I recently posted an article about Jason Calacanis and Loic Le Meur unfollowing the people who were following them on Twitter. The post has already had almost 50 comments, including comments from both Jason and Loic.
One of the most common points made, was a variation of; “no one can really say for certain what’s the right or wrong way to follow people on Twitter.”
Twitter founder Biz Stone is not an auto-follow fan!
One of our readers sent me a link to this post in the New York Times, where Twitter co-founder Biz Stone gives his answer to part of the debate; to auto-follow or NOT to auto-follow!
“Following should be done by a person,” Twitter’s founder, Biz Stone, replied when I asked him how to automate the process. “The idea is to curate sources of information you find compelling.”
That’s right, it seems Biz is against the use of those Twitter auto-follow apps and suggests (shock horror) everyone should follow people manually, and focus on following people they find interesting.
Who could have guessed such a thing? ;)
I have to say I am in complete agreement with Biz here.
I’m not one to dictate to others what THEY should do, but for me, personally.. I feel that I only wish to connect via Twitter with some of the people who choose to follow me..
That’s not because I think I am above following everyone who does follow me, but there is no hiding from the fact that some people like to mass-follow others in order to build up a list of their own followers who returned the “follow favour” as a result of an automatic action or because it is “cool” to follow back anyone who follows you.
Do or do not, I think automation in social networking is limited in what it achieves, sure, it performs an action and creates a result, but is the result one that actually encourages the social element of social media?…
I guess the answer to that is relative…
Thanks for sharing Jim..
Jay
I agree with this completely. Sure, it is a lot more work than many people want to face, but any task worth doing is worth doing correctly. I could give a thousand quotes expressing this sentiment, but I will just offer this one for now.
“The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
I have written about Twitter, and I have not changed my mind on this. It is a wonderful way to meet people and create a fun, informational, and helpful network of friends. Of course, my belief on the topic may be hard to grasp for somebody just wanting a lot of “followers” to sell *at*. I look at this from the perspective of a man who credits social networking with the best things in life. After all, it is how I met my wife. See “Three Kids Prove Social Networking Works” http://www.awebguy.com/3k
RT @styletime -> RT @thetechnewsblog Twitter’s Biz Stone on auto-following; “following should be done by a person” http://tinyurl.com/b9ufs5
Rt @thetechnewsblog Twitter’s Biz Stone on auto-following; “following should be done by a person.” http://tinyurl.com/b9ufs5
RT @styletime RT @thetechnewsblog Twitter’s Biz Stone on auto-following; “following should be done by a person.” http://tinyurl.com/b9ufs5
RT @murnahan: Twitter’s Biz Stone; “following should be done by a person.” [READ IT!] http://bit.ly/jYdR5
RT @thetechnewsblog – Twitter’s Biz Stone; “following should be done by a person.” http://bit.ly/jYdR5
RT @gacconsultants @thetechnewsblog – Twitter’s Biz Stone; “following should be done by a person.” http://bit.ly/jYdR5
I concur with Biz completely. Autofollows are meaningless, whether you’re doing the following or the one being auto-followed. I follow and am followed by roughly the same NUMBER of people (about 250 as of this writing), but they’re not the SAME 250 people. That’s because, to use the splendid word that Biz chose, I “curate” my list. I follow those people and accounts that interest me, whether or not they choose to follow me back. I expect that those who follow me are largely doing so for the same reason. It’s no use having masses of followers if they’re not actually paying attention to what you say.
RT @styletime: RT @thetechnewsblog Twitter’s Biz Stone on auto-following; “following should be done by a person.” http://tinyurl.com/b9ufs5
Hi Jim,
It’s been a while since I’ve commented!
I agree with Biz and both of the commenters above! I don’t auto follow, I follow those that I resonate with and it’s a lot more work than auto following. I too have noticed a lot of people follow in hopes of gaining a return auto follow. Many soon unfollow you, whether you follow them or not since they were not interested in you beyond a statistic. That leaves you with a lot of followed people who are no longer following you. When you have auto followed thousands, it’s quite impossible to sort that out.
I honestly do not see the value in auto following thousands of people just because they choose to follow you. There is no way to keep up with their tweets unless they @reply to you and you can see all @replies regardless of whether or not you are following someone. I do make it a point to follow those that interact with me actively.
I completely understand why Loic and Jason did what they did, how can anyone find any value in following 58,000 people?
Thanks as always for your wonderful and thought provoking insights!
Gratefully,
Amy
http://twitter.com/allaboutenergy
I’m not a fan of auto-follow plugins. But, I only have a little over 500 followers, so I can take the time to go through individual followers and choose who I want to follow and who I want to ignore. If I were getting a hundred or more new followers/day my method of going through every new follower might get a little tedious and the auto follow thing might become a little more appealing. Applying the auto-follow method, you could follow everyone and then when you’re not so busy unfollow whoever you want…sort of a “shoot them all, and let God sort them out” mentality. I CAN’T EVER see myself using this method…but who knows until their in the position?
I don’t use auto-following and I know many Twitter users who will immediately unfollow anyone who responds to them, with any kind of automated response.
I have no strong feelings myself and think it’s down to the way each person chooses to use Twitter.
@thetechnewsblog completely agree with the comments by Biz and most on your post. No auto follows here http://tinyurl.com/b9ufs5
I agree with Ev on the auto-following. Especially I find auto DMs annoying. You know, “Thanks for the follow.” http://tinyurl.com/b9ufs5
RT @zaibatsu @thetechnewsblog: Twitter’s Biz Stone on auto-following; “following should be done by a person.” http://tinyurl.com/b9ufs5
Everyone is so quick to agree, but I think for big businesses and high profile persons having an autofollow app might be keen. They probably never read the Tweets anyway, but having the follower know that they will be followed probably leads to more followers. That’s a mouth full.
And yeah, here’s mine:
http://www.twitter.com/musicplayerme