Curiousity Killed the Cat and Your Twitter Followers « Social Media Strategy – JenniferVanGrove.com

I remember when Brightkite was a shiny new toy, it was so new the bugs were kind of funny. I loved the idea of the site so I interviewed Martin May about Brightkite and did a follow up piece to encourage adoption before the Web2.0 Expo in San Francisco. I also convinced all of my internet friends to create accounts. One such friend created an account, requested a few friends, and received an email confirming that one of those friend requests was denied. He notified Brightkite via Twitter of this oddity, they tweaked things a bit and now we can all go on sending friend requests and remaining naive if those requests are denied. It was just a little too much information.

In the spirit of unpleasant openness, however, Qwitter is born, a site that emails you when someone unfollows you on twitter. They’ll also send the tweet that immediately preceded the unfollow. Demand seems to be in favor of the service, this post says that Qwitter received 300+ signups in the first 25 minutes, but what will the fall out be? I’d personally rather not know. Regardless of what people may say, there will almost always be an emotional reaction when someone receives an email letting them know that they have been unfollowed. Maybe that emotional reaction leads to unfollowing the other person, censored tweets, or hateful tweets, but it’s a little more drama than I want from the one social network that gives me so much in terms of information, networking, and influence.

Just because the information is available doesn’t mean it should be used. I haven’t wanted to sign up for Qwitter, but there’s a detail that seems to be curious. The site says “Just tell us the Twitter username you want to track…”, so does this mean that I can track who unfollows any Twitter user my heart desires? I would hope this isn’t so, but I entered my Twitter name (jbruin) and a different email address than I registered with Twitter, and the process seemed to work just fine. That’s a little scary. Do I really want anyone to be able to track who is unfollowing me and why? Not so much.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to live in a social media world of denied friend requests. That’s just a little more information than I need.

Update: Your Qwitter behavior could become public knowledge, just take a look at this tweet:

5 Total TweetBacks: (Tweet this post)
  • mjcarter: "Qwitter"?? Interesting but do we really need to know that much? http://tinyurl.com/5ltfwf 10/23/08 07:42pm
  • heidimiller: Qwitter--why would I be concerned if someone unfollows me? I don't really want to know. Do you? http://tinyurl.com/5ltfwf 10/23/08 02:41pm
  • fuzzyredrobe: retweeting twitter tale from Facebook courtesy @mjcarter. http://tinyurl.com/5ltfwf I'm amazed at the drama. The Susan Heyward of it all. 10/23/08 11:51am
  • bryanbro: nice article by @jbruin on Quitter http://tinyurl.com/5ltfwf 10/18/08 09:27pm
  • jbruin: Blog Post: Curiousity Killed the Cat and Your Twitter Followers: I remember when Brightkite was .. http://tinyurl.com/5ltfwf 10/18/08 08:16pm

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  • I couldn't resist signing up for Qwitter. I figure I'm constantly gaining and losing a few Twitter followers, so individual changes wouldn't bother me.

    However, since I've signed up, I've gotten zero notifications of losing Twitter followers. None. Haven't lost a single one. This leads me to believe that perhaps the service is buggy. Either that, or I must be doing something wrong on Twitter -- surely if I were a good Twitterer, I'd lose *someone.*

    So maybe Qwitter's critics are right. It's all just an insidious plot to drive down our self-esteem.
  • Mitch, let's talk after you a receive a few unfollow emails...but there is always the possibility that your tweets are immune to being impugned. :)
  • I don't get upset if people unfollow me or don't accept my FB friend request or ignore my @'s. I figure everyone has their reasons for following/not following someone. I am only following about 1/4 of the people that are following me and don't follow more because I simply can't keep track of too many people.
    Qwitter isn't for me anymore than FB Qwitter is.

    As these social media tools become more immersed in our everyday lives we have to address issues related to social behaviour, privacy, and awareness. Some will embrace the ability to receive additional information about others, while other people will shun it. I like my social media world the way it is and don't need any new knowledge about my twitter followers.

    Great post @jbruin
  • Great points about the emotional let down after being Twitter Dumped. Twumped? You might not know the person at all but the nagging question of "why" will always be there.
  • great post. I don't care if people follow or don't follow me back. Life is too short to get freaked out because @coolperson rejected my friend/follow request.
  • I have been affected by the "Unfollow" via a girl I met on twitter and was involved with. After I left what she thought was a rude tweet about a fat person she not only broke it off with me but also "Unfollowed" me - which at the time seemed more of a bigger deal. Of course now I could care less. I think this site is interesting and has potential.
  • Have you seen http://tweepletwak.com? If not, I think you should. Follow + DM me and I will send you an invite code http://twitter.com/SIGEPJEDI - What Qwitter is doing is very minor compared to TweepleTwak.com
  • Natsha Gomer
    Hi Jennifer,
    I received the link to your article from Mark Carter. I checked Quitter out and probably won't sign up. I can see the appeal though as I guess it's a way of managing part of your Twitter community. In some cases there may be no reason for an unfollow, in others there may be a reason and therefore some interesting learning.

    Let's see how it catches on!
  • Hi, Jennifer,
    Like Natsha, I also received the link to your article from Mark Carter. There is more than one type of reason to unfollow someone on Twitter so, here's just a couple of quickies:

    1. The 2000 follow limit - I prefer following people who follow me - that way we can also DM each other - But, if I'm at 2K, that means I have to take a quick scan to see who's not following me and who might not be generating too much conversation, any way... So, I unfollow, not necessarily because of a disagreement bur, rather, for more strategic purposes - better relationships.

    2. Non-reponsiveness. If I've followed someone and responded to one of there tweets and my response required a response, I'll wait awhile but, if after a week or so, they never respond, that's not the type of relationship I'd want to use one of my 2K slots for.

    If the 2K limited weren't so strictly enforced, I'd probably have slightly different unfollow philosophy.

    Keep STRONG, Jennifer!!
    Vincent
  • Vincent, thanks for your comment. In general I think the action of unfollowing itself is harmless and necessary at times - as you point out. The problem I forsee with sites like Qwitter is that I might be curious to see who is unfollowing me so I sign up for the service, get the unfollow notifications, and start to contemplate what I did or said. The lure of the information being made available tugs at our curiosity and need to know, but is possessing that knowledge a good thing? It probably just depends on the person.
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