The Loic Effect
If you’re on Twitter, you have surely heard by now about @loic supposedly unfollowing 23,000 or so tweeple. From what I have seen him tweeting, it sounds like he felt he did not want to follow someone unless he could justify why. I also saw him mention that he was sick of auto-DMs and whatnot. I do not blame him.
I recall reading somewhere on the internets (sorry, cannot remember where) early in January that Twitter’s next big trend would supposedly be mass unfollowing. I do not remember what the reasoning was, but I can only imagine that the writer felt that the mass following just to see who would follow you back would be replaced by people, like @loic, doing mass unfollows in order to reduce life/work clutter and distraction.
Honestly, I believed that mass unfollowing would certainly begin to happen, and I wonder if we have now seen the beginning of it. Will there be a Loic Effect, whereby people start unfollowing dead accounts, bots, spammers, people not relevant to them, etc and therefore they get down to 10s or maybe 100s of tweeple they follow? Or, will the, as some people would call them, Twitter stars (@guykawasaki, @scobleizer, etc) with their follow-all-followers approach remain the mantra of the Twitterati?
I, for one, prefer to mostly only follow tweeple, who @ me or retweet me, and then, I periodically go through and prune the people I follow depending on how long it’s been since we tweeted together, they’ve tweeted in general, etc. I feel like this allows me to keep much better track of the tweeple I actually do follow, thereby hopefully deepening our relationships while also giving me a method of choosing which new tweeple to follow.
That is mye method. Do you have your own? Do you think a Loic Effect will sweep Twitter? Or, is this just a momentary blip?
Tags: @guykawasaki, @loic, @scobleizer, Guy Kawasaki, loic effect, loic le meur, mass following, mass unfollowing, Robert Scoble, tweeting, Twitter
February 26th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
My method is fairly similar to yours, I like to read every tweet I get otherwise I feel like im missing out. Even following 50 odd people makes this hard! Good write up – thanks.
February 26th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Unfollowing is something natural at some point. I think there's a critical mass to this as it is for following. It's a sign of maturity, a sign that twitters are interested in interaction not in numbers.
February 26th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Thanks, and definitely. If at all possible, I like to at least scan each tweet that goes by in Tweetdeck. Often, I cannot, but I feel like my interaction is stronger/better when I do.
February 26th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Great new blog post. Digging the new design also, keep up the good work!
February 26th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
That's a great point. No one would want to see their followers just disappear, but if it shows that Twitter is able to grow small, tightly knit networks, I think this will be great in the end.
Thanks for the comment.
February 26th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Thanks, Derek.
February 26th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
I also prefer to follow those who offer intelligent communication. I tend to check their profiles and see how they are tweeting with others before hitting the Follow button.
'A man is known by the company he keeps', right?
February 26th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Doesn't this post sort of smack in the face of your tag line? if we're talking about self promotion. then it's a matter of how many people you can possibly follow right? Not jettison. Because the essence of self promotion should posses some sort of viral way to spread you and your message/image. Just thinking out loud here.
i wonder where the twitter stars you mention would be w/o these rabid loyal followings/ Sounds like Loic is biting the hand that feeds him no?
February 26th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
You bring up a good question… what is the best balance between quantity of connections and quality of connections? Personally, I find that the viral aspects of promotion can be extremely effective in the short-term, but can also burn people out if they click my links, vote me up, pass on my info, etc a number of times without seeing me interacting and doing the same for them.
That's probably one reason though that it's so important to find your own evangelists or instigators, people who are passionate about your message and will take it beyond your own reach. Maybe, Twitter is just generating it's own rockstars. It seems like rising celebrities are always everywhere, granting interviews, signing autographs, etc, etc, but once they hit the top, they clam up and don't do that anymore. Who knows.
Thanks for the comment and great points, Marc!
February 26th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I'm closer to your method: I'll talk to anyone at a party that starts a discussion, and that relationship is always under review. Sometimes, the follow/unfollow cycle comes full circle. I once unfollowed a consultant because of the way he monopolized my timeline for a full day griping about how his unplanned layover greatly inconvenienced him, not realizing there was a nationwide blizzard that was affecting other people far greater.
In just a few months, I noticed in my public timeline snack that he had gotten over it, went back to say interesting things, and we're even planning on meeting up in a few weeks! I've seen the same thing happen to me. I go on a tear, folks on their unfollow weekend – in order to keep their ratios – knock me off only to follow again.
As much as Loic and I see eye-to-eye with the concern over The Commoditization of Conversation®, the approach feels like napalm to me. Then again, catch me i a bad mood. Then ask me if social bankruptcy is a bad idea then.
February 26th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Did you hear that Calacanis did it too?
I like your analogie of a party. Twitter is very much like that… as long as people do not put too much thought into why you follow or don't, they should not get too angry or hurt if you unfollow, which then gives you the opportunity to follow again in the future without them feeling weird.
Thanks for the comment, Scott. When you guys gonna get a blog up so that I can comment on it?
February 26th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I think it will vary depending on the motives of each tweeter. Those using it for business or self development purposes will want quality over quantity. People using it for social gratification or public curiosity wouldn't mind being tuned into the masses.
Overall the Loic effect or mass unfollowing is like the antique collector that woke up one day to find their house cluttered with junk. Then they decide to bring it all to the dump at once. The natural process will be a consistent trimming tweeple trend where users clean their accounts on a monthly or bi-monthly basis to subtract the low value and test run the potential value.
February 26th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Just groovin…twittering a little @loicly….
@loic on twitter just did a mass unfollowing…hmmm wonder what this will start?
……
February 27th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
That is an awesome analogy. Thanks for commenting, Colin.
February 27th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
I find that I don't have time to weed as much as you do, but I do check every profile before following (unless I know the person or the name already and I'm sure it's not a fake account!) and I unfollow people who tweet too many links about their websites without contributing any other value or engaging in conversations.
I call the three follow approaches “Rockstar”, “Groupie” and “Player”… I'm a Player, but from your description of how @guykawasaki and @scobleizer do it, they're what I call “Groupies”, not Rockstars!
Here's my blog post about it:
http://heathervale.com/blog/2009/02/18/twitter-...
cheers
Heather
February 27th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
There are definitely some good tools that help you dig through your Twitter connections. Twitter Friends & My Tweeple are the first that come to mind.
Lol. I like your classifications and really appreciate you including that link. That's a cool post.
Anyhoo, thanks for commenting, Heather.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:38 am
Thanks for the follow – I followed back
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I have usually begun following a person based upon a tweet search, and follow followers of others I like.
I will also follow them if they follow me and are a real person… and it's not that hard to tell when the account was created for spamming purposes. Since I tend to search a lot for relevant hashtags and key terms, I don't worry if I miss something in the tweetstream: it will still be there in a few days.
I will unfollow when I see a lot of unprofessionalism… which is a broad category. I don't see a lot of value in following a celeb if they do not follow back: no way to DM.
March 8th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I follow quite a few people that don't follow me back… even people that don't respond when I tweet them, but I continue following some of them mainly because I find them interesting. I've got a few hot button issues that will cause me to unfollow a person instantly, simple ones being: serious politicking, intolerance, etc. Although, I've unfollowed people before for being overly negative (and I've been unfollowed for that as well) only to find later that the person has cooled down, so I begin following again.
Spam and business accounts are probably the main reason I stopped auto-following new followers recently. I felt like I didn't have time to check out every new follower's profile (even though I was trying), so now, I pretty much only follow back if someone tweets me or RTs me.
Thanks for the comment, Brian.
March 11th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
[...] publicity for themselves, a product offering or marketing scheme. This is why some folks are dumping their Twitter followers, bemoaning the spammers and trying to ‘game’ Twitter and [...]
March 15th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I follow people who I feel can be of use to me or vice versa and are somewhat active, cleaning out my system occasionally. I'll also follow some for entertainment, some for knowledge and some that just appear to be interesting. I will immediately unfollow spammers, someone just promoting themselves or really mean people.
March 15th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I follow people who I feel can be of use to me or vice versa and are somewhat active, cleaning out my system occasionally. I'll also follow some for entertainment, some for knowledge and some that just appear to be interesting. I will immediately unfollow spammers, someone just promoting themselves or really mean people.