahoy and it's all I got before coffee.) I hovered over the unfollow button and opted not to. You are still valuable, entertaining to me despite your 86ing me :) Your given a choice to follow or not.

I hope that this method makes your Twitter experience tailor to your wants and desires. To me it felt like propaganda. And, I am not buying the hype.

Leigh

Seth · 7 months ago

But then you read my post, realized I'd unfollowed everybody and was in the process of reconnecting with people, and decided to send me a witty @reply to remind me that I hadn't found you yet....right?

Not entirely.

I hope you realize that if you weren't using FriendOrFollow you probably never would have known I'd left or when I got to your name on the list and followed you back. Things would have continued as before...only my side of things would have changed such that i'd see more of your tweets and you'd get more replies from me.

I guess, without FriendOrFollow, you would only have seen a positive.

Isn't that an oddity?

Sayz · 7 months ago

I did unfollow some people after reading this post...
=), I like your idea... better to unfollow them rather than follow and ignore them...

Seth · 7 months ago

People may yell at you for it. The thing is, they probably didn't notice you before. In that case, yelling is the only interaction you're getting.

I only enjoy being yelled at by fans of an opposing team. That's kinda fun. Throwing popcorn and slushies...talking smack. Great times. =)

Jennifer Coy · 7 months ago

Seth,

I think you made a bold, but yet brilliant move. I'm fairly new to twitter, but quickly realized that it's not about being "polite" and following back those who follow you. Otherwise you end up being violated day in and day out with "cyber vomit" (spam).

While I haven't taken time to go through each and every person I am following to determine whether they are of value or importance - I am very quick to unfollow those who have no life and manage to post 20 to 40 tweets every half hour or so. I also make sure I personally go and view the follower's profile now before following back.

I also use a '3 strike your out' rule. I attempt to personally communicate via DM with followers. If they fail to interact with me on 3 separate occasions - I unfollow. Don't want any 1 sided relationships. I use the DMs quite a bit to interact directly w/ people - realizing it should be visible to all so that they can see my desire to interact 1 on 1.

Anyhow - thanks for sharing your blog post...definitely provides some food for thought.

Jen

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Jen!

This past Friday, as I was going through accounts, I sent more than 100 DM's to people with content I'd read, links I'd tweeted, or comments I'd left. You know how many responded after 2 days?

3.

Are those people I should continue to follow? Some of them, yes. They provide content and start conversations that interest me.

Some would say that I've reduced my twitter account to a mass of "one-sided" relationships when I'd be lying to say that they were "two-sided" before. I wasn't reading most of the tweets because there were too many. DM's were mostly from people I email and talk to regularly. I did the right thing considering my experience.

That's the best I can do, I think. I'm trying to do better.

Thanks for swinging by!

Michael · 7 months ago

Thanks for this. It actually took about 2 or 3 RTs before I made it here. Glad they persevered.

Fortunately, my "follows" list was not extensive enough for me to look at grabbing/cobbling/writing scripts for fumigation purposes.

Instead, I'm axing the obvious ones.
Keeping the ones I do know I want to keep.
And sending the following DM to those that of which I'm not certain.

hello 'nameGoesHere' I'm cleaning up my follows and by golly, can't remember who 'nameGoesHere' might be. Who are you and why should I follow you?

Thanks again for once more exposing the "common sense".

Seth · 7 months ago

That's an awesome method. Give them a couple days to get back to you though.

Even with some time, I've a feeling your list of people you follow is going to drop significantly.

"fumigation purposes"

Unfortunately, some friends thought they were being fumigated too. Their responses were very telling and I know some people a lot better now.

Complete win.

Good luck with your hunt for the next thoughtful tweep!

AJ in Nashville · 7 months ago

My primary criteria in whether or not I follow folks back is 1.) If I know them and/or know what they're about to begin with, and wish to engage and/or learn from them, and 2.) If they choose to engage me directly and show me they're here to be real.

If #2 is missing then #1 stands as the only reason I follow anyone back. Folks like @chrisbrogan and @Scobelizer don't know I exist (nor do they need to), however I follow them because of what I personally glean from their insight and links.

I'm not on Twitter to pontificate or amass numbers via numerous in-kind follows; I'm here to communicate on a 2-way basis, have fun, and to learn. All that said, I appreciate Seth's stand because I believe he's in this for the same reason.

I guess I might have felt slighted if I were one of the folks Seth summarily unfollowed (I wasn't familiar with his prior to this post), but in the wake of all that, I'm happy to have found him now. This is good stuff.

Seth · 7 months ago

"Nor do they need to"

That's the kicker here. I've seen some accounts with twitter streams dedicated to replying to celebs in the hope of a reply.

I get what they're doing...and yet I don't.

I follow some, just as you do, because they're fun to read. I don't follow Chris now because his @replies will fill up any stream not following more than 5-600 users. But I still check in on him and read his blog. It works for me.

I hope more people will take the time to figure out what really works for them. I hope they figure it out and act to change things for the better. That'd be pretty neat.

See you on Twitter, AJ!

Derek Hall · 7 months ago

Spotted this post today through Twitter and I had to share your thoughts with everyone I know. Since I started on Twitter I have always disliked this automated systems for followers. I personally can't see the point in seeking massive numbers of followers. I want real relationships with real people on Twitter and any other social media site.

I've wrote a few thoughts on this at my blog Left Over Grey Matter http://leftovergreymatter.eo-creative.com/?p=627

Hope these short posts are helpful to the online discussion.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Derek!

Just dropped by your site and left a comment. Really great thinking. You've won me over...for now. If you start posting via RSS feed to PerezHilton, we'll need to rethink things. =)

Yes, I think they're helpful. It's important that they continue.

@fleurdeleigh · 7 months ago

Seth,

Of course I read your blog, commented on how we are ideological bedfellows on a lot of what makes a true follower connection on Twitter, and for a moment when I saw your unfollow thought perhaps a glitch was happening. What I love about you is that you will tell me exactly how you feel, no holds barred. And I appreciate that in you.

That said, what I see happening here in the wake is a bit of a flailing arms of people who enjoy you, who felt dumped. That is why I deem the move ballsy in a admirable way but a bit social media sensationalism (hence "propaganda") in an annoying way.

Thankfully, you have opted to refollow and reignite the connection with me. But not everyone. Not that I am saying that you should in any way. I get it. Perhaps why I chimed into this debate is that I am left with this unfollow bad taste in my mouth. Like perhaps the friendship, YOU ARE MY FRIEND, that we have developed in tweets, DMs the like was somehow a facade. That *poof* Seth follows no one, save they wave their arms about and get noticed again. Do I think you would have eventually found me and added me back. Yes.

Yet, I am twice shy. A willing follower with a spare life vest.

Seth · 7 months ago

I like that you're unsure and express it. It's good to hold out on complete trust until it's earned. I get that.

Yes, there's some arm-waving going on. If you look at the people I'm following now, you'll see that there's quite a disparity between arm-wavers and the people I'm actually following.

You didn't need to wave your arms. I would have found you just as I did before: When Maura starts chatting with you about photography or when you and Scott get into one of your tweet-a-thon snarkfests.

You're terrible at math. That was the first thing I ever said to you, I think. In the hope that you're still rotten with adding up percentages, I hope you'll add a few points of "letting Seth prove he's not full of dramatic shit" and see where things go.

I hope you will.

Nickolas · 7 months ago

Howdy, Seth. I'm absolutely certain we've never crossed paths, and that's cool. I wouldn't even have known you existed had it not been for the Can You Believe This Dude Unfollowed 45,000 People At One Time blog post.

But I think you did the right thing. If you're unable to maintain any sort of relationship with the people you're following, then cutting yourself free is the way to go.

I follow less than 400 and have about 470 followers. I use Twhirl and don't filter out a single one. I prefer to engage everyone in conversation, instead of posting links at them. I don't really care about my numbers, and don't have interest in growing them into these "inflated" figures that every new member wants right now.

I simply couldn't be who I am with 5,000 followers, let alone 9 times that. So I do applaud you. I think the fact that you were willing to cut 46,000 - a number that some of these new social-media-expert-wannabes would actually kill for - is admirable.

It's also clear that you've got enough real friends and fans that getting back to 15,000 won't be difficult - and you'll have already done all the work for it ahead of time. Good luck with all this.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hey!

I had a conversation with "power tweeter" awhile ago during which another conversation came up. (following so far?) A direct message had been sent because one user didn't want to "waste any voice" by replying with an @reply and "risk losing followers".

When you follow people you're interested and let everybody else do the same, I think you steer clear of the sort of worries that inspired the previous conversation.

It means a real win for everybody involved and I think we'll see an increase in trust and the amount of listening that takes place. When people listen more, things spread more quickly.

That's something even the dodgy internet marketers should be promoting. =)

See you on Twitter!

Nickolas · 7 months ago

You know what? Life would suck if I worried about all that rot. I turn over about (and I'm wildly guessing here) 5% of my followers on a regular basis - the rest I can't get rid of. :-)

I go into pro-liberal, anti-neo-con rants; tell terrible jokes; deploy the occasional f-bomb; bash on social media gurus; shamelessly pimp out my blog; and carry on conversations with anyone I feel. This is who I am; and this is who my followers have chosen to follow.

If I worried about ticking off any or all of them I'd never sleep - and I've got less than 500 or so. I can't see how any of these power tweeters can expend the energy in worrying about losing ONE of their own. I want to say: for Pete's sake, grow a pair and say what you feel.

Of course, in return for my follower's eternal patience, I almost never unfollow them for any rational thing they say. If they try to whore out a product, they're right out. Aside from that, I keep 'em around. You never know what might be entertaining.

I've actually had this communication with many of them - and I do feel there is a trust between a lot of us. (This might also be because my particular corner of the Twitterverse is the writer-artist area.) I agree with you; it would be nice to see this kind of thing promoted.

Gankaku · 7 months ago

Well Seth, it's been a few days and you still haven't followed me back, as I'd assumed you'd do after a clean up. When I read this article http://blog.mrtweet.net/gaming-twitter-for-foll... it reminded me of what you did. Then I saw that he actually WAS writing about what you did!

I commented after you had done this that it's cool to unfollow - but I thought you were mostly unfollowing spammers, etc. Then later I found out you unfollowed me too! We'd had several messages between us and well, I enjoy your Twitters very much. So I was a little confused and my feelings were a tad hurt.

However, after these many days and you've still not decided to follow me, and after reading that post, I'm pretty sure you don't care about reading my posts, and probably won't be following me back.

Twitter is a two-way thing IMHO, and if what you did is really like that article said, that's bad social networking juju. I'll be unfollowing you now. If you do decide to follow me again because you're truly interested in things I have to say once in awhile, I'll follow you back again. Goodbye until then.

Seth · 7 months ago

I thought I was very clear in saying that I unfollowed everybody and that it would take some time to reconnect with people I'd like to follow but haven't reached yet as I go through the list.

"these many days"

Really? 3 days? If we'd been on a date, I'd barely be reaching the mid-zone for unhurried response time!

But this isn't a romance. We weren't dating. We've chatted on twitter a few times.

You read my post and as soon as you saw one that gave you reason to distrust me, you leaped aboard the new train. That's entirely up to you, but do you see how shallow it might seem?

Looking for the pejorative sense in things is really a rotten habit we all so easily get into. I need to work on it myself. In that light, I say "very cool". I'm sorry you don't find anything about me useful or interesting, but I'm not sorry that you unfollowed me.

I'm glad you did. I want people to follow me because they're interested in me, not because of some inflated sense of propriety and reciprocity. If they're interested in me and we interact, will I follow them back? I don't see why not!

Twitter really can be a lot of fun if we take the time to make it so.

Adriana Mullen · 7 months ago

Thank you very helpful!

chad engle · 7 months ago

I guess I am a little bit lost Seth. It seems that you are the one that views the account from the inside (like any of use do on our twitter account) and you then realized that "wow I have a bunch of spam from following everyone who followed me and I want to change it" So, your dropped everyone you followed and are following back based on who you get the most from. This sounds like finding one route eneffective and going another. I don't understand why you are getting all this flack. This is like me switching cars because the one I had was crap. Does it effect my neighbors? No... So why are they judging what car I have? You went about it the correct way. You made a post stating what you did and did it. Done. End. If you would've just unfollowed with no explination then, there is some trechory. Cheers for finding a strategy that worked. Its your twitter stream and account. Do what you wish.

Seth · 7 months ago

Thank you, Chad! I shall drive my Prius through my muddy lawn all afternoon now! =)

Nate St. Pierre · 7 months ago

Wow Seth, I can't believe you've managed to respond to these hundreds of comments in the last few days. Have you been doing anything else with your time? :)

I'm very new to Twitter, starting it only a month ago since I finally had something to broadcast with my new site, and I thought it'd be a cool way to interact with readers, meet new people, and find new positive stories to tell.

I've gone back and forth so many times in the past couple of weeks, trying to figure out if I should follow a ton of people, or just the ones that I endorse and gain value from.

A couple of the best stories I've found so far have come from random chats with random folks on Twitter, and if I hadn't followed them randomly (intentional overuse of the word), I never would have learned what I did. In that sense I don't want to underestimate anybody.

On the other hand, I'd love to have a timeline filled with tweets from people who challenge, inspire, and interact with me, and get rid of all the garbage that flows through there right now. (Of course I say this with following/follower numbers in the low hundreds - can't imagine it being in the high thousands.)

I guess I still don't know. Right now it's easy for me to look at everybody, evaluate their profile and website, and follow those back that I feel warrant at least a chance (which is most of them). When my numbers get higher, I don't know what I'll do.

I do know that one time a while ago I wrote a good story about a great Twitterer, and you RT'd it. I was surprised and happy, having read a lot of your stuff and liked what you had to say. I hope to at least continue our dialog.

My twitter name is ItStartsWithUs. If I'm not still on your list, I'd like to be.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hey Nate!

Fortunately, I type quickly. Not much time taken and certainly none wasted. Every question is one I want to answer because I recognize that I took action without consulting the general public first and getting their take.

That said,

I started out the same way you mention. I followed anybody with a breath in them because I figured I'd find some cool people. I did. I found a LOT of them! But then it got bigger and bigger and I didn't use a 3rd party system to filter things out. I just chilled out on the web platform and watched the river pass me by.

I decided to take a different approach. I know a lot of really cool people were fatigued with my behavior but I've been finding them as we continue to chat about things and have crazy conversations. Those are my specialty, you know. =) The Twitter of 3 months ago is not the Twitter you see today. Not by any means. As more people continue to get caught up in a "numbers game" and follow as many people as possible, they stop talking to their old friends. Their priorities have changed. Those people won't miss me much and that's okay.

The ones who do miss me and are angry about my behavior...well, I hope they take a moment to tell me how they feel and let me explain myself. It sounds like you've got a good thing going with Twitter so far. I'm glad you enjoy it!

I remember that story. Something about the guy who invented flavored kid's medicine, yeah?

Jayson · 7 months ago

Seth, thanks mucho grande for your approach here. I think you are reminding many of us (ME) the true purpose, fun and reason I tweet. Let's keep it real out there! Thank you again.

I deleted my "autounfollow" approach. feels right.

Jayson

Seth · 7 months ago

No problemo, Jayson! =)

I hope you'll keep me posted on how that works out for you. I know it's possible that, say you have a long conversation about American Idol and get unfollowed by a few people, if you continue to follow them they'll rediscover you in time and add you back post-mistake. hehe.

Let's definitely keep it real out there. You're one of the good ones at that.

Prefer Not To Say · 7 months ago

You followed me first; I then followed you back because I enjoyed your tweets. I was shocked and saddened to find I had been unfollowed. Regrettably, your unfollow came the very day my mother died. Ouch. Hope you find whatever it is you are looking for.

Seth · 7 months ago

My unfollow was not meant as a personal slight and I'm sorry for your loss. By making your comment mostly-untraceable, I'm unable to track you down and explain further. If, after seeing 400 comments discussing what I did and why I did it, you still take my action personally, I guess there's not much more I'd be able to say anyhow.

Dee-Dee · 7 months ago

I have never played the "Follow Me - Follow You" game. Perhaps I'm a Twitter snob? The way I look at it is I don't go around the streets inviting everyone I meet to come home with me if they will let me go home with them so why do it online? I prefer to cultivate a few good long term friendships with people I admire and respect rather than be a nameless face in the crowd. Besides you can't think straight with all the noise! Welcome back to sanity Seth ;-)

Seth · 7 months ago

No. You're not a snob although there are many people out there who would claim that you are.

Precisely my point with being a nameless face and entertaining relationships so shallow that nothing ever comes of them!

It's much quieter now. I think I like it. I'm glad to be back! =)

Kevin Ferrasci OMalley · 7 months ago

Thanks you've helped restore my twitter self-esteem (twittersteem) !
I've never auto-followed but only followed people whom I've actually checked out their bio and/or web page. Since I'm a little more mature (53 yrs old) I've had a sometimes nagging question in the back of my mind, am I missing something with all this quest for large numbers of followers ? It's always seemed disingenuous that social media is about the relationship and that you can cultivate quality relationships
with masses of a??es

Seth · 7 months ago

No, you're not missing anything. You can't really cultivate a "close relationship" on social media in the same way that you'd do with people you're in regular contact with face-to-face. But you can get close and I think that's what some try to do, and do it well!

I'm trying to do a better job of it myself.

Edward Vielmetti · 7 months ago

I did the same kind of thing last fall, and wrote about it as "twitter zero"

http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/2008/10/twi...

sadly I've backslid and now am back up to following a thousand people, which is harder to do than following zero people.

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Edward,

I really like your point in the post about Twitter being useful for "ambient awareness". I think, for some, it's become an entire way of thinking. That's dangerous!

Backslid? Probably not. We both know you'll do what it takes to optimize your experience. If it's another "twitter zero" then so be it.

Thanks!

Jason · 7 months ago

FYI, I just followed you because I liked what you wrote in this article. I follow anybody who seems to have interesting things to say, and I think discovering such postings is a good way to find interesting people. I don't expect at all to be followed back by everyone. My policy changed from what it was and now I need another serious purging of my account, though perhaps not so drastic a fashion as "seth-style." (That said, I also ought to get my website active and out of the stone age as well.)

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Jason,

Another man from Japan! If you were at the TEDx in Tokyo, then the circle just closed quite a bit.

As I'd suspected previously and was confirmed through many of the interactions I've had as a result of this post, some people really think of Twitter as a "friendship-level" relationship. That's not the case for me at all. There are people I love to follow on Twitter who I'd probably not seek out in real life and I've a long list of IRL friends who I don't follow on Twitter because it doesn't serve a purpose.

I think most things should serve a purpose. Twitter is among them. I'm glad you're finding a way to use Twitter that works for you. That's usually the best one to go with. =)

Good luck with your site! Hit me up on Twitter if you run into any questions. I don't know a lot of answers but I know a few people who are chock-full of them!

Armand · 7 months ago

Hi Seth,

This is a great post. Actually reminds me of another post by Christine Lu, who decided to hide her number of followers by coloring a part of her site so it isn't humanly visible. And another by Loic who posted about also "unfollowing" numbers of twitter followers.

There are people like Guy Kawasaki who believes in the quantity of Twitter followers and there are people like yourself and others who believe in quality of Twitter followers. And as you mentioned before, it really depends on what you want out of it.

So which one is better? And which one is right? I think it's both and neither. Twitter is not a means to an end but a tool to get you there, what you want, need and aspire.

I have a small following in Twitter (less than 1,000). In fact it is less than 500 and I have been on Twitter since the start of last year. I have seen other "newcomers" who build up an obscene list of followers in a very short space of time with less than a handful of tweets - it's crazy.

I follow a lot more people than those that follow me. Do I wish I had more followers? Absolutely! But I cannot see how a person can keep a conversation, following thousands and keep up with it all. You'd have to be:

1. Either on your keyboard typing madly every second.
2. Or on a (VB x Caffeine) fix just to keep going.

Just like Yin and Yang, the good also comes with the bad. And with Twitter it's SPAM. There is nothing worse (in Twitter) than taking up your whole page from Spammers who made gazillion dollars in less than 30 days and claims to show you the "holy grail" of making money. There's nothing bad with making money, in fact I fully endorse it - as long as it's ethical and not SPAM.

So, back to your post - I fully agree with you on this. Maybe you can write a post on "Which type of Twitter are you? Quality or Quantity?"

Just my two cents,
Twitter: @ArmandAguillon

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi!

I talked to Loic before he unfollowed everybody and his take is a bit different. He only follows people he knows IRL vs. I don't mind following people I've yet to meet but still find interesting. It's a tool that serves us both well in our respective goals.

I think that'd be an interesting discussion, I'll look into it!

Thanks!

Fred Fernortner · 7 months ago

AWESOME JOB MAN!! ummm.. jerry mcguire comes to mind! BTW follow me LOL

Seth · 7 months ago

Haha. No link, no wash.

=P

Kim Vanderwall · 7 months ago

Hey Seth: I'm late for the show here -- have been off the grid traveling for three weeks. Thanks for writing this blog. I'm pretty new to Twitter, but never did understand the idea of following so many people. And find the people who set out to grow their numbers for the sheer sake of doing so pretty uninteresting. I have had great fun exploring and coming across people who genuinely interact; who present themselves as real people and in so doing, shed some new light on me or the world. In that vain, I have enjoyed following you. Thanks for your contributions . I'd love to stay in your circle! (But I also follow people who I know will never follow me back, just as I read books written by smart people I will never know.) Best to you!

Seth · 7 months ago

Hi Kim!

As I go through my list and check in with people, it still amazes me how much variety we truly have available to us on Twitter. In the past few hours, I've had game-changing conversations with people in Egypt, Canada, France, and Japan...all with my feet resting comfortably on my desk.

I'm not sure how I'd find that otherwise.

I'm actually thrilled with how things have transpired after the original unfollowing. Sure, lots of people are unfollowing me...but that's the point of all this. Nobody needs to follow anybody unless they want to. If we all seek value...we all win. I think. =)

See you on Twitter!

Mary-Anne Mason · 6 months ago

Good essay. I didn't know it's rude not to follow everyone who follows me. I just pick the ones that interest me. There's one or two spam-meisters I have to unfollow, but I'm usually too busy tweeting away to do it!

It would be very cool if people thought this way about following. Hope you influence many users!

Seth · 6 months ago

Hi! I'm glad you found it interesting!

I think you've got a great system going. It definitely would be nice to see more users choose a different path on Twitter. Some did before me and more are doing so by the day. It's great to see positive changes happening!

Kim_Lou · 6 months ago

You started following me. I found your content interesting. You communicated with your followers. So I followed you back. Then you suddenly unfollowed. Initially I thought I had somehow offended you. So I stopped following you Then I saw your post (yes, I do pay attention). I don't follow just anyone either (hate the marketers, spammers, people who post nothing but nonsense). But I do wonder if you've gone about this the right way, by alienating so many people in one fell swoop. I don't follow bunch of people - have no desire to. Only the ones that interest me. Someone disgusts me, they're gone. And I clean up to keep things manageable at least once a week. So, yeah, I did notice when you disappeared. Anyway, hope this works out for you.

Seth · 6 months ago

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that and do try my best to communicate with others. Thanks for the follow.

I'm glad you didn't feel like you needed to follow after I'd unfollowed you. I hope more users learn to approach things with the same gravity.

I don't believe I've actually alienated that many people. Why? Because most know better than to treat Twitter like a full-blown relationship. The button you clicked on didn't say "Fall in love with Seth", "Support everything Seth does", "Be friends with Seth", or "Click to have Seth follow you back". It said "Follow."

That's an independent choice.

It has been working out really well. I'm glad I did it. Best to you!

Gina · 6 months ago

Chris - Great post. I had started going through my list this week too. It's a great cleansing process. I unfollow people regularly if I feel that they're just spamming me with their links and not trying to connect - that's not why I'm on twitter. It is unfortunate that a lot of people there are just out to promote their product, service or blog though.

I love that twitter gives us a choice. To follow or not. More times that not, it seems, I choose to not.

I'm going through my list again this weekend (Saturday night fun - woohoo!) and looking forward to it.

Hope I earn my way back on your list too -
Gina

Seth · 6 months ago

Who is Chris?

Anne Mai Bertelsen · 6 months ago

Seth - I really enjoyed your post. I do spend a fair amount of time clicking through profiles and recent tweets to determine if I am going to follow someone back. And, I do routinely cull people out who don't provide either insight or fun to warrant following. I do hope one day in meet you in person -- your irreverence and directness are refreshing.

Thanks,

Anne

Seth · 6 months ago

I'd expect your approach to Twitter to be nothing less than strategic. =)

I like running into people who recognize that online relationships, just like everyday ones, ebb and flow. Sometimes, through no fault of any one person, things just lose their glimmer. When that happens on Twitter, people get unfollowed. Sometimes the response isn't positive at all...as if some sort of world-shaking loyalty was expected instead.

But not you! =)

annemai · 6 months ago

Can't remember, are you coming to 140conference in NY? If so, I'll look for you!

Beka · 6 months ago

I only follow 17 people, as I'm pretty picky about who I follow. However, I'll be following 18 now because of this article, very interesting!

Seth · 6 months ago

Hey Beka!

Now the pressure is on...I hope you were referring to somebody you met through their comment? I mostly say silly things on Twitter. =)

Andrew Bonar · 6 months ago

not sure why you got up everyones nose with this :)

sethsimonds · 6 months ago

If you read the comments, I think it's rather self-evident. I don't mind. I'll answer any and all questions. The post offered an explanation of my behavior and everyone is entitled to their own opinion as to why I did what I did. =)

re2 · 6 months ago

Agree entirely - although I dont have anywhere near that following or followers, I'm really only interested in following/followers who add value for me. Kind of got side-tracked and went a bit haywire over the past few days but this is a good reminder for me of an important aspect of what I really love about twitter.

bagsnshoes2 · 4 months ago

When I first signed up for Twitter, I had a "guru" say, follow everyone that follows you. As a result, I have all but abandoned the account and started a new one. This is bad advice, with the new account, I am quite picky about who I follow. I also signed up for friend or follow and found that I would lose followers if I spoke my mind, I would have never thought this would create a small amount of stress for me but armed with my new lessons, I am no longer concerned with who follows me back. I applaud you for shedding some of your followers and only keeping those that can bring value to your community.

sethsimonds · 4 months ago

Thanks! Knowing that it's okay to be yourself is a huge step forward in
one's social media experience. I'm glad Twitter is really being of some use
to you now!

monedays · 4 months ago

I have always followed the people I find interesting. Some people find I don't follow and unfollow themselves. That's OK too! I hope my tweets are useful, fun, enlightening and interesting to the people who follow me. That means, if they have any content at all, they will probably turn out to be dull, silly, stupid or just not interesting to other people. Fine! For me, it is a lot about engagement. I want to see real people on the other side of tweets that I can talk to, smile at. I call this TWEETING WITH someone as opposed to being TWEETED AT! Twitter should be a way to let your personality shine through. You can't be "nice" all the time, sometimes you just cast a message in a bottle for anyone or no one to see! I have found connection, friendship, info, work projects, cameraderie and wisdom in this media I never thought I would be so interested in. If people take the connection seriously they will, like Seth, find ways to make it meaningful. That can only be a good thing!

SunnyBuns · 4 months ago

Interesting addition ~ I still follow you because I enjoy reading what you have to say. I have no clue if you still follow me and frankly, it doesn't matter. Everything I read or find interesting does not have to respond to me. I almost never look at how many people are following me and the numbers mean nothing. I have been unfollowing random people recently because they are boring and I generally skim past their tweets. I also unfollow people that annoy me (ie they do nothing but whine). I started using Twitter for one reason and it evolved into something else ... I find that changing once again. Twitter is a virtual microcosm of society and yes some people are *nice* and some people are not. As IRL, different personalities, different agendas, and varying intelligence levels play a part. I am looking forward to a snarky reply :)

sethsimonds · 4 months ago

I agree with most of what you've said. You left nothing for me to be snarky
about! =)

netadept · 4 months ago

I started following a large number of people so that I can see what some people have to say, my thought is to keep following the ones I find interesting.

http://twitter.com/netadept

sethsimonds · 4 months ago

I think that definitely works and is a better reflection of how social
interactions work in our day-to-day lives. Best of luck!

keithprivette · 4 months ago

Seth your perspective is dead on. I have struggled with this one for a while. There are people that dont follow me, but I follow them because of the valuable information they share with their list and afraid I miss out by not following. On the other hand if they dont want to engage me what value is happening between us. I think I am going to take some of your advice and get back to a manageable community of push and pull engaged participants!

It is great to see lately the thought leaders out on twitter taking the lead and really shaping the direction this and all the micro-communities that can be formed and engaged with a more powerful message.

Once again thank you for sharing your thoughts and perspective these are priceless teachings you can not learn in the book, only from livin it in the streets of Twitterville!

sethsimonds · 4 months ago

Hi Keith,
I'm glad I have the opportunity to throw a few questions into the mix every
so often.

If somebody provides content that you find valuable, I think the discussion
of whether or not they follow you on Twitter is of little use. If you can
find value that is based on reality and not just the presence/absence of a
direct message option, I think the end result is more sustainable and
perhaps even a bit more fun!

Once you've switched things around and had a chance to get a feel for your
new Twitter space, drop me a note? I'd like to know how things work out for
you.

Thanks!