Since I was sitting here updating some of my workshop materials for my Social Media and Networking Power Workshop, I thought I’d share some sure-fire techniques for losing the followers you already have on Twitter.

Unrelentingly Try To Sell Junk

This is a sure-fired technique that will drive anyone who actually reads your Twitter stream away. Sure, sell me products you produce, or really use yourself, in extreme moderation. But don’t link-spam me with every affiliate offer you can find out there on Commission Junction or Clickbank. There’s nothing wrong with some of the products sold there, don’t get me wrong. But if your Tweets consist primarily of links to products you know nothing about, I’ll unfollow you in a flash. Ugh.

Post Nothing But Links

You know, I’m grateful for someone who posts a link to a high-quality article in a niche that interests me. Some people do this very well. Then there are those of you who discover how to connect keyword-driven RSS feeds to your Twitter stream, blasting lists of crap at me that you’ve never read. Guess what? It’s possible to tell the difference. Again, the only followers you’ll keep don’t read your junk anyhow. Post me a link if you’ve read the article and it was good. Otherwise, you’re a jerk, and my time’s too precious to be exposed to your spam.

Repeat The Same URLs Over And Over

Guess what? I don’t come to Twitter to read your ads. Sure, drop in a reference to your latest blog post, or a link to your website periodically. Meaning every few days. But don’t blast out your site in every tweet, or even every second or third one. If I get value from your Tweets, I might visit your site expecting to get value there too. However, if I’m blasted with piles of ads to your stuff, I’m dropping you. Buh bye!

Repeat Identical Tweets Relentlessly

Even worse than posting links to the same site, is repeating the same Tweets repeatedly. I don’t need to see you drop in the same Tweet every day. You’re boring, you’re not creative, you’re lazy and there are great people who aren’t you out there. I think I’ll drop you and go find some.

Don’t Post Tweets At All

Hey, you folks that set up an account and then don’t participate in the conversation – guess what? We don’t value you. If you wander off for weeks at a time and don’t even bother posting a Tweet, you’re going to lose followers. Same for those of you who never posted any, or more than a few tweets ever. Duh.

Autopost Dozens Of Tweets Per Day, Every Day

On the flip side, those of you who fed in a quote dictionary or some other source of pseudo-tweets and told some program to Tweet every few minutes aren’t participating in the discussion either. You’re trying to con the real people who are trying to connect and converse on Twitter. It will work on some of the people, some of the time, but you’re not creating any real connection. So don’t worry, lots of us will drop you, particularly those of us who actually read Tweets.

Never Reply To Or Retweet Anyone

Hey, if you want to lose followers, whatever you do, don’t converse with them. Don’t reply to their questions. Don’t help them. Don’t Retweet them when they’ve said something interesting, witty, or of interest to your niche. Just keep talking, and never indicate you’re listening, and the more savvy Twitter users will drop you eventually.

Retweet Constantly – Don’t Do Anything Else

On yet another flip side, only Retweeting constantly gets annoying too. Got nothing of your own to say? Don’t worry, I won’t bother listening to you anymore.

Want An Easy Way To Figure Out Who To Unfollow?

There’s a helpful free tool called Twit Cleaner that will help you clean the junk from the list of people you’re following on Twitter. As a bonus, it will tell you if you’re being a twit on Twitter… so if you’re working hard to get people to drop you, it will let you know that you’re succeeding.

Of course, if you actually enjoy Twitter, and want to follow and interact with interesting people with helpful information, you can use it to figure out who to Unfollow. It’s a totally free tool, there’s no attempt to upsell you, just a clear and easy report you can use to improve the quality of your Twitter list. Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this article, please follow me on Twitter: @karileeo. I’ll follow back, and if you’re interesting and not a twit, I’ll keep following. While you’re there, please Tweet this post, too! Thanks.

About the author

Karilee

I'm a big fan of entrepreneurship. Most of my learning, teaching and business is focused on effectively creating "freedom businesses" that allow you to focus on your strengths, and bring what you're really good at to the world - profitably. My clients are looking for more of the right customers - and I show them how to make that happen. I help them develop their web presence through their website, SEO, social media and other marketing tactics.