So that I could make a more informed decision on my future on Twitter, I did an analysis on all—yes, ALL—the accounts I was following on Twitter which numbered a bit shy of 7,000. I know you’re thinking, “Hey, Heidi, don’t you have anything better to do?” Well, yes, I do. But being the analyze-to-death, overthinking person I am, I really wanted to take a more scientific approach.
As a side note, I hit my Twitter following ceiling. If you’re a current friend and you’re wondering why I haven’t followed you there, that’s why. Please don’t think I was ignoring you. I wasn’t relishing the thought of reviewing and unfollowing thousands of accounts to make space for new people. Even if there are tools to help with that, I wanted to manually clean up my act there so as not to get my account suspended due to unfollow activity. Plus, I wanted to see what my Twitter tribe was up to.
I must warn you, though, this is going to get a little scary because it I found it to be more like ghost hunting.
There were a few accounts that, sadly, really were ghosts. I knew that these folks had really died, but their zombie Twitter accounts lived on.
There also were many, many accounts that were acting like zombies. Some had links to things like their auto-posted horoscopes or other low or no value content. That’s all that was populating their feed.
Others did great “Elvis has left the building” impressions. Their accounts were up, but they had ghosted Twitter years ago, some back as far as 2014, even earlier for some. You have to remember I’ve been on Twitter for 14 years.
Reviewing some of the accounts brought back memories of people I used to be chatty with, but haven’t been in years. Our paths no longer aligned, or they joined the ghost and zombie group on Twitter, or aren’t active online altogether.
This deep dive was also like opening a time capsule of my career. It was so very evident that I was active in the events and promotional businesses in the beginning. These accounts and I are no longer relevant to each other and I unfollowed the majority of these folks. They won’t miss me, and I won’t miss them.
Back then, too, we all followed a lot of people, including lots of high profile celebrity type accounts. I followed a lot of sports and media profiles. They won’t miss me following them either.
As I would come across an account for an author or speaker, or someone who could potentially have interesting or useful content, I would look at their profile and tweet stream. If they hadn’t tweeted in years, or if they tweet less than once every couple weeks or so, I unfollowed them without hesitation.
Here are a couple of tips to avoid becoming a Twitter ghost.
Don’t pin a super old tweet to the top of your tweet stream.
Saying goodbye and resurrection.
As I’m writing this, I’ve already dispensed with 50 percent of the accounts I was I following. I’ll likely say goodbye to many, many more by the time I’m done. I just don’t have the interest or energy bandwidth.
The Elon Exodus
I do have author friends who are very sold on Twitter as a social media platform. In theory, I am, too, due to early positive experiences, and I love the concept and format of it.
Other friends are making an exodus from Twitter due to their objections to Elon Musk’s political positions and meddling. Others think he’s going to ruin Twitter and that the platform is headed for its demise. Both are valid concerns.
My stance is that I don’t know what’s going to happen to Twitter. If this early chaos is any indicator of the future, it’s going to be a bumpy ride with the transition. I don’t want to lose my username that I’ve had for 14 years, and possibly have to reestablish it, and an active presence there, when and if things settle or get better.
I’m also not all that hep to build a new audience on alternatives such as Mastodon. I also had to chuckle when I saw that Substack is wooing Twitter users to switch over to their platform. That’s a completely different project in audience building. Actually, that’s really the building of an email list. I’ve ranted on both Substack and email marketing elsewhere. Both are significant projects, and not just a quick jump. Plus, your followers have to be on those alternative platforms, too. Many won’t be.
I’ve found more engaged audiences for my content on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. I’ve moved out and moved on from actively using Twitter, and have reset my expectations. While I still tweet links to my latest content, I don’t expect that many, if any, genuine business or personal friendships will continue or develop. I also don’t expect a lot of on-Twitter engagement or conversation. I’m just glad if one of my followers is kind enough to reply, retweet, like my tweets, visit links in my tweets, or cross over to one of my more active social channels.
Instead of bemoaning the loss of conversation and relationships, I’ve decided to embrace Twitter’s news crawl aspect. I’m using is as my PR and content newsfeed.
I’m not sure how long this adventure will last due to Twitter’s future or my own. But there are other platforms where we can keep connected. Subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel where I plan to remain active. Thanks to everyone who has been with me on my Twitter journey over the years.
This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.
© 2022 Heidi Thorne
