>10% of your followers have abandoned Twitter
on February 24, 2010 at 2:39 am>I’ll admit it. I put way too much thought into my @AndyCrash Twitter account. How many Twitter users actually keep up with their Twitter followers… each and every one of them?
Recently, I wanted to update a few lists. I knew it would take awhile. I’ve built up over 5,700 followers since last March. By the way, if I would have never blocked any spammers, that count would be around 7,100 on my follower count.
I tried out a Twitter app called UnTweeps. I just wanted to see who hasn’t tweeted over the last 30 days, 45 days, 60 days, and 90 days. The app allows first three checks for free.
I was a tad heart broken. Yep. Several hundred users that follow me are not tweeting anymore. A good number of them were accounts/people I remember engaging with on a fairly regular basis. Now gone, off Twitter.
I know it’s an app. Apps can make errors I suppose. I didn’t use the app to block or unfollow any accounts. It started out as a curiosity thing. OH, THAT’S ANOTHER TOPIC: Twitter will no longer allow API apps to mass unfollow. I’m not sure why after my recent discovery. In my opinion, if they’re not tweeting anymore, there’s nothing to follow…. why can’t I just unfollow them all at once?
Anyway. I decided it was time, while it was still fairly manageable to go through every single of my followers profiles. Yes, every 5 thousand, 7 hundred, and 12 of them and check out their ‘last tweet’.
Wake up call.
Over 200 followers stopped tweeting around mid December, 2009. I decided that they haven’t woken from their turkey induced nap or sold their laptops to pay off Christmas debts.
I further discovered that an additional 300 “hand picked” followers stopped tweeting between MAY 2009 and November 2009. It’s a reasonable assumption that they’re not coming back to Twitter. They’ve moved on to Buzz, Wave, Facebook, perhaps got full time job, moved to a ‘blocked country’ or something. But they’re not coming back.
I mean, c’mon. How hard is it to just send out one tweet per week with a simple update like: “I didn’t make my expected millions on Twitter, so I’m job hunting”, or “I thought I could pick up chicks here, but found out that most are dudes or bots, so I’m trying MySpace again.” Anything. “I’m still here, are you?”, “How about those Saints?”, “Did Obama win the election?”… one tweet a week? One tweet a month? Nah, they’re not coming back. So I did the polite thing… a very tedious, time consuming task of the “forced unfollow” since Twitter apps are no longer “legally allowed” to bulk unfollow.
You know how to force an unfollow right?
Go to the profile…. click the BLOCK link… refresh the page (usually the F5 key)… then click the UNBLOCK link. There. You’re not following that account anymore, and it’s not following YOU anymore either. Nice and polite. No need to block. They’re not there to get their feelings hurt, and Twitter doesn’t get any flags on your account about a mass blocking spree.
I’m sure I’m gonna take a bath from those twitter account watchers like Twitter Counter and Grader… “how in the world does an account lose 144 followers in a few hours? What the hell did he tweet?”
I’ll deal with it. At least I’ll feel better knowing that my lower follower count is comprised of active bots, spammers, and a few hundred real people. =)
To be fair, the inactive accounts based on my experience, is about 10%. So if you’re impressed that Twitterer “X” has 75,000 followers, you may assume that at least 7,500 of his/her/their followers have abandoned their timelines. If this is an incorrect assumption, then I gladly welcome your experienced feed back in the comments area or tweet me (below gives you more than 140 to elaborate).
I challenge YOU… no I DOUBLE DARE you to check out your followers/friends on Twitter to see when they tweeted last? Because this is a fact: If they’re no longer tweeting, then they’re no longer re-tweeting. Hmmmm. I wonder if TweetReach is taking this into account as well.
Really, I want to know your thoughts and discoveries. I was a little bummed. It also took several hours to manually “force unfollow”. I would like enlightenment other than “stop thinking so much about your follower count”.
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>Hi, I was looking for reasons people block followers on Twitter and found your post. Great write up! I just opened a Twitter account this June to chat with people about a Summer reality show, I must admit. Now I'm hooked! After a month of tweeting my curiousity about who was following me and 'bots' took me straight to Google. I types in my account name and was shocked with all the archives of my pages on certain days, who reccomends following me, even my "private" twitpics were there for the world to see. I became paranoid about it and went through each one of my followers, altho I had much less than you, 300. By the time I was done, I had 220 and felt good about it. I deleted the ones with 0 updates following me & 3 other people. The ones with constant advertisment tweets. The ones I never followed back but discovered to be 'bots'. I'm not a business, nore do I care to have a huge follow list. I really just enjoy it for entertainment purposes. I would lock my tweets but I like using hashtags and meeting new people. The only thing to do is track followers, and be wise about third party apps. I've also discoved an un-follow tracker http://who.unfollowed.me/ Great app and very helpful. Thanks for sharing your experience. I very much agree!