This is a strange phenomenon indeed. I have lots of different ratios for different types of people I follow who then follow me back… but following people in Devon is by far the lowest ratio of follow backs out of them all…
I was having a chat with Steve from Inspiring Joe about followers on Twitter. He made the comment that Inspiring Joe would like more local followers. I remarked that getting them is easier said than done. Over two weeks prior to this chat I had doubled the iJoe followers to 1,100 (real people, not bots!). Then I doubled it again and then added another 1,000 for good measure. That was simple and easy. I thought I’d put local people to the test again…
On the iJoe account I followed 100 local people, including those that go on the Twitter chat hours like #TorbayHour and #DevonHour. The result of those 100 new Devon follows was 2 who followed back.
Now I can achieve results of 60-75 followbacks out of 100 in some cases but I average 35-50 follow-backs out of 100. Whenever I try following local people I barely manage to get one or two.
Prehaps Devon has the highest rate of people suffering from an online version of Koumpounophobia (a phobia of buttons)?
The Twitter chats are equally as puzzling. They tweet out for new followers but few again follow you back when you follow them. I know people don’t have to, I just find it strange that so many locally don’t. It would be nice to have more local businesses and people to interact with.
Why you should follow back
I regally unfollow those who don’t follow back and I know many others who do the same. I use tools that make this quick and easy. I barely even see who’s being unfollowed so it isn’t personal, I just don’t have the time to systematically go through each account to check who they are.
On the accounts I manage, quite a few have little wriggle room to play with when it comes to keeping the following ratio lower than the followers. I need to be ruthless if I want to attract new followers.
If someone on a Twitter chat asks for follows but doesn’t follow back I will unfollow them after a few days to make room for those who will. I usually follow them with several accounts so I’ll also be unfollowing them with all those accounts. I never like unfollowing but many will know the struggle to keep the ratios in the sweet spots.
I want to engage with you Devon! Why do you make it so difficult? 🙂
