10 Reasons I Won’t Follow You Back on Twitter

Of all the social media networks, Twitter is my favourite. 

Whenever I’m at my computer, I have Tweetdeck open with column after column of categorised lists of people I follow and saved keyword searches for easy reference. Not just for myself, but also for a number of clients I tweet for. I also regularly check Twitter on my phone.

Personally, I use it mostly to discover interesting content, read breaking news and talk to my peers. That’s what I am getting from it. Because I work alone, Twitter has become my virtual water cooler. A place where I love to hang out.

I’m also giving back in the form of sharing interesting blog posts, developments and other little tidbits and anecdotes some of my followers may find interesting, as well as interacting with my favourite tweeps, responding to their tweets and sharing their posts.

I’m slightly fascinated by the number of followers I’ve built up over the years, but numbers are just that – numbers – and I would never do anything to try to artificially inflate them.

I don’t believe in following everyone back who follows me. That simply makes no sense to me. I only follow people whose tweets I tend to find interesting or useful.

Here are 10 reasons I won’t follow you back on Twitter:

1. You’re an egghead.
   You haven’t set a profile picture. This shows me you’re not taking Twitter seriously.
2. There’s no name, bio, location.
   If you don’t tell me your name, location or who you are, don’t expect me to follow you.
3. You haven’t tweeted.
   If you’ve only ever posted one or two tweets, I can’t judge if I want to follow you.
4. You’re only after the follow-back.
   If you have 2,383 follows and 2,382 followers I know you’re just in it for the numbers.
5. I can’t decipher your tweets.
   Too many hashtags, abbreviated text speak or foreign languages? Not interested.
6. You’re too self-promotional.
   If 80% of your tweets are pushing your products, don’t expect many followers.
7. You tweet way too much.
   Post dozens of tweets in just a few hours and you’ll hog my newsfeed. I don’t want that.
8. You don’t interact.
   If there’s no conversation among your tweets, it seems you only want to talk TO people.
9. You regularly post quotes.
   I’m sorry but I’m definitely not on Twitter to read so-called inspirational quotes.
10. We have no common ground.
    I also won’t follow you if your tweets have no relevance to me personally or work-wise.

I do enjoy discovering interesting new people to follow on Twitter, and I generally make time to check out the profile of a new follower to decide whether I will get something out of following them back.

What I tweet about: Most of my tweets are related to websites, content, online marketing and communications, search engine optimisation, social media, writing and editing – with just a smattering of personal tweets, for example about Coffs Harbour (where I currently live) or travels.

My main aim is for the majority of my tweets to help you improve your website, content and social media marketing and to make all your communication efforts more effective.

If you’d like to see if you find my tweets interesting and relevant enough to follow me, here’s my twitter handle: @contentwriterau.