New followers on twitter

[Suzy]

I have 517 followers on Twitter and I get notifications daily about new followers. I wonder how and why they follow me? And where they find me? The latest is a vegetarian who loves dogs (presumably not in her salad). But I get all kinds. Housewives who love knitting, authors of horror stories and other genres I don't read, sports aficionados, even people from countries I have never visited. Don't see the usefulness of all that. I hardly ever tweet anyway but sometimes I feel a kind of pressure to go out there and be interesting and amusing just to entertain them.

I know you have to have some kind of plan to find readers out there. But does it really work? I know it does for some.

[Alan Petersen]

Apr 24, 2014 14:12:57 GMT -5 Suzy said:

I have 517 followers on Twitter and I get notifications daily about new followers. I wonder how and why they follow me? And where they find me? The latest is a vegetarian who loves dogs (presumably not in her salad). But I get all kinds. Housewives who love knitting, authors of horror stories and other genres I don't read, sports aficionados, even people from countries I have never visited. Don't see the usefulness of all that. I hardly ever tweet anyway but sometimes I feel a kind of pressure to go out there and be interesting and amusing just to entertain them.

I know you have to have some kind of plan to find readers out there. But does it really work? I know it does for some.

Those weird ones are usually using software to follow as many people as possible (and that Twitter allows at one time). They usually un-follow you in a few days, especially if you don't follow them back. I don't even bother with those. I actually did a huge pruning of my Twitter followers a few months back. I blogged about it:

fictiveuniverse.com/social-media/spring-cleaning-twitter

I used Twepi. It's a good way to make sure your Twitter followers are really interested in following you/interested in your books/genre/etc. versus someone just following anyone so they can try to tweet their promos to as many followers as possible. I've found with Twitter that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to followers.

[Suzy]

Apr 24, 2014 14:23:52 GMT -5 Alan Petersen said:

Apr 24, 2014 14:12:57 GMT -5 Suzy said:

I have 517 followers on Twitter and I get notifications daily about new followers. I wonder how and why they follow me? And where they find me? The latest is a vegetarian who loves dogs (presumably not in her salad). But I get all kinds. Housewives who love knitting, authors of horror stories and other genres I don't read, sports aficionados, even people from countries I have never visited. Don't see the usefulness of all that. I hardly ever tweet anyway but sometimes I feel a kind of pressure to go out there and be interesting and amusing just to entertain them.

I know you have to have some kind of plan to find readers out there. But does it really work? I know it does for some.

Those weird ones are usually using software to follow as many people as possible (and that Twitter allows at one time). They usually un-follow you in a few days, especially if you don't follow them back. I don't even bother with those. I actually did a huge pruning of my Twitter followers a few months back. I blogged about it:

fictiveuniverse.com/social-media/spring-cleaning-twitter

I used Twepi. It's a good way to make sure your Twitter followers are really interested in following you/interested in your books/genre/etc. versus someone just following anyone so they can try to tweet their promos to as many followers as possible. I've found with Twitter that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to followers.

That's a very good tip, Alan. And yes, I think you're right. It's not about how many you have but who they are and if they are interested in you.

[Becca Mills]

I need to prune. There's enough promo in my feed that I rarely visit Twitter -- who wants to read a bunch of ads?

[Alan Petersen]

Apr 24, 2014 15:31:28 GMT -5 Becca Mills said:

I need to prune. There's enough promo in my feed that I rarely visit Twitter -- who wants to read a bunch of ads?

Check out Tweepi:

tweepi.com/

It makes it very easy to clean up your Twitter stream.

[Becca Mills]

Apr 24, 2014 16:56:02 GMT -5 Alan Petersen said:

Apr 24, 2014 15:31:28 GMT -5 Becca Mills said:

I need to prune. There's enough promo in my feed that I rarely visit Twitter -- who wants to read a bunch of ads?

Check out Tweepi:

tweepi.com/

It makes it very easy to clean up your Twitter stream.

Will do, Alan, thank you!

[Rinelle Grey]

Twitter also sends you all these emails telling you 'you may like to follow these people'. I think I get one every couple of days.

Lately I seem to be getting a lot of social media promo sites following me. I ignore most of them. Must be about time for a prune for me too.

[Deleted]

Yes, I'm a huge fan of Tweepi.

[Daniel]

I read somewhere that the auto-unfollow tools tend to have a three day delay, so I usually let new followers marinate for a while before I follow back. I'm also one of those people who reviews the stream of every new follower to see if I would be interested in any of their posts.

Thanks for the tip on Tweepi, Alan. I'm sure a purge is overdue.

[Deleted]

Apr 24, 2014 16:56:02 GMT -5 Alan Petersen said:

Apr 24, 2014 15:31:28 GMT -5 Becca Mills said:

I need to prune. There's enough promo in my feed that I rarely visit Twitter -- who wants to read a bunch of ads?

Check out Tweepi:

tweepi.com/

It makes it very easy to clean up your Twitter stream.

Totally gonna do this.

[Suzy]

I'm following you, John...

[Daniel]

I looked into Tweepi but was put off by the monthly fee. It will be a great tool when I'm rich and famous, but I have fewer than 700 followers/following, so a monthly drain on my income for tools I only need once in a while is too much right now. I'm still in "keep the overhead down" mode.

Just to see how long it would take, I went through my entire following list and removed anyone who wasn't following back using Twitter itself. It's a pain, and the entire list took me about a half hour to process. I can put up with doing that every six months or so.

[Alan Petersen]

Apr 26, 2014 9:05:34 GMT -5 Daniel said:

I looked into Tweepi but was put off by the monthly fee. It will be a great tool when I'm rich and famous, but I have fewer than 700 followers/following, so a monthly drain on my income for tools I only need once in a while is too much right now. I'm still in "keep the overhead down" mode.

Just to see how long it would take, I went through my entire following list and removed anyone who wasn't following back using Twitter itself. It's a pain, and the entire list took me about a half hour to process. I can put up with doing that every six months or so.

I just use the free version to clean up. I haven't use their paid services. They limit you on 25 accounts per page with free, so it will take a little more time since you can only go 25 followers at a time, but it's not that bad, and it's free.

[Victoria]

Seconding what others have said, they could well be following you to get followed back.

I just don't understand Twitter. I've tried it several times but I really can't get the hang of it. If I use it to connect to my real-life friends then my feed is just me asking people how they are and agreeing we should hang out soon. If I use it for a project, like the time I wanted to be a famous blogger, I feel like I'm just yelling short pseudo-witticisms into a void. And using it for straight-up promotion is annoying.

I generally consider myself pretty tech-savvy but Twitter makes me feel like a stereotypical old woman moaning to other stereotypical old women about the youth of today. In MY day we just used to text each other...

[Daniel]

Apr 26, 2014 12:31:57 GMT -5 Alan Petersen said:

Apr 26, 2014 9:05:34 GMT -5 Daniel said:

I looked into Tweepi but was put off by the monthly fee. It will be a great tool when I'm rich and famous, but I have fewer than 700 followers/following, so a monthly drain on my income for tools I only need once in a while is too much right now. I'm still in "keep the overhead down" mode.

Just to see how long it would take, I went through my entire following list and removed anyone who wasn't following back using Twitter itself. It's a pain, and the entire list took me about a half hour to process. I can put up with doing that every six months or so.

I just use the free version to clean up. I haven't use their paid services. They limit you on 25 accounts per page with free, so it will take a little more time since you can only go 25 followers at a time, but it's not that bad, and it's free.

Thanks, Alan. I obviously didn't look hard enough. I got to their sign up page, which is 99% about paid options. I didn't even see the little link at the bottom of the page that mentions the free version.

[Deleted]

I use the paid version for the premium features, particularly the tweet search. I'm searching for keywords, such as #zombies or #newadult. I also use the premium "unfollow" features to, for example, get rid of people who have not followed me back by a certain time. I'm also in the process of cleaning up people who haven't tweeted in over 6 months.

[SunshineOnMe]

I can't figure out twitter. I have an account, and like 3 followers. I don't want more, because I have no idea what I'm doing or how it works. I've tried, and finally give up.

Hope this isn't a deal breaker, and you guys still like me.

[Suzy]

Apr 27, 2014 11:53:27 GMT -5 SunshineOnMe said:

I can't figure out twitter. I have an account, and like 3 followers. I don't want more, because I have no idea what I'm doing or how it works. I've tried, and finally give up.

Hope this isn't a deal breaker, and you guys still like me.

Twitter could not possibly be a deal breaker! I'm not at Twitter aficionado myself but I tweet from time to time.Not much use really.

Of course we like you!