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Fake following in social media: Yay or Nay?

Started by mfruchter · 10 months ago

In the world of social media, establishing, engaging, maintaining and growing your follower base is crucial for any type of success. We use a variety of social networking sites, tools, and platforms to establish and broadcast to our potential and existing follower base. Power in numbers of ... Continue reading »

9 comments

  • Shey

    10 months ago

    Ah so that's how its done. I still wouldn't do it -- it's pretty cheap, IMO.
    reply
  • Svetlana Gladkova

    10 months ago

    Great post, you address the issue I am very much concerned about myself. I do feel this is one functionality of FriendFeed beta that is not actually needed since it seems to encourage abuse in this world where too many users might follow thousands of people to get some hundreds following them as well. Really, I believe the lists are already enough to keep the updates consumption balanced and further cleaning of the home feed is way too much.
    reply
  • soxgal

    10 months ago

    Mike, I think it all depends on what each person is using the service for. Some people may not be interested in quickly growing an audience or having a follower/following base that is reciprocal. Although I disagree with the unfollow notifications, it's because for me that serves no relevant purpose. I can imagine situations where an unfollow notice might be useful to a poster, but if people know that notifications will be sent both for subscribes and unsubscribes it might discourage a greater number of people from ever engaging in the conversation at all.
    reply
  • Justin Korn

    10 months ago

    NAY NAY NAY. Specifically for FriendFeed, I've written up how I pick my subscriptions and I stick by it. Subscribe to those that provide you information you are interested in. If someone subscribes to you, do them the favor of checking out their feed, but I don't think you should be obligated to subscribe back.

    A pause feature might be useful, but in the end, I think people would abuse it.
    reply
  • edkohler

    10 months ago

    Great write-up. If people don't understand that they're losing their audience they'll never improve the quality of their messages.
    reply
  • KarenSwim

    10 months ago

    I would love to know when I am being unfollowed. As you noted, I want to provide value to my network. If my posts are missing the mark I want the opportunity to fine tune my messaging. Social media for me is a marketing tool and with all marketing tactics you want to track and measure your results. Would my ego take a temporary hit - yep? However, that does not stand in the way of the value of being able to measure my results.
    reply
  • ryangraves

    10 months ago

    While I don't want to be bogged down with unsubscribe notifications it would be nice to see who follows and unfollows in a short period of time. There is a large difference between somebody who follows for a month then decides not to follow and someone who follows for a day and unfollows. Maybe if Twitter let you set your customized period of time between follow and unfollow in order to drive a notification. But we all know Twitter isn't exactly feature rich! Just an idea. For more ideas check out my blog: http://ryanagraves.com
    reply
  • usegraymatter

    8 months ago

    Interesting. I happen to agree with you (and Ed K.). The key differentiator on the debate seems to be in how you view Twitter (business network or personal network)...and likewise with the other online "social" venues. It's when you use it as both business and personal the water starts to get muddy, for me at least.
    Personally, I'd rather focus my following/followers on building a community of people who value what the others in that community tweet (or post, or put on a wall, etc).
    This is also why i try to steer clear of politics and religion on these sites (though I may be among the few who do and sometimes I find it hard to hold my screech...er, tweet in). Those posts can be incredibly divisive and those conversations aren't why I'm engaged in any of those online mediums (though that may be the kind of community/conversations another person may want to find/build).
    I'm still assessing twitter....initially following only a small few...looking for value in their postings. Hoping to provide value in mine. The marketer in me wants to know why a valued follower might decide to unfollow (akin to "listening to your customers"). But if others were to be cautious and selective about who they "allow" to follow them...I may not be able to freely choose to follow some of the high-profile tweeters b/c they might decide my tweets are not valuable.
    It's a circular discussion, I suppose.
    The answer obviously depends upon individual perspective: Is Twitter a tool or a toy?
    Do you mind sifting through your twitterlog of tweets to find the golden eggs?
    reply
  • Domain Search

    7 months ago

    Agree with SoxGal : Some people may not be interested in quickly growing an audience or having a follower/following base that is reciprocal.
    reply

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