August 28, 2008

Fake following in social media: Yay or Nay?

Posted by : Mike Fruchter
Filed under : fake following, friendfeed, social media

In the world of social media, establishing, engaging, maintaining and growing your follower base is crucial for any type of success. We use a variety of social networking sites, tools, and platforms to establish and broadcast to our potential and existing follower base. Power in numbers often dictates and dominates the said outcomes. We work hard to establish a manageable and measurable following to listening ratio.

Notification emails are constantly bombarding our inboxes. I enjoy getting notification emails. It tells me right away that someone has expressed shared interests in me, and is now following me on one of the various social networking sites. Notifications serve as a type of positive reinforcement.

I think people should also be notified when someone unsubscribes from them. My opinion of this, is not a widely shared one. When I mentioned this on FriendFeed, the majority of people who commented are against unfollower notifications. While I can see both sides of the debate, I feel this has opened up the door for misconceptions, because people only see the positive. Sometimes a reality check is not so bad. Realizing that there is not always a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow can be a good thing. I also realize that feelings can be hurt by the receiving end of that notification. We are all grown adults. Would such a notification leave your feelings crushed? Maybe my threshold and tolerance level differs from most, but it would not bother me as much as others.

On FriendFeed, I recently started to manage and trim my subscription list. In the process of doing this, I found a few members had unsubscribed from my feed. I spent no longer then 10 seconds asking why and moved on. I even checked those members’ feeds to see if they still contributed any value to me. It did not affect me one way or another. Had they contributed  value or substance to me, I would reconsider not unsubscribing from them. Had I got an unfollow notification, I could of used this as feedback to increase the quality of my postings and learn what caused that individual to unfollow me. Then there are the people who play the numbers game. Their goal is to have the following/follower field even on both sides. Notifications would serve for them as an instant friends list degreaser.

People are going to find out eventually one way or another that you have unsubscribed from them.There are tools that have been created precisely just for this reason. Felix created the FriendVenn which allows you to find members who have unsubscribed from you on FriendFeed. For finding members on Twitter who have unsubscribed from you, there is a new tool in beta called Tweepletwak.

Here is Ed Kohler’s technologyevangelist.com take on the issue, using Twitter as the example.

While there are certainly people who could care less about this, working under the mindset of, “I’ll tweet about whatever I want and if people don’t want to follow me, that’s fine with me,” there are also people who do care about their followers more than themselves. These are people who are interested in building large, valuable, audiences who would appreciate knowing when they’re pissing people off with overly offensive tweets or burning out their followers with heavy tweet volumes. Unfollow notifications would provide this information.

If that is to harsh of a method, you can always utilize the new fake following feature on FriendFeed.

On the beta FriendFeed you can subscribe to someone, but not see their updates by removing them off your home feed. Using this method makes it appear like you are paying attention to them, when you are really not. I do not see the need for this. If you or the other person  is not contributing, commenting, sharing or liking in a two way fashion, then in effect you or they have already silently unsubscribed. Why fake it, pull the trigger already or go the silent kill route.

Merlin Mann’s proposal for a pause button is an interesting idea.

Any application that lets you “friend,” “follow,” or otherwise observe another user should include a prominent (and silent) “PAUSE” button.

I think users of apps like Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Delicious, and, yes, FriendFeed, would benefit from an easy and undramatic way to take a little break from a “friend” — without inducing the grand mal meltdown that “unfriending” causes the web’s more delicately-composed publishers.

What is the appropriate level of unfollowing someone, silent kill, notification emails, fake following, pause button?

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Viewing 8 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    Ah so that's how its done. I still wouldn't do it -- it's pretty cheap, IMO.
    • ^
    • v
    Great post, you address the issue I am very much concerned about myself. I do feel this is one functionality of FriendFeed beta that is not actually needed since it seems to encourage abuse in this world where too many users might follow thousands of people to get some hundreds following them as well. Really, I believe the lists are already enough to keep the updates consumption balanced and further cleaning of the home feed is way too much.
    • ^
    • v
    Mike, I think it all depends on what each person is using the service for. Some people may not be interested in quickly growing an audience or having a follower/following base that is reciprocal. Although I disagree with the unfollow notifications, it's because for me that serves no relevant purpose. I can imagine situations where an unfollow notice might be useful to a poster, but if people know that notifications will be sent both for subscribes and unsubscribes it might discourage a greater number of people from ever engaging in the conversation at all.
    • ^
    • v
    NAY NAY NAY. Specifically for FriendFeed, I've written up how I pick my subscriptions and I stick by it. Subscribe to those that provide you information you are interested in. If someone subscribes to you, do them the favor of checking out their feed, but I don't think you should be obligated to subscribe back.

    A pause feature might be useful, but in the end, I think people would abuse it.
    • ^
    • v
    Great write-up. If people don't understand that they're losing their audience they'll never improve the quality of their messages.
    • ^
    • v
    I would love to know when I am being unfollowed. As you noted, I want to provide value to my network. If my posts are missing the mark I want the opportunity to fine tune my messaging. Social media for me is a marketing tool and with all marketing tactics you want to track and measure your results. Would my ego take a temporary hit - yep? However, that does not stand in the way of the value of being able to measure my results.
    • ^
    • v
    While I don't want to be bogged down with unsubscribe notifications it would be nice to see who follows and unfollows in a short period of time. There is a large difference between somebody who follows for a month then decides not to follow and someone who follows for a day and unfollows. Maybe if Twitter let you set your customized period of time between follow and unfollow in order to drive a notification. But we all know Twitter isn't exactly feature rich! Just an idea. For more ideas check out my blog: http://ryanagraves.com
    • ^
    • v
    Interesting. I happen to agree with you (and Ed K.). The key differentiator on the debate seems to be in how you view Twitter (business network or personal network)...and likewise with the other online "social" venues. It's when you use it as both business and personal the water starts to get muddy, for me at least.
    Personally, I'd rather focus my following/followers on building a community of people who value what the others in that community tweet (or post, or put on a wall, etc).
    This is also why i try to steer clear of politics and religion on these sites (though I may be among the few who do and sometimes I find it hard to hold my screech...er, tweet in). Those posts can be incredibly divisive and those conversations aren't why I'm engaged in any of those online mediums (though that may be the kind of community/conversations another person may want to find/build).
    I'm still assessing twitter....initially following only a small few...looking for value in their postings. Hoping to provide value in mine. The marketer in me wants to know why a valued follower might decide to unfollow (akin to "listening to your customers"). But if others were to be cautious and selective about who they "allow" to follow them...I may not be able to freely choose to follow some of the high-profile tweeters b/c they might decide my tweets are not valuable.
    It's a circular discussion, I suppose.
    The answer obviously depends upon individual perspective: Is Twitter a tool or a toy?
    Do you mind sifting through your twitterlog of tweets to find the golden eggs?

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  • August 28, 2008 at 3:18 am Susan Beebe
    Yay for the fake people! ha, ha!
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:19 am ⓃⓄⒶⒽ ⒹⒶⓋⒾⒹ ⓈⒾⓂⓄⓃ
    fake? define fake... isn't social media fake to begin with?
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:21 am Mark Trapp
    Dear everyone: I'm fake following you. Want to fight about it?
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:21 am Amber aka SDA
    NAY
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:21 am Michelle Martinez
    Hee hee, Mark only sees what he posts.
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:24 am Louis Gray
    Nay. But I am flattered by your second-most popular Diigo tag. How much do I owe you?
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:25 am Eric Florenzano
    Nay
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:28 am Paul Reynolds
    I just wished people would stop calling it a "feature". Until there's a big button that says "Fake Follow"- it's a loophole, if anything at all.
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:34 am Carlos Ayala
    nay, i like the binary idea of friends or not friends. there should be no reason for FakeFriends on FriendFeed. I actually take it a step further. I subscribe to those that I want to be Friends with. There are many metrics that i use to justify the subscription. In my mind I think that the feeling should be mutual. I give her/him 3 days to reciprocate. If this does not transpire, I unsubscribe. The reverse is also true. If someone subs to me, I immediately go to their feed. If we are a match I reciprocate..
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:34 am Carlos Ayala
    if all i see are twitter entries, for instance, i do not subscribe.
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:36 am Mona N.
    I think that term needs to die and 'grouping' should be spun in a more positive fashion. Efficiently Managing Content to Interact with Your Community, type spiel. But then again, I'm not a Social Media expert :)
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:38 am Chris Baskind
    Nay. I'll follow or not.
  • August 28, 2008 at 4:05 am Tim Hoeck
    awesome post, Mike! You sure put some thought into the idea.
  • August 28, 2008 at 4:19 am Amir Gharaat
    What if you're removed from the main Friend feed but included in one or more groups that are regularly checked? A better metric of your relevance to followers is some weighted calculation of likes (ok), click-throughs (good), and comments (great).
  • August 28, 2008 at 4:38 am Amir Gharaat
    I should add, your ratio of posts to follower engagement should be considered in the metric. Also, your posts about knitting may be highly relevant to the target audience, but your barrage of Lolcats are largely ignored. How will semantic analysis address these?
  • August 28, 2008 at 4:40 am ♫ Rahsheen™
    Good stuff, Mike. I think everyone is well aware of my stance on the issue. Why waste energy faking it?
  • August 28, 2008 at 6:24 am Charlie Anzman
    Agree with Tim (Did I say that :) The whole concept is out of control and always has been. There will always be two groups. Those looking for value (and/or fun) and those looking to 'establish a base'. Digg has made numerous attempts to stop it. It continues. Bottom line. Why worry? Do what's right for you. PS: Just tried FriendVenn for the first time. Very helpful categorizing with the new Beta!
  • August 28, 2008 at 2:26 pm mike "glemak" dunn
    agree w/ paul - not a feature but rather a loophole - the concept alone is so small minded, i personally could care less about any of my counts/stats but i do know some folks do, their prerogative of course, but if they have to game the system by fake following that's just lame - as for notifying when unsub'g sure, but then lets also notify when blocked and send a real msg...
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:52 pm Mike Fruchter
    Mike, I agree with sending notifications to people when unfollowing and blocking. Instead of a canned email, we should have ability to add a message with the notification. With the usage of unfollow notifications, one could use this as feedback to increase the quality of their postings and learn what caused that individual to unfollow them in the first place.
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:59 pm Roberto Bonini
    I like the idea of a pause button. Perhaps with a timeout? And I send Mikes iea above.
  • August 28, 2008 at 3:59 pm mike "glemak" dunn
    except for trolls & spammers mike, they are the uneducatable scum of the online world - for them vaporization is best imho :-p
  • August 28, 2008 at 5:49 pm Mike Fruchter
    @Mike, I could not agree more.
  • August 28, 2008 at 6:37 pm Justin Korn
    I'm a little late on this one, but NAY NAY NAY. Specifically for FriendFeed, I've written up how I pick my subscriptions (http://blog.justinkorn.com/index.php/2008/08/picking-your-subscriptions-aka-friends-wisely-on-friendfeed/) and I stick by it. Subscribe to those that provide you information you are interested in. If someone subscribes to you, do them the favor of checking out their feed, but I don't think you should be obligated to subscribe back.
  • August 28, 2008 at 6:37 pm Justin Korn
    As for the unsubscribe notice, I'm all for it, as long as you can turn it off if you are uninterested.
  • September 2, 2008 at 5:56 pm Josh
    Great post Mike! - You inspired me to write a quick post over at the TweepleTwak Blog: http://blog.tweepletwak.com/post/48438691/some-just-get-it

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