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Why I Stopped Following You on Twitter

Soon after I joined Twitter, I began auto-following everyone who followed me. I did it as a courtesy, so that it would make it easy for my followers to send me a private or direct message. I engaged in many one-on-one conversations that way, because I believed they were irrelevant to my other followers.

Unfollow Button

However, I have since changed my philosophy, choosing to reply publicly to most Twitter mentions. Why? Because the only people who see these replies are people who follow both me and the sender. In other words, only the people for whom the message might be relevant.

Nevertheless, I continued to use auto-follow. As a result, I am following about the same number of people who follow me—some 108,000.

This has not really been a problem until recently. I use HootSuite to filter my followers into relevant lists (e.g., Family, Friends, Sources, Industry Professionals, etc.), keeping the noise to a minimum. Obviously, I am not scanning the tweets of 108,000 people!

However, as my follower count has grown, and with the increase in direct message spam, my direct message inbox has become a jungle. Daily, I get numerous messages like these:

  • “haha i cant stop laughing, your facial expression here is priceless!”
  • “lmao…omg i am laughing so hard at this pic of you u i just found”
  • “Someone is posting a pic of you all over twitter ;(”

These messages are just from “accidental spammers”—newbies who clicked on a link, forked over their Twitter credentials or authorized a third-party app, and then unknowingly began spamming their followers.

This doesn’t include the scores of intentional spammers. Nor does it include all the well-meaning people asking me to promote their cause, give to their project, or review their blog or manuscript.

As a result, I have decided to unfollow all my followers and start over.

Yes, I know. Drastic.

But thankfully, I can learn from the experience of @ChrisBrogan, @SpenceSmith, and @VickyBeeching, who did the same and survived.

The benefits? I can think of three:

  1. It will eliminate my DM spam. This will reclaim my Twitter inbox as a tool for private messages with family and friends.
  2. It will eliminate questionable associations. As a result of auto-following, I can’t control what appears in my timeline (at least not without a lot of work). Sadly, this now includes spammers, porn stars, and other dubious characters who chose to follow me first. As such, it raises questions for some about me and my character. Unfollowing everyone will clean this up.
  3. It will improve my Klout score. As you may know, Klout is a service that measures your social media reach and impact. However, it penalizes people who have too high a following-to-follower-count ratio.

I do anticipate some negative reactions. Some people will misunderstand and take offense. Others, I am sure, will unfollow me in response. That’s okay. That’s why I am writing this post, hoping to explain my rationale and minimize the negative impact.

If you suddenly discover that I have unfollowed you, please don’t take it personally. And if you are a family member or friend, be patient. I will re-follow you once I’ve cleaned the pipes.

I also plan to do a follow-up post, sharing the tools I used and what I learned in the process.

Question: Have you considered unfollowing all of your Twitter followers? What concerns do you have? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Posted on September 6, 2011

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  • http://www.facebook.com/HarryTucker Harry Tucker

    This is a great post, Michael.

    Some of the responses are intriguing.  As someone who within the last year purged huge segments of my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn communities in an effort to reduce the noise and to bring quality back to my interactions with others, I was deluged by people who told me I shouldn’t do it, had no right to do it or that I should adopt tool xyz so that I could continue to communicate with the people that I was trying to shut out.

    They missed the point of why I did it.  I did it for the sake of my time and the quality of my interactions with other people.

    And that is something each of don’t need to ask for permission for nor do we need other people to talk us out of it or tell us how “we” are doing things incorrectly.

    If more people protected their personal space, many would find that productivity replaces activity in their lives.

    Of course, when you tell them that, that starts off a whole new round of unproductive dialog!

    Create a great day, Michael.

    Harry

  • http://www.tnealtarver.wordpress.com TNeal

    Someone has encouraged me to get a Twitter account but this post suggests I have a lot to learn before I jump into that pool. I look forward to the lessons you’ve learned in your future post on the subject. In the meantime, why would someone “tweet” in the first place?

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Here are 12 reasons.

      • http://www.tnealtarver.wordpress.com TNeal

        Thanks, Mike. In reading others, I’ve gleaned some sound advice for when I board the Twitter train. Your 12 reasons offers the why.

  • http://twitter.com/MichaelNozbe Michael Sliwinski

    I was actually planning to do the same thing. After I read Chris Brogan’s experience I’m even more eager to try this. I’m curious how it will work for you :-) Maybe your experience, Mike will convince me to take the plunge and do it, too.

  • http://www.joshwoodtx.com Josh Wood

    I think this is brilliant. I’m very interested to see how it plays out for you. It’d be really cool for us statistical nerds if you track the effects numerically. i.e. # of followers pre-unfollow, # of followers post-unfollow. # of mentions pre-unfollow. # of mentions post-unfollow etc. Good luck!

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Yes, indeed. I am tracking all of that—and more!

      • http://www.joshwoodtx.com Josh Wood

        Excellent.

  • http://twitter.com/franktan franktan

    I don’t have a huge following on Twitter, and I am very picky about who I follow. I have never automatically follow just anyone who follows me. 

    In fact, whenever I learn that someone has chosen to follow me, I wonder inwardly, “Why in the world would they follow me?” Then, depending upon my time constraints, I look up whoever is following me and, if it’s pretty obvious, they’re spammers, I block them.

  • iGranny

    Thanks for letting us know why  you are un-following everyone. 

    I’ve always struggled with the idea of following back as a courtesy. Consequently  I’m still trying to individually check profiles before deciding to follow.  Still I’m following more than I can handle.  I also use TweetDeck and HootSuite to make manageable lists.Because my numbers are significantly less than yours, my plan is to slowly re-evaluate just who I’m following then re decide.PS I loved your comment about G+ 

  • http://thoughtsaboutnothing.com @kylereed

    Thankfully the people I follow have been smart in not clicking on the spam and so I have not gotten to many DM’s.
    But I only follow around 1100 people. 

    Unlike a lot of people though I do not use list. i actually read all those tweets and honestly do not feel overwhelmed by it.

    I can understand why you are trimming back. And I also like the public reply to a tweet rather then a DM that some people send. 

    I just do not understand why people are taking someone unfollowing them so personal. I guess they really thought that you or Chris Brogan read every single one of their tweets. 
    Doesn’t make sense.

    I view you, chris, and others that have a big following as a resource that I can learn from. I don’t expect that you take anything from my or my tweets, I am simply using the following of you and others as a chance to learn.

  • http://dustinstout.com Dustin W. Stout

    I actually have never taken the auto-follow-back philosophy. It seemed the dominant socially accepted standard, but I just didn’t see value in it. I also clean up my following list every so often, just to make sure there aren’t any sketchy characters in there.

    What effect do you think this will have on your overall number of followers?

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      I think I will lose 10–20% of my followers. But, honestly, those people probably aren’t following me anyway. In fact, I would guess that most of them are robots.

  • http://WomensBibleCafe.com Christine Smith @LifeVerse

    Did you pray over your decision first? I’ve thought about a similar action, then in prayer I saw that God uses my tweets to “speak” to the spammers and annoying people. When I appear in their timelines, the Spirit may be moving with the right words this person needs to hear. So I’m not unfollowing the masses. Instead, I choose to block those people who intentionally attack me: witches, cults and atheists.  I have received many prayer requests via Direct Message and I’m thankful these people trust me enough to share their troubles. My closest friends do not use Twitter Direct messaging, they’ll send me emails or use Facebook messaging instead.

    An interesting blog post might be “What if Jesus ‘unfollowed’ all of us and then told us to earn our way back in to his inner circle! 

    Thanks for making me pause…and THINK. #ThumbsUp

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      I think you are confusing following with being followed. Someone can follow you whether you are following them or not. They will still see your posts. They can still reply to you publicly. The only thing you miss is the opportunity for your followers to DM you. Even then, if they have something private, they can ask you to follow them so they can DM you.

  • http://twitter.com/CoachTheresaIF Theresa Ip Froehlich

    What a timely post! In fact, I’ve been thinking about this radical move for a couple of months.

    I started twittering in order to just learn how to do it. In the meantime, I have been fine-tuning my “brand” and “niche”. I haven’t been very focused in who I’m following and so I feel like I’m not reaching my target audience yet even though my number of followers is going up. I’ve been going in to unfollow some but dealing with each one at a time is really time-consuming.

    Your post may just encourage me to bite the bullet and start over. After all, it’s not about the number, but it’s about connecting with the target group.

  • http://twitter.com/lilymano Lily Manoharan

    Hi Michael, totally cool with what you and Chris Brogan are
    doing.   Relationships and interactions have to be meaningful and you know
    what that means in your context.  I do not auto-follow.  I don’t even
    follow the few friends who follow me on twitter because the kind of
    interactions i seem to  have with them and the many other friends e.g.
    personal updates, or yummy dishes they are sampling, are done via facebook.
     
    I hesitated using twitter until recently when I was certain
    it made sense to my priorities and my lifestyle, and I now primarily use it to
    zoom in on people and organizations that produce content that I want to learn
    more about.  With juggling work, kids, 2-3 hours of daily commute, people
    reaching me via yahoo messenger, gchat, FB chat, Blackberry messenger for work
    and personal reasons on top of the regular emails, phone calls and texts, I
    really needed a very good reason to get on another social media platform.
     I am glad I did get on Twitter (Chris Brogan’s ‘Trust Agents’ convinced
    me), but I need to use it wisely in a way that best benefits myself and those
    in my circle of influence.

  • Janelle Iverson

    I look forward to reading your follow-up post that shares what tools you end up using. I don’t have 110,000 followers, but I do want to keep my Twitter feed (and DM box) clean!

  • http://twitter.com/CoachTheresaIF Theresa Ip Froehlich

    I rarely click on the links unless I’ve seen enough tweets from that person to let me know that this is a credible source.

  • http://twitter.com/ChadEBillington Chad Billington

    I’m having fun watching the follower count change. Congratulations by the way. You’re not following me anymore. I look forward to reading your follow-up post about how you did it, and how it goes.

    Just a thought, it might be worth sharing how you would start over or do Twitter again if you were starting from scratch. I’m in the 200 range, and thinking ahead would be good.

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Great post idea.

  • http://findingforwardmotion.com Tony Elam

    My hope that if I ever get to a size that I have such a problem as this, I will handle it as well as you do.  Not a simple decision, and requires some understanding to the follower on the other side.  

  • Jason

    Michael

    I hope this message finds you well. I was referred to you by LeAnn Weiss-Rupard about possibly helping me with some advise on my book. I met her through my pastor and his wife where I go to church here in Orlando. and spoke with her for around an hour today and she recommended you as a person that I make contact with.

     Recently I’ve completed a book and now I’m wondering what my next step is. A little back ground on me. I’m 32 years old and for 12 years I was a Police Officer here in Florida, but I left the law enforcement field this past December. I have been a Christian all my life but I guess you could say I never surrendered fully too the Lord until earlier this year. I started writing my book not as a christian book as a biography, but I felt called by the Lord to share my story for his glory and changed gears. The book is a story of the storms of my life.

    I was a Detective for 5 years and worked as a Homicide Detective for three years. I was a member of the agency’s swat team for 3 years. I’ve seen my fair share of the bad things of this world. In 2007 I was arrested by my own department for DUI which spiraled me into divorce, foreclosure, alcoholism, and suicidal thoughts. I got back into law enforcement finally 2 years later after working as a dispatcher. I moved from the Tampa area to the Gainesville area hoping to start new, but found myself targeted by my new supervisor because of the DUI three years earlier. I finally surrendered to the Lord and walked away from the career with no clue of what I was going to do. God has given me back twice the amount that I had before as he says he will. I find so many of my friends calling me asking me for advise and I witness to them every chance I get. I have an amazing job now where I’m a supervisor and I get to witness to people every day where I work.

    I am so blessed and I just felt called to write this book. I’m sure your busy Michael, but I would love any advise or help you could give me.  Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you. Take care and have a blessed day.

    Thank you again

    Jason

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Jason, I would start by reading my post, “Advice to First Time Authors.” It provides step-by-step guidance.

  • http://twitter.com/brandybrow brandybrow

    I commend you. It’s a hard road, but worth it in the end. Personally, I’m getting tired of being spammed by @ replies simply because I posted. Let us know if you find a solution to that lovely problem, other than making tweets private. 

  • http://talesofwork.com kimanzi constable

    I’m really glad for this post, it’s an encouragement for me. I just read John Locke’s book on how he sold 1 million ebooks in 5 months, in the book he talks about having quality twitter followers. He says it’s easy to have a big number but if there’s no profitable interaction going both ways i. e. you sharing their things and them sharing yours, then what’s the point? I was thinking how I need to see who are the real friends I’ve made on twitter and get rid of the fake ones. I want to have real interactions not interactions with bots! This post is what I need to push forward even though it will make my follower number look weak but I know that’s just my pride.

  • http://profiles.google.com/stevencbradley Steven Bradley

    I follow only family, friends, and a few associates. I am simply not in the camp of those who believe that to “be seen is to be appreciated.”
    Just my thoughts.
    Steve Bradley

  • http://twitter.com/clearleadership Joanne DeHerrera

    I guess I am a lucky one and always have been on twitter, because I never receive too many DM’s. From time to time I delete the spammers, but I don’t have as many followers as you do. I have maybe 12k, and I follow about the same back, but really I am looking at my DM’s this morning and I only have three, and those are from the people I actually talk to on a regular basis.
    Good luck to you, and on my timeline you kept warning people, so I made it a tad easier for you I un-followed you, because you have never replied to @ of mine; (You know warning people over and over again is making you sound as if you are better than everyone else). I know you may not be doing this purposely, but that is how it is coming out to some. I will still check out your blog from time to time. One thing I am is honest, and I pray you do not take offense, but I have never spammed you not once, and when I contact the other elite on twitter even though most are not following me; I still get at least a smiley face, because the elite people of twitter universe who acknowledge an @ not a DM  humanizes the twitter world and humanizes them, thus making more followers, and the people who do have verified accounts; just the normal people with normal jobs want to follow them and buy more of their products because we know they are human.  A smiley face goes a long way Mr. Hyatt. Perhaps you should hire a Social Media manager who knows how to handle this, because in my soul I feel you are a good man, and you are working too hard and being stretched too far.
    I pray nothing but good and wonderful things for you and your family.

  • Chris Bryant, RFC®

    Thank you for sharing your journey.  The insights you give along the way are very helpful!

  • http://twitter.com/JesusNeverSaid Jesus Christ ?

    Right on! I can’t stand the DM spam anymore and I’ve been unfollowing those I get it from, but I’m leaning towards the unfollow all approach.  I remember John Saddington @human3rror did the same thing a couple of years ago and it obviously hasn’t hurt him.

  • Steve

    Michael, some may feel jilted by your decision to mass unfollow and may speculate that, after spending years indiscriminately auto-following users, you can now unload them will little collateral damage (since a significant number of your followers are likely not active users – if you trust the analysis by RJMetrics and others – but rather bots and dormant accounts…). This way, you retain a high follower count while, comparatively, following few users – like a celebrity.I follow a number of users who do not follow me back – mostly journalists and (legitimate) gurus who have the ability to offer compelling value without engagement. Seth Godin is an example. This is not easy to do. Although most users add some value (assuming you’re not auto-following bots…), very few users IMO offer compelling value. Users who do not offer compelling value and who choose not to follow my updates are unfollowed. I suppose this is my follow policy. Steve @enthused

  • Anonymous

    It will be truly interesting to see how Twitter develops. I don’t have nearly as many followers as you do, and I find it overwhelming sometimes to engage in meaningful exchange. You have a few that you do connect with, but then it almost becomes a chat application. Twitter has the potential for so much more – and in a way it is sad that that so much more is becoming no longer possible, but it is clear that the status quo of Twitter 2009 cannot be upheld. 
    We are all on a wild ride, and while some parts of it are rather annoying, I cannot imagine the way life was before either. I am a news and learning junkie, and quite frankly, Michael, you are a large part of my daily “drug supply”. Thanks! You are a treasure to me and to many of us.

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Thanks, Elke. You are kind to say so.

  • Rachel

    I completely get what you’re saying, and I think it’s great that you did this! 

    I’ve never auto-followed anyone. About once a month, I go through my follower list. If I see someone unfamiliar, I first look at their profile. If it’s questionable at all, I block them. If they may be ok, I follow for a week or so. If they annoy me, I unfollow. If they’re fun/interesting/worth it, then I keep following! 
    Of course, it’s easier to keep up with than yours because I’m the range of a hundred followers instead of a hundred thousand ….

    My twitter philosophy is simple, though: I’d rather have 20 great interactions on twitter than 1,000 questionable ones. 

  • http://byrdmouse.com Jonathan

    My list of followers is almost half as large as my following, so I see no benefit in unfollowing, yet. I saw your tweet last week preparing me for your unfollowing, though I am one of the 150 or so that you weren’t following that was following you (not that it hurt my feelings or anything, I just couldn’t send you a DM like you did to me a time or two). I read the post and thought, not a bad idea, and I’m sure it will work out for you. However, there is one thing you mention as a benefit that makes me say, hmmm…
    You mention that you will again have your Twitter Inbox back for messages from family and friends. That is the reason why I have never linked my Twitter and Blog to my Facebook page–to keep one social media for just friends and family rather than building my platform. I see many people who tout this as another outlet. What is your opinion on including or not including all your social media sites as part of your platform building? Advantage or disadvantage?

  • Bev

    Totally agree with you Michael. We have to get control of our communications and our lives. Keep us all straight and keep sharing with us what you find helps you as it helps us all as well. God Bless. Bev B.

  • Cchase101

    Have you considered using something like Echofon and simply muting people? That way, you’re technically still following them but they won’t come up on your twitter timeline. Also, they won’t know they are muted. You would only see them when they reply or mention you.

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Essentially, that is what I am doing with Hootsuite. However, they can still DM me.

  • http://uma-maheswaran.blogspot.com/ Uma Maheswaran S

    These are valid concerns for an celebrity like you. I follow only people whom I wish to follow. I do not auto follow. So, the question of unfollowing all of my Twitter followers does not arise for me. 

  • http://byrdmouse.com Jonathan

    I have read about a third of the comments now, and I really don’t see any drawback by this action for you. Anyone who gets upset you unfollowed them didn’t bother to read this post or its comments, so they deserve to get upset. I suspect that the followers you lose will be less than the 10 to 20% you expect. Probably more in the 5-10% range, but the followers you will miss will be nil.

    Other comments have indicated alternate methods by which you could accomplish the same thing. It seems to me that your responses indicate that you pretty much figured out that this is the only/best way. As for the rest of the suggestions, it is pretty much a moot point at this time (except that your Twitter account still says you’re following 99k).

    I will remain a follower even though you never followed me. That wasn’t why I followed you. I follow you for your intentional leadership. When you stop that I’ll unfollow.

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      The mass unfollow is taking longer than I anticipated. The company I am using says that it is limited by the number of API requests Twitter will process per hour. I really wish that Twitter itself provided a simple way to do this.
      Thanks for your support!

  • http://davidlarteyblog.wordpress.com David Lartey

    Thanks for this post. It shows that you are really intentional when it comes to your usage of twitter. Someone like me is at the other half of the circle where your followers are one third of your followings. But it makes you feel great when someone you admire greatly follows you back on twitter knowing that he or she acknowledges your presence rather than just following all followers.

  • http://stephenalynch.tumblr.com Stephen Lynch

    I’ve never worried about offending anyone by not re-following. There’s a differenence between being an acquaintance or friend and being interested in what someone is doing, thinking, or sharing. Too many people use Twitter for too many different purposes to embrace any one guideline on the follow back/not follow back issue.

    I’ve been meaning to see the thought process behind cleansing your follower list, I’m going to read it as soon as I finish this comment.

  • http://www.shootthewounded.org Lynn

    Michael, I think it shows integrity on your part to rationalize with your twitter audience why you have decided to “unfollow” followers.  I certainly do not have the “following” as you do, but my account gets its share of spammers and spamming and it is an annoyance to say the least.  I can’t imagine what it would be like with 110,000 followers!  Bravo!

  • http://www.thehahnhuntinglodge.com Nikole Hahn

    Yikes! Auto-Follow…no, I pick and choose whom I follow sometimes with success and sometimes not so great choices. But I try to not follow everyone. I even go through my twitter followers and delete the spammers every so often because I am also choosy over who follows me. I am interested in others and I want others to be interested in me; not because I add to their numbers. So good for you for unfollowing and starting over.

  • Anonymous

    I’m not on Twitter, but I have considered unfriending a number of people on Facebook who friended me, but never even said anything personal to me, never acknowledge anything that I share and I have no interest in the things they post.  Clearly, some people just add others to do it.  They see someone they know and I think they just say, “Oh, there’s so-and-so” and they invite you to be their friend and that’s it.  No direct communication; you’re just added to their list.   

    • BethMcKamy

      Pat, I believe you can influence or be influenced even though you don’t respond to what someone else is sharing. I pretty much always accept friend request on facebook. The reason being that I never know when something I say might have a positive impact on their life, and something they say might have a positive influence on mine. The only exception I have made to that is when I have received a friend request and when I go to their page, everyone of their friends has the same first name, which is the same as mine (yes that happens). I think that is just a little strange so I don’t accept those situations.

      As far as twitter, I don’t follow everyone that follows me. One reason is because I find that when I reach a certain number of people I follow, I get overwhelmed with trying to read everything that comes across my timeline. And sometimes certain people post so much that I can’t keep up with those I really want to follow. I admit that it makes me feel good when people such as Michael follow me back, even though I know it is auto-follow and they follow everyone back. It still makes me feel like I am worthy of their time(One of my human frailties, basing part of my worth on what others do). I find that the majority of people that are on my friends list on facebook, I do actually know(family and friends) or I have met. Very few people that follow me on twitter or that I follow, do I actually know or am I friends with. For me twitter is great for me to keep up with my favorite artist and celebs, and more than that I follow people I learn from(personal growth and business growth).

    • Joe Lalonde

      Pat, I think it’s something you have to do after awhile.

      For me, I have to clean out my friends on Facebook due to their posts that bring me down. I get tired of seeing “woe is me” posts or the game posts. If they’re clogging up my feed with that stuff, they get cleaned up.

  • Cindy (motoflagger)

    Not knowing all the ends and outs of Twitter, will only those who follow you be able to see your tweets? I appreciate reading everything you tweet so I wish you the best of luck in gaining control over the mountains of nonsensical e-mail and comments. 

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      This won’t affect what you see. You will still be able to follow me.

  • Robbin

    I’m really new to Twitter, but I understand & agree with your decision.  I’m hoping to get to 50 followers by the end of the week!  I consider you a mentor of sorts.  Some would disagree because there is a lack of relationship.  However, I have learned so much from just reading your tweets & blog, that dialogue/DM with you is unnecessary!  The Bible says, “your gift will make room for you and bring you before great men.”  So until ”my gift” develops to the point that great men such as yourself are seeking me out, I’m not only content, but honored to be a face in audience. 

    Blessings!     

  • http://somewiseguy.com ThatGuyKC

    I think this is a great idea. Been tempted to do it myself.

  • Douglas Andrews

    Good move, I don’t blame you.  I have a fraction of the followers you do and I think it is noisy with useless conversation.  Those should be text messages not tweets.  I still look forward to you content and I will still follow you!

  • http://twitter.com/mariachong mariachong

    I think you’re using wisdom, Michael. This quote (paraphrased) came to mind:

    “He that hath no rule over his own [Twitter account] is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.” Proverbs 25:28

    Even our digital worlds require good stewardship.

  • Ian

    Hi Michael – I don’t know anything about Klout but see it mentioned a lot! Why does a good Klout score matter to you? I’m curious.  

    You may have already posted about Klout but I think it would be an interesting post to better understand the significance of it & also why we need to measure our social media influence.

    Best regards Ian

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      I plan to blog on it. It is not the the score matters so much as what it represents—true reach and impact. Thanks.

  • http://beckfarfromhome.blogspot.com/ Beck Gambill

    I’m still so new to twitter I don’t have that many followers, but early on I decided not to follow everyone who followed me. I don’t want to be associated with the types of shady characters you mentioned, and it was quickly apparent to me they were out there. I completely understand your reasons for fixing your problem and limiting who you follow. I think it’s important for all of us to be careful but even more so for someone with your visibility and influence. Hope it all goes well for you!

  • http://www.facebook.com/DianneMead Dianne Mead

    Agree with pretty much everything you said although in the end must admit I skimmed. Basically msg was same and agree. Yes have wondered about similar attitude in F’book and a hotmail account. Simply too time consuming and a lot of wasted energy. It’s enough with a website, but compound that with wordpress and other blogging, LinkedIn and BranchOut with F’b where people are recommending you and they don’t even know you but joining your networks left right and centre. Boundaries need to be enforced for your sanity :) and productivity and enjoyment and determining and focusing on your niches and market must form part of your determining checklist. Must also confess I attempt to check profiles of all people wishing to connect on F’b who have none or minimal mutual friends before accepting or denying. That too is consuming. REgardless of applications at the end of the day I believe it comes down to your integrity and values -v- marketing and for what purpose?  metaphor – Madonna … and the controversy over marketing genius or true beliefs… so that said option to outsource virtual assistant and or export and then send out generic mail giving YOUR OPTIONS for these followers to tick / subscribe … better form of maintaining contacts and you get them to do the work … food for thought. Thanks Michael for the work you put into your blog and sharing. Cheers

  • http://twitter.com/johnlambert John Lambert

    Is it just me or are you still following about 90k people?  That’s still a pretty good bit of noise, but at least you have better control over it.

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      It will take several days to complete the process. I thought it would only take a few hours, but Twitter limits the number of people you can unfollow per hour.

  • http://twitter.com/DianaLynnFraser Diana Lynn Fraser

    I don’t understand why people are getting so upset over this. I don’t care if you follow me. I think what you’ve done, Michael, is a great idea. I just went through the 205 peeps I followed and cut out about 45 of them… to the person who thought you should go through each person individually – not thinking with a full deck of cards! Just those 200 was a pain. 

    Looking forward to your future tweets and blog posts.

  • Trey Darbonne

    Thanks for sharing your reasoning behind your decision. A blueprint for managing the noise of Twitter would meet a real need for many.

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  • http://twitter.com/creativebridge Jon Owen

    I think it’s great.  I’m following you because of your content, not because you follow me back.  And by the way, as much I as enjoy your content, I really appreciate the way you adore and honor your wife and family.  And Nelson sounds like a great dog, too.  :)  

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  • Anonymous

    1.  I don’t have nearly as many followers as you do and yet, and still, I stopped using my Twitter inbox for any useful purpose long ago.  Isn’t that what a  personal email address is for?  

    2.  If there are people in the world who question who you are as a person (or tweeter) based on who “appears” in your Twitter stream – one, they have WAY too much time on their hands and two, why would these be people you would care about anyway?  Not to be too much like the Mom on the Block but to paraphrase Dr. Seuss – those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

    So that leaves us with item number 3 – are you THAT worried about your klout score? Really?

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Nope, it’s just an added benefit.

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