Martin Koss – thinking out loud…

I got a DM on Facebook asking why I had ‘unfollowed’ on Twitter. The message said I was being ‘anti-social’ by accepting the reciprocal ‘follow’ and then ‘unfollowing’ a few days later.

Okay – here’s the deal:

• No photo – no follow. Hard and fast rule.
• No blog/site link – no follow unless my friends are following you and you seem real.
• No recent tweets – no follow. What’s the point following someone who isn’t active?
• Following 10 times more than you follow – nope, sorry, that won’t work for me.
• Tweet nothing but links to your own blog or site content. Na! As above.
• Tweet no ‘real thoughts’ of your own. Continuous retweeting is not good enough. Sorry.
• Your bio links to a bit.ly or tiny.url and fires me off to a get rich scheme or similar. Not for me. Sorry.
• You bio links to a ‘get rich on twitter’ or something similar. Again, not something I have any interest in whatsoever.

I always check out my followers to see if they are real

As it says on the left side of my Twitter background – I always checkout followers’ blogs and have a quick gander at recent tweets. If I like what I see then I will follow back. If I don’t then I won’t. Sometimes I get it wrong and then – after a few days of seeing a load of crap tweets from someone who starts to get on my nerves I will unfollow – I’m allowed to do that.

What is the point being followed, or following, becoming a Fan of or a friend with, someone you have no connection with? Someone with no mutual interests? Duh – would you do that in the ‘real’ world?

I follow people I’m interested in, people I have found a common link with, people I have become friends with or people I like to exchange thoughts and ideas with, people I can learn from and who appreciate what I have to offer and people I share a common interest with; ie:

• Football
• Formula 1
• Family Life
• Music
• Social Media
• Website Design
• Usability
• Internet Marketing
• Business Development
• Management
• Personal and Corporate Branding

I’m not interested in get rich schemes.

Nor am I interested in being fooled into buying the latest and greatest way of putting my blog or Twitter account on auto-pilot to generate thousands of dollars while I sleep. Any money I make, I can proudly say I make 100% legitimately and through hard work.

I’m also not interested in the latest Brazilian goddess posing as a Twitterette to get the guys all excited to be followed by a cute female.

These make me laugh my arse off;

You get these people who set-up a Twitter account, slap a gorgeous looking babe on the avatar, give the account a stupid name and then wait for all the gullible blokes to start following. Sorry but I’ve been around a the block a few times, been using the web so long and won’t be falling for that trick.

So get a real account, use a real name and a real photo.

Come on. We can all take a bloody picture so easily with our webcams, phones, anything – and stick it on our profiles – it’s not rocket science. Unless, of course, you don’t want us to see you for some reason or you think you’ve got more chance of ‘faking it’ pretending to be a newbie with no photo.

Twitter, to me, is not about huge unmanageable numbers. I’m sure it’s great for some and, for business, the more targeted followers (individuals and other businesses who are following because they are interested in knowing everything about your product or service).

To me, just like Facebook, Twitter is about quality connections with real people.

 

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