Martin Koss – thinking out loud…

Do you look at your lists of followers on Twitter or Fans on Facebook and wonder why people ‘unfollowed’ you? Do you care? Should you care? Well, I think you should care because it tells you something about you and your efforts – you can learn from it.

Being unfollowed is not a real big deal. Or is it?

We’ve all been dumped and we all know that awful feeling of rejection and you would think that in the ‘online world’ rejection shouldn’t mean a darn thing and most, I would suspect, attach no emotion to their connections so don’t care one little bit when someone unfollows, unsubscribes or decides to no longer be a friend or fan…

It matters!

Do you look at people on Twitter and Facebook (etc) and decide whether you want to follow that person or become a friend or fan after you’ve read a bit of their blog, looked at some of their recent tweets or status updates and after looking at ‘who’ they associate with – do you have friends or followers in common?

That’s pretty much how I decide whether to friend, follow or fan someone so a little bit of thought goes into it. So when I’ve responded to a ‘follow’ by reciprocating and then I see that, a few days later or weeks later, that person ‘dumped me’ I do wonder why.

Relevant Content for Relevant Followers

I want my content to be relevant to the people I follow and those who follow me and when I get ‘unfollowed’ that tells me that (a) I am not targeting my followers very well, (b) I am attracting the wrong followers or, worst of all, (c) my ocntent is a pile of crap and the follower only followed to bump up their own numbers and then, after seeing my content was a pile of crap – decided to ‘dump’ me.

We All Get It Wrong From Time To Time

There are many reasons people decide to never reciprocate a follow, unfollow, unsubscribe, remove friends or stop being a fan – but these are the most common from my limited experience (please feel free to drop your own two-pence worth in the comment box below):

• The content is not what the ‘follower’ expected
• The content was inconsistent – theme jumped all over the place – too random
• The content was plug after plug after plug for the same website or blog
• The initial follow was based on a recommend and later the follower realised that they didn’t feel a relevant connection
• The connection was completely ‘one-way’ – ie: no response to direct messages or replies
• An overwhelming quantity of posts, status updates all within a short time frame
• Too many automated status updates, Tweets, etc.,
• No ‘real’ person interaction
• Not following back in a ‘reasonable’ amount of time – or not at all
• No ‘person’ behind the account – only a ‘corporate’ logo
• No real name on the account
• No photo
• No blog or website link
• No regular updates – hard to judge what the content or person is about

There are, no doubt, dozens of other reasons that could be on this list and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Ultimately, It Means You (or They – or Me) Got It Wrong

Following, subscribing, becoming a Friend or Fan is like impulse buying. On the spur of the moment we make an ‘instinctive’ decision to ‘connect’ with that other person. But, we all get things wrong now and then. We all buy a new pair of shoes that we never actually wear. We’ve all bought a DVD that we’ve never got round to watching and we’ve all bought a gadget that sits on the shelf collecting dust because we never really had a use or a need for it – all we had was that impulsive moment and we ‘connected’ with it.

Ambivalence – You Bet

The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings toward a person, object, or idea. We should care – a little. We should wonder – a little. We should think about how we can make better ‘connections’ – a little. But we will never, never get it right every single time. We are human and we are not perfect. We go with gut instinct and kick ourselves later – a little bit.

We may really like a person or a blog but we realise after following or subscribing that we simply can’t cope with that many posts every day. We may follow someone’s tweets and then realise we don’t want to feel the obligation to respond as often as we feel compelled to. We may not want to stop being a Fan or a Friend but we simply can’t cope with so many relationships at once…

It Doesn’t Always Mean You’re Dumping or Being Dumped

With soooo many ways of connecting on the ‘web – it’s no surprise that it gets darn complicated. Am I a friend or should I be a Fan? Should I subscribe by RSS or just get the updates via Twitter. Do I need to subscribe to the YouTube channel if all the videos are also on Facebook and on the blog? Do I need to subscribe if I already subscribe to the podcast? Should I follow if I’m already a subscriber and a fan – am I going to get triple content and lead to content overload?

You know what – there is no ‘secret’, there is no way to predict what your reader, viewer, fan or subscriber prefers and there is no magic way of never losing a fan, never being unfollowed or unsubscribed. The same person who unfollowed possibly went away and added your RSS to Google Reader – they might have hooked up with your audio podcast or your YouTube channel?

You never know – you may not have lost a follower at all. But…

Being Consistent and Being Real Does Help

We are all ‘learning’ all the time. Even the bloggers and ‘web celebs’ are constantly learning how to never lose a subscriber, never lose a fan or a follower – because there are so many variables. And variables cannot be removed… Except your own.

If your content is inconsistent with the message on your profile – you may attract followers but you will lose them. If you paint the picture of a helpful chap who is going to answer questions and provide genuine advice but then you post link after link after link to a get rich quick scheme or you constantly try to sell, sell, sell – you will be dumped – a lot.

If everything you do appears automated and you hardly every ‘interact’ you will be dumped – not only from the person who was reaching out to you at that moment but also from others who observe the lack of one-to-one interaction.

Remember – What You Do & Say Can Be Seen By Everyone

• Keep it real.
• Keep it consistent.
• Be genuine.
• Be human.
• Be social.

But – be prepared to get it wrong now and then and we’ll all live happily ever after…

Thanks for reading. Your two-pence worth is welcomed below. All the best.

 

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