I Follow Pornstars On Twitter? [Stop Auto-Follow]

We all know that Twitter is an awesome social networking platform. The one-to-many communication, the ease of tweeting from anywhere – it is cool and the growth rate proves it.

However, that growth rate has been so high that there are negative side effects. Spam, for one. But, when you couple the tweet spam with the ego-centric need to have high follower counts, Twitter itself starts to lose it’s usefulness.

For this reason, I have completely done a reverse course on my approach to Twitter.

Six Figure Blogger Follows Web Cam Girls

Yes, I do (did). But, it wasn’t because I sought them out. It was because I, like many people, used auto-follow. Simply put, when somebody followed me on Twitter, they were automatically followed back.

So, some slut with a webcam wants to follow me, complete with her avatar showing just how much of a whore she is, she does it. Of course, she isn’t following me because she is interested in blogging. No, she just wants the auto-follow. And she got it.

So, there I am, following a pornstar. And she “follows” me, but never reads a thing I say. Because she doesn’t care. She just wants the number on her account. So she can spam me.

No thanks. I don’t bend that way.

The Problem With Auto-Follow

When I started auto-following, I did it because I felt like it was socially appropriate to follow people who follow me. I didn’t want to be perceived as a conceited guy who doesn’t care.

Truth be told, my rate of getting new followers DID go up noticeably after I began to auto-follow.

In an ideal world, that would work. In a world of spam and fake egos, it just means I attract a lot of garbage and basically ruin my Twitter experience.

Auto following attracts other people who auto follow. These people are not interested in me whatsoever.

Plus, if a person auto-follows, and already follows several thousand people, do you REALLY think they are reading your tweets? I mean, SERIOUSLY. The idea that it is appropriate to return the favor of following is a stupid shell game. Neither side is reading the other! What the hell is the point?

Look at that from a marketing perspective. We know that building a list is important. Well, Twitter IS a list. Now, how targeted is that list if the people on it are not there because they are interested in you?

And the effectiveness of Twitter clearly shows this. I had 9,000 followers. I could tweet a link and it might get clicked on 50-75 times. Maybe. Now, obviously, because of the real-time nature of Twitter, even the people who know me might not click on it. I understand that. However, if 40-50% of my followers don’t even follow me because of what I say, but only because they want another follower, then it is just baggage. No benefit to me nor them.

Additionally, when you auto-follow, you get spammed CONSTANTLY by auto-DMs.

So, essentially, auto-follow RUINS Twitter. Screw it. I’m done.

Fixing The Damage

I could go one of two routes:

1. Unfollow everybody and just follow back the ones I care about.
2. Unfollow people one-by-one if they spam me or otherwise put out stuff consistently that I couldn’t care less about.

For now, I’m leaning toward #2. If it proves to be too much, I might just start from scratch.

The truth is, I DO care about everybody. If you read my blog or are interested in blogging, then I do care about you. But, I want to follow real people. Not bots or people looking to get me to check out their webcam or sell me something to get 500 followers in one day.

I think a smaller number of folks who actually care is better than a large number of folks who don’t.

Your Thoughts?

Do you think auto-following is smart? Do you use it?

Please share below in the comments.