The Random Follow
In my time on Facebook and Twitter, I have only defriended or unfollowed a few people. Of course, there was the time when I was getting used to my MacBook and accidentally deleted 20 of my friends, but that doesn’t really count, because I wasn’t even sure of who I defriended.
What can I say? I was drunk and Macbook mouse pads are insanely touchy.
Generally, when I’m defriending someone, I have a reason. They’ve sent me 1200 inspirational messages a day. They’ve sent me LOLcats pictures or chain posts. They’re internet stalking me or harassing my friends. If I’m hitting that ‘unfriend’ or ‘unfollow’, I have a reason. A good one. Mainly, I’m sick of you.
However, Twitter and WordPress drive me fucking crazy.
Look, just because you’ve randomly decided to follow me doesn’t mean I’m going to follow you back. Going around clicking ‘follow, follow, follow’ doesn’t somehow entitle you to a return follows. In fact, it’s a terrible way to get page traffic because you get a group of people following you who never go to your page again.
Do you know what a bounce rate is? Don’t bother to Google it. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t care about bounce rate, then you’re the kind of person that Google is going to find irrelevant and your page will soon be buried at the 5 billionth mark.
I follow people I’m interested in. I follow people who have something to say. I’m not just going to toss a courtesy follow back. If I’m following you, it means I’ve spent more than five minutes on your page, reading what you had to say and finding it interesting. It doesn’t mean I agree with you. In fact, I probably completely disagree with you. But I’m interested. That’s what matters.
Not a million fake follows.
I’ve said before that drive-by likes don’t bother me. They really don’t. If you want to come to my page and like something I said without reading it, good for you. It’s a free country. However, if you’re just doing it in the hope that I’ll like you back, don’t hold your breath. Why? Because if you’re wasting time doing that, chances are, your content is shit and I won’t be reading it.
If I started following everyone who followed me, my reader would soon be full of pages from spammers reblogging articles about acia berries and home loan modifications. Instead, I search for quality. I’m not a ‘you like me’ so ‘I’ll like you’ kind of girl. I ditched that shit in grade school.
That just screams to me ‘sheep mentality’ and I am not a herding animal. I’m an individual. I have shit to say. If you just want to follow me because you see I have a lot of followers and I might add you to my blog roll, you’re wasting your time. I work hard on my posts and I value those who actually read them. Those are the people who get my attention. Not the random spammers who decide to follow me just to get me to pay it forward.
That’s how it is here at Essa on Everything. I write what I like, and sometimes I keep people interested. In order to get a follow back, you need to be interesting. If that upsets you and you decide you want to unfollow me, you can find the link at the top left of my page.
Trust me, you won’t be missed.
