Twitter Nuke

By James Richardson

How To Delete Those You Follow on Twitter En Masse

In light of the recent scandal involving The Age columnist Catherine Deveney, her Logies comments on Twitter, and her subsequent sacking from one of Australia's largest newspapers - we thought what better time to explain the concept of Twitter to those who compain about it - but may not understand.

More to the point - if you don't want to read someone's comments... don't follow them!

I did something recently that received some good reactions, some bad reactions, and some reactions that just screamed, "I don’t get social networking!".

I had been trying to get more followers for months. My constant mantra became, "More followers mean more eyes, and more eyes mean more traffic".

I was not completely wrong with this way of thinking - more traffic is great. But I had forgotten about the more relevant fact – that quality beats quantity every day of the week.

Last week, I decided enough was enough. I was going to get a grip on Twitter again; I would render it useful once more.

No more hours would I spend travelling through the mess of MLM, Get Rich Quick, and Lose Weight Now tweets that I was encountering on a daily basis!

Prepare to Launch the Twitter Nuke

I "Twitter Nuked" my followers (Deleted all the users I was following - ALL of them) and received mixed reactions.

Some applauded, some called me "selfish and ridiculous", while others asked themselves "Why are we following this guy if he does not follow us?".

None of this fazed me.

I did it for my own reasons, and I was feeling great about it. With a fresh outlook on Twitter, I could reconnect with friends – Twitter users with whom I had previously genuinely connected, with those who I admired, or those from whom I had learned by following.

If they were just another set of eyes on my latest blog post, or if they saw me in that same way, they were not genuine connections. We were wasting each others time.

Twitter is about being social through interaction, making genuine connections, and learning from one another. If someone you are following is not in any of those categories, then ask yourself this one simple question:

Am I using Twitter the right way?

James Richardson is a Blogger, who consults with business’ on Social media trends and stratagies. For more information visit his blog www.jamesrichardson.info