How to allianate on twitter

If you’re a numbers watcher, you’ve probably noticed that your number of followers fluctuates constantly on Twitter. While this is normal, you do want to keep the vast majority watching your updates. It’s pretty easy to do something wrong, though. If you aren’t sure why people are unfollowing you in droves, it might be time to check out my list on how to alienate people on Twitter.

• Never follow back. While you don’t necessarily have to follow everyone back, never following anyone isn’t going to win you too many friends. It’s an excellent method for getting rid of . . . well, just about everyone!
• Ignore direct and @ messages. When someone tries to initiate contact with you, ignoring them is a great way to ensure that they never attempt to talk to you again. Sensitive people might not try after one ignore, others will try a few times and then give up. If you hang in there, pretty soon only robots will be talking to you.
• Disappear for long periods of time. This is one of the best ways to lose followers. If you’re inactive, they will assume you’re gone and remove you from their lists. Many use automatic unfollows for this, so you don’t even have to personally offend anyone.
• Post only complaints. If all your updates are complaining about your back pain, the fact that your spouse doesn’t help out enough around the house, etc. you can bet most people will never even start following you! It’s a great way to get rid of most of your existing followers, too.
• Badmouth other businesses. While Twitter can be an excellent forum for exchanging experiences with companies, it shouldn’t become a place to air your dislike of every business you come across. As soon as people see this, they will tend to avoid you . . . no one wants their own business to be put down!
• Talk about mundane things. Mentioning what you’re having for lunch isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a blow by blow of your trip to work, every person you see along the way, your bathroom stops, etc. is definitely too much for most people. You can expect to see a drastic drop in followers if you decide to go this route.

Obviously you don’t want to alienate people on Twitter, so make sure you do the opposite of everything I’ve listed here. You’ll end up with happier followers and over time, you’ll be able to really network with them.