10 Reasons Why I UnFollow, UnFriend and Disconnect People From My Social Networks
Today was one of those mornings in my LinkedIn and Twitter feeds - massive duplication, lazy posting, jobs and people talking utter rubbish! Time to unleash the sabre……. and cut them out of my networks!
I have no obligation to have these people in my networks. I have connected, friended and followed them because I want to see what they have to say, talk about, share, discuss and engage with them. If they go and do the opposite, then they became surplus to my social requirements! >> Harsh? Maybe, but I have to draw the line somewhere - and I do so according to my ‘own social rules’.
So here are 10 reasons why I unfollow people on Twitter, unfriend them from Facebook or disconnect from them in LinkedIn:
- If they are just talking crap all the time (in my opinion of course!)
- If they are just re-posting the RSS feeds of Mashable or Techcrunch (I can do that myself, I don’t need to clag my feed with more of the same)
- If the content they post/write about is not in your industry (unless you have a deliberate eclectic approach with no focus!)
- If they have nothing interesting to share in the conversation (yes conversation!)
- If all they do is broadcast and don’t engage with anyone (tell tale sign is whether they have any @ signs in their feed.)
- If all they do is post jobs in their feed (as long as there is a mix I don’t mind, but not every post, update or tweet)
- If they over-use profanity on Twitter ( I am not immune to a few choice words, but using them in every other tweet is a little too much for me!)
- If all they do is market themselves or their products all the time (yep, still too many of them out there!)
- If their ‘noise’ (tweets, updates, posts) is just too much in my feed (as much a problem on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook - too much volume just turns me off!)
- If they are boring (nothing good to say, no content, nothing original - quotes are a great example. How many people just tweet endless meaningless quotes?)
They may seem a little extreme, but this is my social media world so they are my choices 
I just know that some of the above will resonate with you - especially 1 and 10 ! So, instead of procrastinating start to look at your social feeds (networks) in a little more detail. Take that first step and unfollow, unfriend and disconnect people……… it is strangely satisfying!
A great tool to do this on Twitter (sometimes the hardest network to ‘clean’) is SocialBro - it analyses your followers on Twitter and will help you decide who to unfollow (as well as so much more).
So I am interested - what rules do you use with your networks? What makes you decide who to unfollow, unfriend or disconnect with?
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Comments 16
James Mayes
You can also check out TwitCleaner - Si has been honing the algorithms there for a couple of years now and picks up on at least half of the Twitter crimes you refer to!
I wrote about them in 2010 here, and caught up on the latest news over coffee last week!! link to musingsfromsussex.com
Andy Headworth
Thanks James - agreed it is a good tool. I am glad he has been tweaking the algorithm as Twitter has evolved. I will have another look.
Billie
Andy Headworth you have absolutely nailed it with this post. I am going to reference this for when people ask why I have unfollowed or de-friended. Only on Saturday I was asked on Twitter why I unfollowed someone, the worst part was I had to respond publicly so I said “oh yes I unfollowed Friday I think! Sorry you flooded my timeline but I’m going to create some more lists &pop you on there!” But I didn’t say that I’m going to put them on the list “timeline abusers”… joke. I get unfollowed all the time, mainly because they believe I am THE Billy Graham American evangelist and when they realise I’m not they go elsewhere. It’s all about knowing your audience and them knowing you.
Great post!
CloudNineRec
…and add ManageFlitter.com to tools that find the `easy to identify & delete` victims.
CloudNineRec
Andy, I think you are going through something I have been going through recently. A kind of Social Media crap meltdown. I did it earlier on the train. I read through probably 100+ tweets before I found something interesting & conversational that I could get involved in.
The stream was full of crap links, self-promo, obnoxious statements, self-pity tweets and desperate pleas for attention. Facebook has this too; even amongst social media professionals; but it’s nothing compared to the twitter drivel.
Unfollow? Well, sometimes it’s easy to do. Sometimes it’s not because they are people I need to monitor, or frankly it doesn’t matter. If someone has 4000 followers, a few unfollows is hardly going to make them sweat.
I think the call for filtering content got even stronger.
Sara
You mean to say you’re not THE Billy Graham? *Hallelujah*
alanwhitford
Thanks Andy
Perhaps Louis Hamilton should have read your tips before going public with his rant on ‘unfriending’. Then he might have known if Jenson was actually following him.
The interesting part of this debate may come back to how much we care about the Social Influence scores (I know, opening a can of worms here). If we don’t then we could even clear out every follower and followee and start over…. Radical surgery I know.
Be interested to look at some of the tools mentioned.
Cheers
Al
BillBoorman
Best unfollow all the recruiters who just repost Sirona Says. There are plenty of those in my stream. Life is too short Andy, and twitter stream is only temporary.
Billie
LOL you would think with my avatar and bio, people would realise I am Billie Graham the brand evangelist
Sundays in particular my followers go through the roof and often tweet psalms at me…
Billie
Brilliant Alan! Lewis Hamilton could have definitely learnt a thing or two from this post!
Billie
Bill I love you but that’s crazy! The twitter stream is only temporary, but time is precious and going through endless tweets of nonsense does make you go crazy and get the twitchy eye
The majority of people I follow are very different to my followers. I don’t wanto auto follow back just because BUT will always engage with followers. Maybe I am being precious? But it saves me precious time 
Andy Headworth
Brilliant!! Making me smile just thinking about all those disappointed followers…….
Andy Headworth
I think we worry sometimes too much about it and over think it. Drivel is drivel, so why shouldn’t we remove the people who continually post it. The reality is that in % terms the number of RT’s from our followers is tiny - will it really matter too much?
Probably not. But at least ‘I’ don’t have to read it any more in my stream. As Bill so eloquently puts it below - life is too short. Your own audience is what you make it, isn’t it?
At the same time I get that we have the need to monitor certain people, but I am sure you do that via Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, so that kind of acts as a filter anyway.
Everyone has their own way of doing these things - and these are mine. I am sure you have similar ‘rules’ and criteria
Andy Headworth
You had to go there didn’t you?
But you may have a point …… with tools like Klout, PeerIndex and Kred reliant on continual activity, aren’t they effectively promoting a proliferation of content?
One for another day I feel!
Andy Headworth
Correct -life is too short Bill. I choose to read the content that I want to in the time I have to do it. So ‘my rules’ still apply
We all have our own ways of managing what we see, when we see it.
Take @thesourceress - her Facebook rule is simple - she will friend you if you are a person she would give a hug to in real life. I love that simplicity.
A debate we will no doubt have one TRU day!
CloudNineRec
…er, well… ah… no. Another time.
