I am going to share something I considered important in my social media marketing life: Unfollowing people on social media.
I have come across many people who claim that they hate unfollowing other on social media. Trust me, I totally understand that! For one, I am a huge believer in reciprocating. In this case, I would be happy to follow back anyone who followed me on social media. Be it on Twitter, Linked, Facebook etc.! Following back is often considered ethical in many ways and it goes a long way in the social media world.
But, there will be times where you need to put a full stop. Do you know that unfollowing people could actually give you a lot of benefits in social media marketing?
Let’s discuss some of the real factors why you should unfollow people on social media and how you can unfollow them like a professional.
Unfollow People On Social Media – The Why And How Taboo
1. They have too much spam
I don’t mind people sharing motivational quotes and pictures. Seriously, those are okay for me by all means. However, what draws the line is when they start publishing content that is annoying (and spammy). It can be promoting their business or simply, their rant.
Either way, too much of those are always very annoying. I rather have a good social media feed that showcases things that I am happy of. For example, funny images, quotes of the day and motivational videos.
I only have a problem when the people I follow tends to share a lot of unrelated things which can get really annoying from time to time.
2. We talk politics
Here’s the thing. I respect people who have strong opinions on politics. As a matter of fact, I don’t care which side you are on. But if you are sharing your thoughts like once every 5 minutes on social media, that is really, really bad.
What happens when you have too much of these followers talking politics? Social media algorithms are going to assume that you are interested in politics. And with that, you are going to be bombarded with even more politic related posts!
That’s bad, especially when you are no longer interested in politics. If you don’t believe me, the election in the United States is over and you will be surprised that Facebook is still showing you posts highly related to politics (one too many times).
3. Improving the news feed
Did you know that unfollowing people will actually improve your social media news feed? When you start unfollowing irrelevant people, the entire social media algorithm for your feed will be updated. In this case, you will get news from those that matters to you. At least, that is what you are hinting the social media platforms through your actions.
Unfollowing people on social media will help you get the news and updates that matter most to you. So, using social media will not be that annoying after all.
The last time I did the changes to my news feed, it made my social media experience much better and more interesting. Plus, I was able to interact with a wider audience that matters most to me — instead of Tom, Dick, and Harry!
4. The major, ‘unfriend’ option
I am a huge believer in unfriend those who are not in my niche. Let’s be honest here. Down the road, we are going to meet with spammers and probably people who you don’t really like/know (or anything in between).
So, if everything fails to work, consider the unfriend option as it is the best way to clean up your account.
I use the unfriend button once on Facebook because I hit the 5,000 mark. Yes, it is good to have 5,000 friends but hey, I was only engaging with at most, 1,000 people in a year. The rest are just online friends which may and may not make a different in my life. You may also discover some of them had not been active for years as well! Seriously.
When I unfriend them, I free up spaces more than anything else. And this is the best way for me to connect with more like-minded people as well!
You can find the unfriend option on all social media platforms and it often takes just a few press of the button. It may be nerve-wracking at first but once you start to unfriend others, gosh! It is heavenly indeed!
5. Special cases
There are times where I use the unfollow and unfriend option to remove people who I have no plan to connect at all. In this case, it can be people with crazy views in life or could put in me in many hard positions without I agreeing to be a part of it. And it totally makes sense.
Social media is meant to be a place to connect and engage with others, not just a place to encourage different (and extreme) views in life. But hey, there are times where we cannot control the attitude of others and the best way is to always distance ourselves from it.
At the end of the day, taking such action is just to protect ourselves and one of the easiest cases is cyber bullying. You might notice that your connection is doing that and you may not want to be a part of it. Sure, you can report (which you should) to the authorities but stay clear of them is always the main priority.
Summary
Until today, I still think that it is a taboo especially when it comes to unfollowing and unfriend people on social media. Most of the time, we are afraid of the chain reaction that may occur through our actions. At any time where you doubt yourself, always remember that you are doing whatever it takes to clean up your social media account.
Unfriend and unfollowing don’t entirely mean that you hate the person, but often time they don’t pose good and sufficient advantages to your life. If you have long been complaining about your news feed, consider trying this options to further improve the quality of the social media updates.
See also: How To Gain Loyal Followers On Facebook Pages?
