 |
| Image Source: Reddit |
So, a couple of days ago Harleena Singh of Aha!Now replied me, after I asked her for a follow back, that it was rude to do so. I was stunned and honestly, I hadn't heard that before. Harleena is a social media expert and so I said to myself, if she says so then there has to be truth in it.
I set out to find out why and my search led me here: Twitter Etiquette On Inc.com. The thing I realized is, asking for a follow back from someone who will not follow you back because you do not share anything in common doesn't go down well with a lot of people. Nevertheless, different people are on Twitter for different reasons and it might be okay for someone who's on it just to make friends to ask for a follow back from someone he or she would like to be friends with. However, for people whose businesses and careers are based on Twitter, it probably isn't a good idea to ask for a follow back.
Imagine this scenario: I follow a random person because I like a particular tweet she tweeted or retweeted. I then ask for a follow back. She follows me back. Later on, I find out that she actually tweets stuff I don't like. So I am forced to either unfollow or block her. Ain't that a nice thing to do to someone.
If you are going to follow someone on Twitter, make sure you check their bio and avatar to see the kind of tweets to expect. Bios and avatars really go a long way in telling you about a person's Twitter activities. If the bio doesn't give enough for you to act on, look through their tweets. Do you like what you see? If yes, then follow. If no, then move on.
_______________________________________________________________
Dear 'followed person', you too have the prerogative on who to follow. It would be nice, however, to follow back someone who shares interests with you and tweets great content. This way, you are building each other's online network.
So, why is it rude to ask for a follow back? Because there's probability the person you are asking won't like your Twitter content or that you share nothing in common to warrant a follow back. And because of this they may ignore your follow back request. And this in itself may seem rude or snobbish to you and some people begin to build real life opinions about others based on such an isolated event.
If you must ask for a follow back, be certain the person will be open to the idea, and how do you know this? Well, I don't have a clue, so maybe it's best if you didn't ask. If the 'followed person' is reading this post, they would know that it's nice to follow back.
So how do you make sure this happens? Well, share this post on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and any other social network you can think of. Let a lot of people see it. Won't that be the nice thing to do after reading something this cool? *smiles*
The way I see it, you liked my tweets, or my work, and followed of your own accord. I'd like to be given the chance to do the same. I make a point to view the Twitter page of everyone who follows me, and as soon as I decide the person should be followed, I do so.
ReplyDeleteThere have been cases where a few of my followers followed me for months, kept asking for follow backs, which I ignored, but tweeted an insightful opinion about one of my tweets, or maybe they were retweeted to my timeline and they had an interesting view on things, they got followed back instantly.
The instances I dislike the most, and those where people ask for followbacks and type "it's for business", as a way to cajole me into following them. It feels like they're trying to lure me into following them with the prospect of money, which is a horribly wrong assumption. There's a reason my email address is in my bio.
On the other end, I follow people and attempt to engage them in meaningful discussion, and in the same way, I usually get followed back, either because they know of my work, or we had an interesting conversation, as a result of my reply to one of their tweets.
Please let's stop 'kfb-ing'. Thanks and God bless.
Good point. Even I do not like that 'kfb' stuff. It's annoying to me.
DeleteHi David
ReplyDeleteNice that you talked about this issue and you are right. Asking for a follow back isn't nice and is a turn off. Thanks for sharing.