Bringing Karma to Twitter
By Brett.Tesol
How to regain a balance
Although Twitter is a social network and some people you may find interesting, a lot of it is gaining a balance. You follow people that you are interested in and hope that they follow you back. Equally, you follow your fans (people that follow you and you have not followed) in return for them showing an interest in what you like. Although not having people follow you does not seem like an issue, as your account grows, it will become one.
The reason for this is that twitter places a limit on how many people you follow. At the start, this limit will seem unobtainable, but over a period of time, your account will grow. The limit basically stops you at 2000 follows, if you have less than 1000 followers. This means that after a while, you will need to start cleaning house in order to stay active.
An easier way is to use a simple website that I found a while back. I have been testing it out, and I have to say that I like the way that it works. There is a paid version, but unless you are super popular, I think the daily allowance is plenty for the average human. Basically this website will show you a list of people that you have followed and have not followed back and a list of people that have followed you (your fans). Next to each person is a button to follow/unfollow. What makes it good though is that as soon as you follow, that one vanishes and the next in line jumps into its place. This means that you can click the mouse like crazy and follow 25 fans, then unfollow 25 people who are not following you back in a matter of seconds! It also can show inactive users that you follow, so you can unfollow people who haven't been active for 1, 3, or 6 months. This simplicity helps to keep the Twitter karma in balance and also means that your account won't get locked. To check it out, have a look here:
© Copyright 2011. Brett.Tesol - Full terms available on Brett.Tesol's profile page (click the blue link for profile, failure to read the Copyright Contract could be expensive. The act of copying this work means that you accept the full terms of the contract, regardless of whether or not you have read it).
Comments
I am not horribly active on twitter... It is something I am horrible with but maybe it is because I haven't learned the rules of the game. If I ever get a crazy amount of people on twitter... I will definatley have to look at this. Thanks for sharing for future needs!
Gosh, I learned more than I had planned from the information you've provided, Brett. I had no idea about the follow/follower ratio, but I am now forewarned.
Voted up and SHARED.
I tried twitter 4 times. I don't like it . I am looking for something new to do.
This sounds like a real timesaver. Thanks for SHARING. Voting this Up and Useful.
Hi LearnFromMe,
It is really easy to use eh. Yes, I find that it is pretty accurate, but I only use the 6 month option for inactivity, as some people just get busy for a few months and then continue ... not many drop out for 6 months and continue to be active after.
Hi JimmieWriter,
No, most people don't find out about the rule until their account stops working, at which point it is a lot of work to fix everything. This little app helps keep thing tidy as you go along :-).
Thanks for sharing! I just tried justunfollow. Do you find it to be accurate as far as people you follow who have been inactive?
Sounds like a helpful application. I wasn't aware that there were rules about your following to follower ratio.
DzyMsLizzy 3 months ago
I am on Twitter, but not very active very often. For a while, I tried it, but got tired of wading through all the vacuous posts of "going to have a cup of coffee now," or "I think I'll wear yellow socks today," kinds of things, trying to find actual useful interesting information.
I've more or less written Twitter off as a teeny-bopper fad. I post my new articles and Etsy listings only via Twitterfeed. I'm not on much in person.