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Twitter Crying Foul On Autofollow… What’s The Big Deal?
By Terrance Charles | New Here? Subscribe To Blog RSS...
I’ve been hearing about this topic for couple of weeks now, but it looks like twitter finally decided to kill the autofollow feature, and I’ve been seeing and hearing expert marketers talking about why it should not be used, but really, I think it’s more of a EGO thing to some than it really being a problem.
Twitter Crying Foul On Autofollow… What’s The Big Deal?
The reason I say this is because, you have other expert marketers that use twitter, but it the past month or so they have been some really good twitter programs to increase followers coming out, and because of that, people are shooting to the top with the number of people following them, so for the “big guys” that’s not a good thing.
What is autofollow? Autofollow is the basic principle of automatically following everyone that follows you on twitter. Now, I don’t see the big deal here. You have these EGO hungry marketers that think they are too good to follow other people, that’s why the numbers look like “following 300″ and “Followers 12,000″ for example.
I personally think if someone is going to take their time and effort to follow you, they should be treated with respect and followed back. I see a lot of marketers that neglect their followers and use twitter like some kind of popularity game, the more followers, the less people they follow makes them cool 
I like the autofollow feature and I disagree with all those that want it stopped. There is no REAL problem using it. Regardless if it’s manual follow, people will still send DM’s (Direct Messages) to you, so it doesn’t solve anything. Autofollow to me is best used to manage your followers, like come one, who the heck want’s to go through like 30 pages to see who’s following and not following.
Ok, sure people abuse the autofollow feature, but they are those that abuse the manual follow too, and then there are those that do none of the above, so would it be fair just to quickly kill off autofollow? Besides, I don’t know about you, but everytime I get a twitter notification about someone following me, I don’t have the time to click each email and follow everyone back.
Especially since my followers grow about 50+ a day. If it’s someone you do not want to follow, well, simply unfollow them when it’s time and your cool, why complain about it. It’s not dilluting or killing twitter, the real abuse with twitter is the “fake accounts” that’s claiming to be other people, not autofollowing.
Btw, you can follow me on twitter here, I will follow you back…
Listen, I’m sure they are a lot of marketers who disagree with me, fine… But there are a lot of marketers that do agree with what I’m saying. I think it’s most of the EGO based marketers that can’t stand other marketers gaining HUGE followers list in weeks from programs they launch etc using this feature that is really crying about this.
Another BIG reason I use the autofollow is for the purpose that people who follow me, I appreciate all of you, but for the ones that stop following me, I don’t have to search through 30 pages to see who’s not following me, autofollow automatically unfollows them too. I’m not there to waste my time with people that don’t want to follow me or EGO based marketers, I’m there communicate with my friends and followers.
I could care less if my list following size isn’t the biggest, sure it’s cool to have a decent size of followers, but that’s not what I’m worried about… Either way, either purpose people are still going to send you DM’s wether manual or automatic. I say, keep the autofollow feature, it’s been working better for me than the manual follow because I don’t have to sit there and approve everyone.
As a matter of fact, isn’t the autofollow feature really for those that want to follow everyone that follows them, if your using manual follow, obviously you don’t want to follow everyone that follows you, so shouldn’t it be your own decision!?
Which one do you prefer? Autofollow or Manual follow, leave your comments below, good or bad on what you think about it, remember, I’m not attacking anyone, just expressing what I feel should not be a BIG deal to automate your twitter…
Let’s debate the issue here… What do you think?
Using Twitter already? Follow me and I will follow you back…
To The TOP,
Terrance Charles
TerranceCharles.Com
Popularity: 53% [?]
Topics: Internet Marketing Tips, Off Topic / Anything Goes, Twitter Internet Marketing | 8 Comments »
1:30 am on April 2nd, 2009
I just was reading a similar post on Michel Fortin’s blog. I use auto-follow and I can’t see the bad side to it. A lot of people will use it just to send their followers a link to a website but I don’t..I use it so I can connect and let people know that I want to help. So I’m for Auto-follow, if done in a personable way.
Stuart Stirling
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5:39 am on April 2nd, 2009
Sorry, Terrance, but I disagree with you. My choice to follow someone has nothing to do with my ego. I follow someone based on whether or not what they write interests me. That’s why I followed you, why I subscribed to your mailing list, why I read your blog posts.
In truth, it’s simple ego — pride, arrogance — that causes marketers to believe that someone must follow them back if the marketer follows them.
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11:41 am on April 2nd, 2009
A great post I must say
Well, I havent used twitter religiously and as a result I even never knew about the features of the auto-follow. This post has now cleared that up and I believe I should head over to twitter and enable it.
I also get emails of followers but luck the time to login at the time and follow them back even if I’d have wanted. Then later on I find an excuse not to go scroll through the list looking for those I havent followed
I feel the auto follow should be in place as it helps on the admin time saving.
Its a good idea to follow those who follow you though I’ve seen some followers of mine offering questionable services after I clicked through to their sites so, obviously I didnt follow them. Had I to be auto following, i’d have followed them automatically and my other contacts would see them in my group which may cause concern for some – Tricky one that!
May be I wont auto follow for a while then
[Reply]
1:34 pm on April 2nd, 2009
Pride cometh before a fall. I agree with you Terence, it is usually an ego issue. I hate it when you are market to but can’t market back.
I have just as much to offer as the next guy. I could show them a thing or two.
It’s like I tell my pool guy, insurance guy or my lawn service if I am good enough for you to take my money, in retrospect I am good enough for you to give me some back.
We all have something to offer each other. If you follow me I will follow you. If what you have is not quality, it is your busy that suffers not mine.
We are our brothers keeper. If someones service is questionable we should let them know what we think and maybe help them turn it around. Pay It Forward. My tweet for today.
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4:53 pm on April 2nd, 2009
Terrance,
I choose not to auto-follow because I want to limit the types of tweets I receive. Mostly I follow marketers and business folks. But there are certainly a few I have followed just to add a little kick to the mix. I guess I really don’t understand the problem. If you decide to auto-follow how can that effect me. Is the problem a perception of spam? Let’s face it, some people are so spamophobic no matter what you do they are screaming at the top of their lungs “Here is a spammer”. How do you think no auto-follow would effect twitter? Will twitter become stronger or will it die on the vine?
Scott Sheen
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2:28 am on April 3rd, 2009
[Scott, good point of view. No matter what, there will always be spam or someone crying spam. The autofollow feature is mainly used for people that want to reciprocate twitter love and follow those that follow them.
I think that if twitter kills the autofollow feature, it would cause more problems on their end because people won't be able to keep up with everyone that follows them and follow them back manually.
You'd really have to literally go through pages to see who's following you and who's not, which takes up your following limit too, I had to do this myself a week ago before I turned on autofollow and it took me hours, that's the main reason why someone created autofollow, it's just the people who use it wrong give it a bad perception.]
Thanks Scott,
Terrance Charles
[Reply]
7:16 am on April 3rd, 2009
[Don, thanks for the feedback. That's true, to most marketers it's not about ego's, but for some it is, and mainly the ones complaining about the autofollow, that seems to be the case that I've seen.
Thanks for following, subscribing and reading my blog, i'm a follower and reader of your marketing too, and I appreciate you telling it like it is. It's marketers like you who make a difference, I still remember when you helped me launch my product several months back
]
Thanks Don,
Terrance Charles
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8:51 am on April 26th, 2009
I don’t agree with auto-following because if you only followed me to try to get me to follow you back, not because you have any interest whatsoever in me or what I do or say, then I’m not game.
Now if you do have some real interest, then I reciprocate interest but you won’t be filling up my feed just because you wanted another follower to add to your list. You need to at least make me think you have some interest in me, or that you have read some of my tweets. Speak to me, tell me something, ask me something…something. I’ll often follow someone after just 1 or 2 tweets but I won’t follow you only because you followed me.
Unfortunately way too many people run around following a thousand people a day ONLY because they want a follow back to sell you something. They never read a tweet you made and they don’t care about anything you tweeted about.
I’m into relationship building, and that can easily be done with just a little bit of communication. Once you’ve shown me even the tiniest interest, I’ll naturally be curious and check you out and connect with you.
However, for those of you who prefer to have an auto-follow feature, there are sites that will let you do this:
Tweet Later
SocialToo
Terrance, I know you’ve read this but for other readers, here’s my thought on Twitter Marketing:
Twitter Relationship Tips – Marketing on Twitter
TTYS T!
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