If you are looking at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or any other social network and are scratching your head as to how the type of content that is displaying in your feeds got there, you may want to begin rethinking how you are using your social networks.
If you are looking for quality (boy, I sure hope you are) then you need to start saying “no” or not adding people back. Sure, adding everyone who followed you anywhere on the web seemed like the right thing to do back in 2007, but that is now so two thousand and late.
You will always need to take emotions into account when people add you and if you don’t see what the value would be in adding them back, besides perhaps keeping that extra number, and add them anyways, you are doing it wrong.
I am not saying exclude yourself to family and friends only (that would be the farthest from what I would ever tell anyone). I am simply reminding you that if your social feeds look awful and do not evoke anything emotionally out of you besides a duck face, then it is time to reorganize and delete some people from your various social lists.
Will people get offended? Absolutely.
Every once and a while you may receive a “why didn’t I get a follow back?” or “Please add me as your friend” and the list goes on. More recently people are asking for +K’s or for you to buy stock in them on Empire Avenue on social networks, another trend that you will need to say no to in order to stay true to you.
Asking people for support is not something I don’t recommend, asking the wrong people or randomly tweeting at someone you have never had a conversation with is poor social taste. People who have built a mutual relationship are the best people to reach out to and if you are socializing on social networks, then when you ask for people to support a cause, contest or anything else you need help with will be happy to oblige voluntarily.
Anything forced is failure.
Pinging people has been common standard since the days of social bookmarking, asking people to share something for something in return is nothing new, nor would I ask that to change. I would however, ask that you look at the content prior to saying yes and see if it fits your audience/communities. If it is something that you would not normally share, then why would you now?
You must be willing to say no in order to keep your feeds true to who you are online. We all find some sort of niche that we mainly focus on sharing and straying from our norm to either gain a number, favor or support will end up being obvious. You also need to stop adding everyone who follows you, take a minute, look at their description and interactions and ask yourself “Will my content serve them? Will their content serve me and those who follow me? If not, then the answer is NO.
