Ever noticed your Twitter followers going down, down, down? Ever wondered why so many people were virtually breaking up to you? There are many free online tools which can help you do exactly that. Some have more bells and whistles than others, but for simple, quick-and-dirty who decided I wasn’t worth listening to anymore? I like who.unfollowed.me. In a few seconds, it scans your account and figure out who jumped ship.
In the wrong hands, these can become tools for obsession. You can stare at the screen and agonize over each unfollow. Which tweet did it? Did you offend them? Did you tweet too many pictures of your cat or too many boring blog posts? Or maybe they just don’t like you, personally?
Relax. Breathe. People unfollow for all sorts of reasons. You’ll notice a great deal of natural fluctuation every day. Many people, attempting to gain followers without real regard for their timeline and the content they receive in return, will unfollow anyone who doesn’t follow them back. Other people may be cleaning up noise from their timeline and limiting their following to people they genuinely know.
Or maybe you did piss them off. Maybe you did stop sharing useful content. The only time I ever worry about unfollows is when I am unfollowed by people I follow in return. If this is someone who I care what they have to say, I’m always a bit concerned when they stop caring what I have to say. If it’s someone I know in real life or regularly converse with, it’s even more troublesome.
But relax. This isn’t cause to freak out, go on a screaming tirade or quit your Twitter account in a blaze of glory. It’s possible Twitter spontaneously unfollowed the person–it happens. It’s possible they hit a follower limit and needed to free up some space. Or it’s possible you need to consider the kind of content you’re sharing. Is it relevant to the audience you want to attract? Are you sharing controversial political opinions? Are you tweeting too much about what you had for lunch and not enough about the real reason you ask people to follow you?
Unfollows aren’t a reason to panic; they’re a chance to examine and readjust strategy. Embrace them. Oh, yeah, and don’t be one of those jerks who tweets the name of people who unfollowed them. So tacky.