I was on a message board recently where a question was asked by someone about a person who had unfollowed her on Twitter. She wanted to know whether others unfollow those they have discovered have stopped following them.
She also explained that about fifteen people unfollowed her right after a comment she made regarding the medical diagnosis of a young relative. She knew this because she was using Qwitter, a website which tells you who stops following you and when–down to the specific tweet you made before it happened.
One of those fifteen people was someone she felt was a very important business connection, and she wanted to know how to ask him to to follow her again. She was going to approach him about it and wanted advice.
Hmmm, tricky.
Twitter Masochism?
I myself never wanted to use Qwitter because I figured I didn’t need the negative energy of seeing unfollows. I have a general idea of my number of followers but I don’t keep track to the point that I notice when I have lost some. Basically, I don’t care. 
I replied to her saying that occasionally glitches cause people to unfollow when they really never intended to. If she saw him unfollow right after that specific comment it may have been intentional, but I can’t imagine why 15 people would do so if all she mentioned was the diagnosis. Seems pretty harsh to me, but you just never know what’s going to “offend” people.
I advised her to think about whether it was worth asking him to follow her again. What if he did unfollow purposely–is that the kind of person she needs following her?
Plenty More Where That Came From
He may be the absolute best, most strategic business contact in the world, but there are so many twitterers in the sea. Sites like Twellow and WeFollow can help you find other great business alliances in a matter of seconds. And it is worth considering, what if he is not so nice when you ask him to re-follow you?
Do you pay attention to who unfollows you or use sites like Qwitter? What advice would you have given in this particular situation? I’d love to hear what you think.
I haven’t joined twitter yet, but I don’t think I’ll pay attention to the score.
Instead, I’ll focus on learning, improving and flowing people and out.
I think when it comes to social, it’s important to have an internal compass and gauge, live your values, be yourself, and find where you best fit through exploring and growing.
J.D. Meier’s last blog post..Catalysts and Drains
I finally joined Twitter a few weeks ago. I still don’t get it, seems like some kind of a popularity contest that really doesn’t mean anything. But what do I know? It may be wth most wonderful beneficial thing to ever have come down the pike.
Jannie Funster’s last blog post..Like a bord on a wire, 6
@J.D.–Exactly, it’s that authenticity people are looking for with social media. Someone really savvy with all of this relationship-building on Twitter (namely @unmarketing) tweeted yesterday “The way you stand out in business is to be the one thing no one else can be = you.” I love that and it is so true.
@Jannie–I hear you. It depends on what you are looking to get out of it. People use it for different reasons. Marketers especially will tell you it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. But I always tell people not to force it–if it’s not for you then that’s ok!
I find that if I pay attention to who is following me, I wind up wasting time. I move on to more important things – like finding good content to post on Twitter and to say what I want succinctly.
Anthony Verna’s last blog post..We’ve been busy
Christine, first some advice for the lady who asked the question.
If it was unintentional, am pretty sure the business associate would realize that somehow, they not mutually following each other, they would re-follow without being asked. If he doesn’t, don’t even bring up the issue unless he does. As long as you maintain your business relationship, you should be fine. You have to ask yourself if it bothers you and why. (Think about it this way, you have co-workers that you have to deal with everyday, you’re both on Facebook etc but you’re not friends on there. Does that mean you don’t work well with each other?)
I totally agree with you when you say we can’t really tell what is going to offend others. There are however the usual suspects of Politics & Religion.
Personally, I don’t user Twitter or Facebook tools to find out who I lost as a friend. Two or three lost friends wouldn’t bother me, once you realize that you can’t please everyone. Whenever that feeling strikes you, then you can always use that as motivation to greater quality tweets.
@Anthony–Excellent points. You can waste enough time on Twitter already without worrying about who has decided to unfollow you.
@Kevin–Those were my thoughts as well–no need to bring it up. Good example about co-workers too. With all this talk today about how Ashton Kutcher just hit 1,000,000 Twitter followers, there’s a lot being discussed regarding numbers and what is supposedly bad Twitter “form.” Might have to be the topic of my next blog post.