Qwitter has opened up a whole new can of etiquette worms [trying not to distract myself too much on what an etiquette worm would look like] on Twitter.
If you've not heard of Qwitter before, basically once installed, it sends you an email whenever someone unfollows you on Twitter. Of course, anyone blogging and using Twitter to grow a base of followers is stroking their on ego to a certain degree (many rubbing it vigorously). So it's no surprise that Qwitter has enjoyed rapid uptake as your ego needs to know who doesn't like you and it also creates the opportunity for you to exclaim "How very dare they!" hopefully in your thoughts and not out loud as that would be kinda weird.
What's interesting, is that it raises a debate about what the appropriate action you should take after getting an I-think-your-tweets-are-rubbish email. Do you:
- Unfollow them back 'cause their tweets are just as rubbish anyway
- Politely ignore it and pretend that popularity isn't based on quantity but quality of contacts
- Spam them until the end of days
- Remove them from all your social networks and declare them online outcasts
- Cry for 15 minutes at your lost 'friend' only to realise that if you go and follow 10 more people, at least 7 of those will follow you back making you a tidy profit. How fickle friendship is on Twitter!
My friend Jason (oh how tempted I am to link to his twitter profile, but he knows who he is) has a policy of unfollowing qwitters back and then deleting them off Facebook as well. My argument to this is that people may have decided that they don't feel Twitter is the right channel to communicate with them and might rather do that on Facebook. He, of course disagrees.
Personally, I generally don't unfollow them back, karma will deal with them, although I do have a policy of purging my list based more on quality of tweets than whether they follow me or not. That being said, I haven't done a purge since the advent of Qwitter for fear of offending people!
What do you do?
8 comments:
I generally just LOL!, and keep following them. Twitter is a bit like bottom feeding - the more people you follow, the greater chance you'll garner some value from it. If my tweets are annoying someone, then so be it - I'm obviously not providing the value they're looking for.
I need to agree with Wogan here, a certain lady on twitter recently stopped following my after I tweeted bout my amazing wife. I still get her updates and don't feel anything because we never "@" eachother. Some people are just too uptight
What if they never followed you in the first place...? Not that I'm bitter or anything, Jon. Where are you now? Your boy Obama won...
Great post, Jon! I enjoyed reading it for the insights and entertainment factor. I must admit, I do feel a *pang* when I see my number of followers decline (even if it's just by 1).
Thanks Sharon, glad that I was able to entertain you. Sometimes posts should be fun, not all this serious web 2.0 stuff all the time. When are we going to see you at Tuttle?
Kyla, the things I taught you about new media, way outweigh me not following you. Plus I still can't spell your username! OBAMA!!
Jon! I know you know I'm right. Never mind this high road business, the bottom line is that someone who ignores you flat out at a business lunch can't expect you to be buying them drinks that night! If someone doesn't want to hear what you have to say, what kind of a relationship do you have with them in the first place? But never fear, I won't be unfollowing you :)
Sorry John, I'm with Jason on this ... I have been following some (mostly American) twitter users (tweeple, twits, call them what you want) that I know of via a design forum that I subscribe to. Some of them reciprocated and (because I often talk a load of rubbish yes), but stopped following me not long after; the joke is that they mostly talk a load of hogwash as well, with some useful bits in between - much as I do.
It only seemed fair that I even out the signal-to-noise karma by pulling the plug on them as well.
However, if I find someones tweets of enough importance, I wouldn't bother to consider that they'd find the same value/use for my tweets. I mean really, if Seth Godin (for instance - haven't seen him tweeting much/ever lately) stops following me to manage signal-to-noise on his side, I am most certainly not going to shoot myself in the foot by unfollowing him out of spite.
I suppose it's down to why you follow certain people and if it's worth maintaining the "relationship".
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