I have been on Twitter for approx 16 months and in that time, I have learnt an awful lot about Twitter, and how to get the most from it. One of the biggest things that I have learnt, is that we should all use Twitter how we want to. Yes take advice, yes listen to the experts, yes watch what the top guys and girls are doing, but then do what works best for you. 

When I first started, I was told that you should auto follow back all those that followed you. I realised that this was a terrible error, and wrote a blog about that experience, and why It was a terrible decision. The issue I now have is to do in part with that legacy. I am following approx 13,000 people. 

I thought that I could manage this, with Tweetdeck. I could use groups, filter and so on.. But the reality has been very different. In a nutshell, I admit that I was wrong to follow back so many. It just leads to a twitter stream that becomes very limited in use and value, as you simply cannot keep tabs on the people that you really want to follow, and perhaps those new people that are sending out useful links and information that you miss.

 Also each day, I get tons and tons of messages, that are spam, or have little of no value to me and my followers. I love to share information, resources, links, knowledge, etc… but I am missing stuff, because my stream of Twitter messages is now so huge, that I can no longer monitor it correctly. 

So I have decided to take the massive decision to mass cull all those that I follow, and only follow people back based on my own criteria. Out of doing this, I would hope to be able to:- 

• Focus on building deeper and stronger relationships with those that I follow
• Get better quality links and information to pass on to my followers
• Focus more of my time and effort with those that have taken the time to message me and engage with me
• As I get less spam each day, this will free up my time to focus on others

I am sure that I will lose many followers by doing this. Many will simply slip away by auto unfollowing, as simply as they followed in the first place. Hopefully though many will stay and continue to follow me, as they have found that my messages, are interesting, useful, and provide great advice tips, and information.

If however you feel that you would like to stop following me purely because I am no longer following you, then of course I am disappointed, but understand your decision. 

Out of all this, I really hope to gain a following that are genuinely interested in what I have to say, and the fact that you can still message me via Twitter and I will have more time to read and answer it.

I will have more time to focus on gaining new pieces of information, new links, new resources, new great tips, and be able to share them with you. 

The fact that I am not following you back, does not imply I am not interested in you, but that I cannot manage my account effectively by trying to follow everyone back. This is my solution, and I hope that you will continue to follow me, but of course that choice is yours.