Discussion: Follow back or not?

~ Kathy @ Books & Munches

Discussion

Hi Munchworms!

Whether you’re new in the blogosphere or not, we’ve all been at that point of “Do I follow back everyone who starts following me? Or not?” At least, I think we have.

It’s such a common thing to do when someone follows you somewhere to simply hit the “Follow back”-button and be done with it. At some point, though, we start to realize that their feed might not be that interesting or to your tastes and you decide to unfollow them. Or you follow so many accounts already that you simply can’t even be bothered to clean out the accounts you follow.

And when you do, you’re demotivated instantly because why the *** did I follow so many people?! Or blogs?! Or.. anything! [Like, can this also be compared to all the spam mails we get in our mail every week?]

I am here to tell you that it’s OKAY to not follow everyone back. On all platforms, any platform.

Sure, following back is often a guarantee that said person will not unfollow you in the next couple of days but I think that’s pretty much the only benefit?

Think about it. If you start following everyone, you’ll end up having the impossible task of trying to keep up with everything that’s posted. Everything. Your feed will be a mess. Pictures you won’t like, posts you’re not interested in and updates you can simply do without.

This automatically means you won’t see half the things that do interest you. You’ll miss important things. You will probably forget about certain accounts because they fade into the abyss of your followed accounts and… doesn’t that sound sad to you? Because it does to me.

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For me, the answer to that question is fairly simple. I have to like the content – pictures, posts, whatever. If I can’t relate to it or drool over it or… well, leave ridiculously long comments, it isn’t up my alley and I won’t bother following.
The same counts for reviews I simply don’t like the style of. I’m here to read all about the books I’m interested in. If you mention too many spoilers or if you have the tendency of summarizing the entire book, no thanks. I’d rather read it myself, thank you very much!

On top of that I like people who actually reply to comments. Sure, we all have a busy life but if you have a blog, I pretty much assume it’s because you want to talk about the subject you post about. If you can’t be bothered to reply to comments and interact with people, I simply do not bother hitting that follow-button.

So, when do I? It actually takes two steps. If I stumbled upon a post and I liked it, I’ll check out other posts and see if I like those as well. Looks promising? Let’s hit that button!
After a while, I’ll go back to that account and see what else has popped up. Still up my alley? You can stay. Did you disappear or post things I’m not all that interested in? Sorry but bye.

Sure, that may sound harsh but I’d rather invest my time in blogs I love and find new ones than have uninteresting posts clutter my feed. Right?

What makes you hit the follow-button?
And what makes you hit that un-follow button?
What do you do with blogs you’re giving “the benefit of the doubt“?

Yep

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87 thoughts on “Discussion: Follow back or not?”

  1. This might be weird but i usually read the entire blog before i follow back. If i like the blog weather i get a follow or not it doesn’t matter i simply enjoy good content. I am trying to make my blog into one that would be enjouable to read so i get this.

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    1. Definitely not weird! It’s simply a matter of making sure you like their content, after all. And in the meantime, you also discover the things they post about, memes they join in and what they’re like as a person. All important things to know if you want to follow a blog. 🙂

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  2. I agree. When somebody starts following me, I’ll check out their page first and if I like it, I’ll follow back and if I don’t like it, then I won’t. Why should I feel compelled to follow back? Gaining followers is often potrayed as a kind of competition and a high number suddenly is a symbol of value – but I think it’s overrated. I blog about the things I like. You like it, too? – Awesome. You don’t like it? – Fine with me. It’s just a hobby and I just want to have some fun, both as a writer and a reader. No pressure, please. 🙂

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    1. Exactly! I really think some people’s attitude towards social media with the follow/follow back AND the follow/unfollow is copied to blogs as well and that’s such a pity.
      We all started our blogs because we wanted a place to share the things we love; focusing on numbers is just.. Ugh. Sure, we can focus on it a bit but that’s so not the entire reason for blogging? It has to be fun; no pressure, like you said.

      Like

    1. Yup, definitely! I sometimes follow blogs that JUST started out because they look promising and then end up discovering they only posted twice or thrice and gave up on it already. I’m always pretty quick to unfollow those.

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  5. Most of the time if someone follows me I will go to their blog and scroll through some of their posts to see if it interests me. If it does I follow them back if not then I don’t bother following them back. Sometimes though I have been known to follow them without checking. Every once in a while I will start going through people I follow whether that be on the blog or other social media and start unfollowing people who haven’t posted in forever and never mentioned they were taking a break and I also find people that I followed and I’m like why did I ever follow them their content isn’t for me and then I will unfollow them.

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    1. Same! Although sometimes there are those bloggers that share my taste in books, but I simply don’t like the way they.. write? I guess? And that puts me off as well. It’s a curious thing, finding other blogs you’re really passionate about, haha.

      I try to check out the people that follow me, but sometimes I just don’t have the energy and by the time I do, I don’t even know where to start anymore.. I’ve been working on it, though! 😀 Also, sometimes their profile doesn’t even link to their blog and that’s.. well.. a pity since I sometimes can’t figure out what their blog’s called, haha.

      Yup! People going on breaks without warning are meh.. Same with the content-thing. Sometimes I start following a blog because of one or two amazing reviews and then notice that those books were like the exception on their usual genres, haha.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Oh yeah I have clicked on some people who have followed me but then it pops up saying this page isn’t found. I’m like really they just followed me.

      I understand people need breaks heck I’ve had to take some myself so if it’s only been a few weeks I usually wait to unfollow but if it been like 3 months or more that’s when I start unfollowing.

      Liked by 1 person

    3. That’s what I mean! And then you probably never find out whether they have their own blog somewhere else or not..

      Yup! True! When I notice people taking breaks I just keep an eye out on how long their break lasts without them mentioning anything about it. [I do check their Twitter as well to be sure they didn’t just announce it there since that’s something they tend to do as well.]

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Great Post, Kathy! I think this is a great discussion! To be honest, I follow everyone back unless they are obvious spammers. I like to show the LOVE back to everyone but you know me I am overly bubbly. LOL. You make fantastic points, Kathy!😁 What I do is I don’t really use the reader section and I don’t recieve email notifications for anybody’s posts or anything WordPress related. I receive notifications on my phone and tablet. I will comment and like people back when they do and I will go to my faves blogs and check them out so every often. If I see someone who catches my attention in the comments I will check them out as well. I will go to the reader once in a blue moon as well. I guess I am weird. LOL.😂 Great post though, Ms.Munchies

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    1. Haha, you simply are the most bubbliest person I know! And you’re EVERYWHERE. There are days when I see you comment on pretty much every post I read and it’s.. well.. pretty funny to notice really, haha.
      I don’t receive any mails either. I do check my reader every day to read the posts of the blogs I follow but I really don’t want to follow all of them. Some people’s content simply doesn’t interest me all that much. It’s a shame, but it’s the truth.

      Thank you, love!

      Like

  7. Nice post, Kathy! I follow most of the book bloggers who follow me! I haven’t checked how many I’m following must be around 300 I’m sure. As a new blogger I was hitting follow back to all who followed me. But recently I’ve started not to follow back new blogger, if i don’t like their content. I haven’t unfollowed anyone till now, even though i don’t read their post. I think I should start doing it.
    I also don’t like to read book summaries as review, i usually scroll down to real thing they felt about book, what they liked and what didn’t.

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    1. That’s definitely a lot! At least for me it is, but I know of some people for whom that’s a “normal” number of blogs to follow, haha.
      I think a clean-up really can’t hurt. When doing mine, I simply kept in mind that I’d now have more chance of reading and commenting on the posts I actually care about.

      Yes! I hate it when people pretty much summarize the entire book in their reviews. I always copy/paste the Goodreads-blurb but that’s it.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. I’m going to ask the question on my blog later this month because I recently heard someone say they follow 24 blogs themselves (having 500 followers) and it’s a lot of work to comment.. I totally agreed but I follow 431 blogs so that’s quite another number even. I never even thought about it.. I scroll and I click on what piques my interest (I don’t read all and every post) and I like (pretty much same as on Facebook, I never comment on Facebook as I’m the perfect lurker) but it seems I’m taking on too much ;-). I used to follow everyone back at first, being all grateful, and then I didn’t follow back and now I’m following back more again because they’re often newbie blogs and they deserve someone following them. I just can’t say no :-(. It’s easier to not follow back on Twitter. A LOT are authors or fantasy readers so I can’t find any book recs there :-). Great post Kathy!

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    1. It definitely is a lot of work to comment though! I follow.. 66 blogs? At least on WordPress; I should check my BlogLovin more, honestly..
      I try to read every post but once in a while I simply go on the blog and see how many of their latest posts I actually LIKED. If I didn’t, it must be because I don’t really like their content anymore and then I consider unfollowing them. I’d rather invest my time in the blogs I do love and discovering new blogs.

      When it’s newbie blogs, I’m starting to save their links to check them out a month later. There are SO MANY people who start a blog and then just immediately.. forget about it? It’s a pity, really..

      Haha, I know what you mean about Twitter. I also noticed that if I don’t tweet anything, I gain more followers than when I do? So people actually like me more when I shut up? Or something? It’s funny. 😛

      Thank you, Inge!

      Liked by 1 person

  9. When I started blogging, I was so excited people started following my wee blog that yes, I automatically followed everyone back. Except those suspicious looking account names, obviously. But after a few months, I had a bit of a cleaning up session. And now, like you, I check out the blog first. And if after a while, I find the content doesn’t suit me, I stop following.

    I honestly don’t have the time to keep up with everything. I find that most of the time I interact with the same people anyway. It makes me wonder why someone follows a blog when they never talk to you.

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    1. Agreed! It’s like we have to grow when it comes to (un)following as well as blogging in general. At first I didn’t even feel comfortable unfollowing a blog because “what if they know it was me who disappeared from they followers?!” Now, I don’t care so much anymore.. I’d stick around if I wanted to, but I don’t, so why should I.

      True! I notice myself that I keep going to the same circle of bloggers. I like that, but on the other hand I sometimes feel it’s hard to meet other bloggers and discover new blogs?
      I do get why people would do that though. There are always the kind of people who are too shy to comment or talk or are simply a bit too intrigued by everything that they’d rather read and never comment. [Someone told me once, haha.] But it is a pity since we all love interacting with our followers and we really don’t bite.

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Kathy, I wholeheartedly agree with you! In the beginning, I use to follow everyone as I thought it was only fair. But after my feed turned into this monster of a thing. I made that decision to cut out people who weren’t my cup of tea. Thanks for writing about this, it’s nice to know I am not the only one who feels this way 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Oh, yay!
      I felt like this is a topic people don’t really talk about a lot? Not out in the open at least; and I felt like it should be said. There will probably more people like us out there who think it but don’t really want to say it [or even admit it?]

      You’re welcome! 😀

      Liked by 1 person

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