Getting back to MY Water Cooler that is Twitter

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Written by: Kelly McCausey

I realized this morning that I had made a mistake.  I had started following people on Twitter just because they were ‘BIG’ on Twitter.

I guess I thought any mom with thousands of followers had to be really interesting and worth a follow - but I was wrong.

It’s not that they weren’t interesting - they are.  But their Twitter activity isn’t relevant to MY interests and so it becomes so much noise to weed through that it drowns out the chatter that is most valuable to me.

So this morning I took a few minutes to selectively reduce my Twitter follow list.  I removed 90% of the people who haven’t followed me back to start.  Then I removed those who haven’t taken the time to add an avatar or picture to their Twitter account.  Lastly, I unfollowed everyone who I just haven’t felt a good connection with.

This isn’t the first time I cleaned house on my Twitter account.  Earlier this summer I did a similar sweep, targeting some ‘experts’ who I had followed hoping to learn something from but only ended up being spammed by.

I see good fruit by keeping my follow list aired out.  I love Twitter and I want to interact with those I share interests with and by making an effort to clear away the noise, I can better enjoy what is left.

How about you?  When is the last time you evaluated your Twitter peeps?

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1. On July 26th, 2008 at 11:12 am, Marr Williams said:

I did the same thing. I followed people I thought would have a lot to say about stuff I was either interested in learning or just plain interested in. In most cases that did not happen though. I did my own weeding last week too. I haven’t missed the noise.

2. On July 26th, 2008 at 11:35 am, Velveteen Mind - Megan said:

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but I can’t figure out how much all of the noise really bothers me. I just skim my twitter stream, as it is, and then respond as I see fit.

Then again, I was just thinking last night “I wonder if I am consistently responding to the same people over and over again?” If so, shouldn’t I just cut down to those people?

What about the people that don’t engage on twitter but do listen? What then when they want to DM you and they can’t? Ugh.

Needless to say, I was also thinking that I need to put some kind of twitter-timer on my twitter use. Is there such a thing? Just shuts down access to twitter when you’ve been on too long?

Oh yeah, I think it’s called twitter. They just randomly shut down plenty.

Adding you right now. Sort of defeats the purpose, but whatever. I think I’ll like your noise.

Velveteen Mind - Megans last blog post..Like Tom Hanks but Without the Cash

3. On July 26th, 2008 at 11:42 am, Latte Mommy said:

I’m new to the Twitter game, having just set up an account last week. I’m not sure what took me so long…but, anyway…I can see how it could start to get very noisy in there if you follow a lot of people. I think social networking is great, but only if it’s productive and you enjoy it. Having a reasonable list of Tweets is a good place to start.

Latte Mommys last blog post..If the Shoe (er..Shirt) Fits…

4. On July 26th, 2008 at 11:49 am, Bunnie said:

Same here. I will still continue to add people, check them out for a bit and weed again as necessary. I’ve done this for a while and it works out pretty good. I continually find interesting people.

5. On July 26th, 2008 at 12:04 pm, michellew said:

Being a “mommyblogger” I seem to follow mostly other mommybloggers. Truthfully, some are those whose blogs I read, or who read mine. Others I just follow to see what interesting things they may have to say. If nothing else, I’ve found lots of good blogs and blog posts via Twitter.

6. On July 26th, 2008 at 12:22 pm, Leanne said:

I’m very new to Twitter so I’m only really getting into the swing of things. I do see what you mean about following people that don’t follow you back. I’m not a big fan of one sided conversations, online or otherwise and if I see something that interests me I usually like to reply, but if they don’t follow then they won’t read it.

Leannes last blog post..Fight the Frump - Excrutiating Agony

7. On July 26th, 2008 at 12:26 pm, Angie said:

I have been clearing out a few daily that I no longer have an interest in following. Mostly due to them spamming. I’ll probably go and clean house a bit more. I don’t know why some follow me. I get the follow notices and these people don’t even have a profile picture or link and sometimes nothing at all.

Angies last blog post..Fit & Healthy Friday Tip: Weight Loss Support

8. On July 26th, 2008 at 2:59 pm, Beverly Mahone said:

Oh, so that explains why my Twitter count is down :)

Seriously, this is a great post and we should all be mindful of who we’re following. I chose people I thought had something relevant to say other than “Good Morning” or “I’m having salad for dinner”

Beverly Mahones last blog post..Who You Callin’ Grandma?

9. On July 26th, 2008 at 3:20 pm, blogversary said:

Airing out the Twitter feed is good. I usually give a follower or someone I follow some time to see if a connection is there. I have only a few followers, but I hope they think I am worth keeping.

blogversarys last blog post..red hat love

10. On July 26th, 2008 at 5:54 pm, Cassie said:

I go in my list periodically and filter out some of the riff raff, but I need to get my hands dirty and do some major cleaning like you did. Keeping up to what everyone is saying is getting to be a difficult and time consuming task.

Cassies last blog post..10 Effective Ways To Keep Your Blog Posts From Stinking

11. On July 26th, 2008 at 10:22 pm, Genesis said:

I actually just cleaned out my Twitter account a couple of days ago. I had followed everyone who was following me and tons of people that were at one point compatible with what I was doing, but no longer. It`s so much calmer now!

Genesiss last blog post..Are You Up For a Challenge?

12. On July 27th, 2008 at 12:12 am, GeekMommy said:

Well pfui.
I read this with a certain amount of trepidation - thinking “wow, I hope I’m not one of those people she followed just b/c other people were following - I know I like following her” - but I went back to see… and sure enough, I didn’t make the cut.

So I’m respecting your water-cooler and removing you from my following as well. Hope you find what you were looking for on Twitter - it’s truly a great place, but we all need to use it however it works best for us, huh? :)

Peace!

13. On July 27th, 2008 at 12:51 am, Kelly McCausey said:

I sure don’t want to suggest that a follow means you’re my peep and a no-follow means you’re not.

They’re are people I follow via RSS but do not follow on Twitter. I enjoy reading their blogs, but their Tweets take on a different flavor that doesn’t interest me.

So if I unfollowed you - it probably isn’t because I think you stink ;)

Awe GeekMommy :) I don’t remember how I started following most people - but I do remember thinking ‘Geek’ would indicate that you’d be tweeting about geeky things. But then, ‘Geek’ means different things to different Geeks ;)



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