Sunday, March 22, 2009

How Do You Avoid Offending People: A Twitter Experience



I posted a tweet this evening expressing curiosity why so many people unfollowed me today after a particular quote. The tweet was as follows:

John's Tweet: Why did 20 people unfollow me after this quote? - Great minds have purpose, others have wishes. — Washington Irving, short story writer

Here are some of the replies and DMs I received in response to my question. Almost all the responses came within a few minutes of my tweet.

@johnmcginn -- That is unfortunate. That is a great quote.

@elidet -- Sometimes the trackers aren't accurate & other times people just add so you can add them, then unfollow you.

@transcribe -- Perhaps they realised they have no purpose or wishes?

@amous -- i don't know why they went but you'll Get RT from me

@minnieburley -- watching unfollows does not serve you...

@BargainHustla -- Don't know, I'm still following you. Good quote ...

@CathyBend -- Gee, I don't know. It's a great quote.

@whimsicalwalney -- Don't know if any rhyme or reason to some of unfollows lately. Had similar exp. What might u say on purpose 2 get ppl 2 unfollow

@TheStory -- lol perhaps you helped them find purpose?

@SandwichINK Probably they were spammers & you didn't follow them so they left? That's what mine usually are :)

@mmd1080 -- Guess they thought you were too anti-wish? I enjoyed the quote!

@kccaferadio -- Could be They WISH ya didn't Say it :)

@Smalltalkwitht -- I think there was a major gaffe on Twitters part tonight. Several had 20+ around 8pm - 9pm just quit + some were conservatives

@jessicacolon -- Maybe they are taking it personal.

DM -- That tweet came at noon ET on a Sunday. Lot of people hitting their computers then. So not the individual post per se.

DM -- Because it scared them - Thought is not enough - Focus and action achieve results - Some just want to dream.

My guess is that it was part Twitter glitch, part Sunday cleaning time for some tweeple, part spammers, and perhaps a little bit of the quote offending some people. Not sure why. You never know what will offend some people, and when you have 5,000 followers, you're almost guaranteed to offend some -- if they read your tweets. But you still have to be true to yourself and tweet with daring and purpose as usual.

Of course, if you don't yet follow me, you can follow me here: http://www.twitter.com/johnkremer
blog comments powered by Disqus