11 Reasons I Won’t Follow You on Twitter

There are probably dozens if not hundreds of reasons some people on Twitter won’t follow others. Here are my Top 11 reasons. 

I won’t follow you if … 

1. You don’t have a Twitter bio: There may be a good reason, but I can’t imagine what it is. It takes 30 seconds to say something about who you are. The same thing goes if you don’t have a geographic location. It does not need to be specific: city and state or city and country will do just fine. Of course, if you have something to hide … that too is reason enough not to follow you. 

2. You don’t have an avatar: The generic "egg" icon just tells the world you haven’t made the time to get a small picture or symbol out there … or, again, maybe you have something to hide.

3. Your account is locked: You may have good reasons to lock your account (or, again, maybe you have something to hide), but how am I supposed to keep track of whose content I can retweet and whose I can’t? If you want to be that private I have to wonder why you’re on Twitter.

4. You have been on Twitter for less than a month: Unless there’s a history of activity I suspect all Twitter accounts to have a.) hidden agendas or b.) be the accounts of people not fully committed to being part of the Twitter community … yet. This might be hard on newbies, but I know of too many newbies who set up an account, tweet a few times and then go silent.

5. You don’t tweet regularly: You don’t have to tweet every day, but if you’re only tweeting once or twice a week (or less) the chances are I will miss your tweets and we really won’t interact at all. So why bother?

6. You have nothing to say or share: We have all seen the accounts where people build large follower numbers and in three months on Twitter have only tweeted a few dozen times to let the world know "It’s raining here now" or "Just made a killer burger." Really? Is this adding value for anyone?

7. You follow way more people than follow you: You may just be desperate to build a large online following. You may have even purchased followers. Either way you concern me.

8. Your profile and tweets reveal you are mostly on Twitter to sell: I get stuff pushed on me in plenty of other ways. I don’t need Twitter to feel like a selling channel.

9. Your tweet history is full of self-promotional words or links: If your tweets are full of "I" statements and the things "you" want to sell or promote, then "you" clearly missed the memo that Twitter is supposed to be a social medium. "You" don’t need me to follow "you." All "you" really need is a mirror so you can admire the view. See Commandment No. 1 in 10 Commandments for Social Media.

10. You are promoting porn, gambling or other vices: ‘Nuff said. If I wanted this stuff I’m pretty sure I could find it on my own.

11. You are a business and only ever tweet about the business: As much as you love your business and think everybody else should too, I’m sorry I just don’t care. If your business doesn’t have a human face I’m outta here. Having said that, I will admit to connecting with social causes and the organizations that support them. That at least seems more in the spirit of social media.

So, what do you think? Did I miss any reasons you have for not following or following back on Twitter?

Related posts:
6 Reasons to Finally Join Twitter
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness
The 7 Deadly Sins on Twitter

3 More Reasons I Won’t Follow You on Twitter

We all have our own reasons for not following back on Twitter. Recently a Twitter friend shared a link to Meg Guiseppi’s wonderful September 2009 blog post 14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter

This is a blog post that has been so popular that Meg very recently posted 14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter (Revisited)

And while I agree with all 14 reasons I would respectfully add three of my own:

Your tweets are all in a language other than English – it’s nothing personal but aside from some high-school French and a little college Spanish my knowledge of other languages is limited. That’s my bad, I know, but how will we communicate? What would we say?

You exclusively tweet links to the work of others and don’t give any credit or attribution. Should I trust someone who does not give credit where credit is due? How will I know if this is the fifth time I’ve read a tweet on Mashable’s take on the Edelman Trust Barometer ?

You spend too much time tweeting personal stuff – we’re all human, but your tweetstream is all about you. You’re the vainglorious guest at the party who is certainly social but only inasmuch as it gets you more attention. Yuck! Now, if we are extremely good friends I might consider this a minor character flaw. Otherwise: No thanks.

Meg Guiseppi blogs at Executive Resume Branding and if you want to see if she will follow you back on Twitter you might try connecting with her at @MegGuiseppi. But don’t try if you’re not “good people on Twitter” because she clearly is.

So are there other reasons to not follow someone on Twitter? I’m sure. What are some of yours?

Related posts:
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness
What Twitter isn’t