Cleansing My Twitter Account Shows A Lot
Author: Elaine Fogel
I feel re-energized. I feel freer. I feel relief. And, why? Because I just 
cleansed my Twitter account.
I've been flippant in the past about my reasons for not following certain people. But, once I choose to follow someone, I admit… I hope that s/he follows me back.
Now, I'm not talking about celebrities, who don't follow very many people at all. They are broadcasters, reporting to their fans in one-way dialog. I'm talking about people with whom I have something in common.
I tend to seek out fellow marketers and nonprofit organizations. Many of my professional peers have connected, but there are a few who haven't. Perhaps because we've never met in person or exchanged words. I can only make assumptions.
But, what surprised me more than anything else were the number of charities that didn't reciprocate. How can they possibly build support for their missions unless they follow their followers!
They do not fall into the celebrity category, so there's no excuse. They need each and every individual to support their causes and spread the word. So, why shun the very people who want to hear their messages?
There's no sense in this approach. Unless someone can enlighten me with a good explanation, I am quite stunned at this lack of foresight on the part of some very well-known nonprofits.
Posted in Charitable Organization, Marketing, Nonprofit, Nonprofit Marketing, Philanthropy, Social Media | 
Tags: celebrities, Charities, dialog, followers, Marketing, nonprofit organizations, nonprofits, Social Media, Twitter
2 Responses to “Cleansing My Twitter Account Shows A Lot”
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Hi Elaine,
I think personal vs organizational accounts should approach their following strategies very differently. On my own account, I tend to be very picky about who I follow back, as I've found I can't listen to much more than about 350 people on a regular basis without feeling like I'm overloaded. I'm constantly pruning and tweaking who is in that group of people I derive the most value from (which includes you, of course).
Organizations that are using Twitter to build their business or donor/supporter base are in a different situation. I generally advise my clients to follow back every real person (as opposed to the spambots), and use private lists to regularly follow the smaller number of people and accounts that are most important to them. There's no reason why a potential customer or supporter should feel like an organization doesn't care about them enough to follow them back.
I think the reason it doesn't happen is not that the organization doesn't care. It's just that whoever is in charge of the Twitter account is busy and doesn't make the time to periodically look through their follower list. Because many organizational accounts use tools like HootSuite or TweetDeck, which don't make it as easy to look at recent followers as the Twitter website, people just don't think of it. Hopefully your post will remind them that this is important!
Nedra, thanks for offering this observation. I agree that many nonprofits (and smaller businesses) are struggling with day-to-day operations and don't have the time to check their accounts as frequently as they'd like. However, many of the organizations to which I referred are large national or international charities and foundations. Here's an example:
One foundation has over 400,000 followers and follows less than 800! That's less than 1/5 of 1%!
Another has over 600,000 followers and follows around 34,000. That's under 6%!
Perhaps this is due, in part, to an unrealistic metric that more followers is better. Research says this is a fallacy.
So…message to all nonprofits that want to raise awareness and support, review your followers on a regular basis and try to engage. Sure, it's impossible to respond to everyone, but following back the people who care about your cause is a courtesy and may pay off more than you can imagine.
Thanks for sharing, Nedra!