I'm so sorry. I'm kicking you of my limb!

Last week we discussed hashtags and why they are important for you to use when you use Twitter. This week it's important to understand how Twitter works with follows and unfollows.

I don't know about you, but when I follow someone on Twitter, I hope they follow me back. My following was going up but my followers weren't. I would look up a hashtag that interested me, like #amwriting, and began to click follow on everyone.  Of course they were going to follow me back! They used #amwriting too!!

WRONG!!!


Oh, well. . .I continued to follow everyone and everyone that followed me I would send an automatic follow. PERFECT, until. . .I was stuck! Twitter only let me follow 2k tweeps. 
TWO-THOUSAND? That's nothing!! But I was stuck, I couldn't follow anyone back. What to do?
I knew that if I just emailed Twitter, the Twitter God would see that I'm truly a nice person and let me put my nest higher up in the tree. Right?


WRONG!!!


Twitter God: “Follow limits are based on several things, one of which is our belief in a person’s good standing and intention. The behind-the-scenes portion of follow limiting varies by account, relationship, and changes over time. Based on current behavior in the Twitter community, we’ve concluded that this is both fair and reasonable. While we figure out what works best for everyone, the limits may change occasionally, but this is the nucleus and future limits will be based upon the success of these.”
Me: **sigh** 


Now what? How was I going to figure out how to unfollow my Twitter peeps? What if I unfollow someone that is following me? Am I going to get hate tweets? Cyber bullied?
I began to go through the list of tweeps I was following and couldn't believe how many weren't following me back. Not that their tweets didn't matter to me, but they were taking up my limb on the part of the tweet tree! And my limb can only hold 2k tweeps. 

I used my good old buddy, Google. I was happy to realize that Twitter God wasn't only holding me to 2k, but everyone has a 2k limit until their follow to follower ratio allowed them to follow more. (Don't even ask me the ratio, because I still haven't figured that out!!)

Fine. I went to Twitter and and opted out of auto follow, and then began to unfollow the "egg head" gravatars,  movie stars, and some authors until Twitter stopped me after I reached the 100 daily limit.

WHAT? Another limit? **big sigh**

It was going to take me forever to unfollow just so I can follow again. 

I went back to visit my old friend, Google, because I knew there had to be something out there that would let me unfollow more than 100 tweeps. Guess what! I found several sites that not only tell you how many people aren't following you back, it lists them for you. And when I saw a few of "my friends" on there. . .sigh. . .

The best part, I could mass unfollow and Twitter let me. 

So I started my walk down my limb on the Twitter tree and kicked off some tweeps that was taking up valuable and LIMITED space.


I didn't unfollow just anyone. Using MagageFlitter.com, I found out how many people weren't following me, and over 200 of my tweeps hadn't twittered in months, years!


I had never thought about those tweeps who have dumped Twitter and taking up space on my limb. 


ManageFlitter.com also lets you know who are the talkative tweeps on your limb and who are the quiet tweeps. This really helps you decide who you should be tweeting or not wasting your time. I'm not saying that the quiet ones are a waste of time, but you are on Twitter for a reason. Copy blogger has a great blog post on how Twitter really does help you as a writer.


I'm not saying to go and unfollow all of the tweeps not following you. All I am saying is that you use Twitter as a social media tool for your writing, and you need to think long and hard about the tweeps your tweets are getting to. If someone is not following you, your tweets aren't getting to them unless you mentioned (@) them. Or those tweeps who you are following that hasn't tweeted in over a year or TWO? I had 200 tweeps that haven't tweeted 9 months to two years and what a waste of space they were taking on my little limb in the Twitter tree.


What about those people who you really want to follow that teach you something about writing?
They might not follow you, but you get something out of their tweets. That's great. You should be following them, but not if you are at you 2k LIMIT. 


Go ahead. I give you permission to walk down your Twitter limb and kick off anyone that isn't on your social media bandwagon. I give you permission to knock those tweeps off! You spend too much time on your social media to have sleeping tweeps.


Now I'm off to figure out how to get more followers.


If you want to gain more followers, Missy Biozarre has a great blog post about how she reached 25k followers!


Social Media Guide has a list of a DOZEN tools to unfollow tweeps that aren't following you.


Have you reached your Tweeps limit? How did you get Twitter to let you follow more than 2k tweeps? This is my goal! I'm going to get my followers up, so I can follow more!


Leave you Tweet handle in the comments!! I will follow:))