Unfollow on Twitter. Why?

Lately I came across an application on Twitter (UseQwitter by Qwitter) that produces a weekly report of the people that unfollow an account on Twitter. I had not noticed my number of followers to change so I thought I was keeping my followers happy with my tweets. So, I registered my account with this application and a week later I was sent an emailed report with the accounts that have stopped following mine.

I started wondering what reasons hide behind this harmless unfollow button and I asked my followers for some feedback. There are some replies I got:

Anna @Anna_Nioti suggests: There are some people that follow an account so that the owner of this account follows theirs back. Then, they unfollow the account; they only wanted to get more followers.

Kyle Vraa @VraaTrans suggests: If they tweet so much that is the only person you ever see in your feed.

So what if the tweets are of interest?

He replies: I suppose if they were of interest I might still follow. I don’t think I have ever stopped following a translator.

I, too, have never unfollowed a translator, or at least I do not recall doing so!

Rachel Ward @fwdtanslations suggests: If they never tweet at all, if they’re only self-publicising, if they only ever moan…

Yes, I can understand Rachel’s suggestions. When someone only posts their own blog posts or links and they do not share others can be a little annoying. Moaning can also force some followers to push the unfriendly button, too!

What do you think about this unfollow button? Can you think of any other reasons besides those mentioned above that could make you unfollow someone on Twitter? Please, do share your thoughts!

This Post Has 2 Comments
  1. If I get more than one spam message from another translator and they have ignored my message informing them of the spam, I will likely unfollow them until they rectify the matter.

    I unfollowed another editor recently – 95% of her tweets were about some sort of self glorification. Little to no constructive engagement. As Rachel says above; “self-publicising” – most unattractive.

    I unfollowed another translator recently. He incessantly tweeted about personal things. Even though he identified himself as a translator – the bio was very ‘professional’ – it was obviously a completely personal platform for him. No point.

    I must confess, I send the odd personal tweet every so often, but my tweets aren’t ALL personal.

    At the crux of it is, that I want to see a link between the bio and the tweets most of the time.

    1. Hello Danielle!

      Thank you for the comment. I have to admit, I did unfollow one lately. I guess, there are reasons to unfollow one, after all!

      Thank you so much for sharing!

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