Last Updated on April 15, 2024
As you try to build an audience on social media, I find that having follow-back rules can help you weed out spammers and adult content.
I recently told you that Threads had become my favorite of the so-called Twitter alternatives. But I do employ certain follow and follow-back rules to make sure my feed is full of useful content.
I like Threads because I’ve found the community to be more welcoming and less hostile than other platforms. But it’s also been nice to grow an audience a lot faster there than on other newbie platforms like BlueSky and Mastodon. Don’t get me wrong: those other platforms each have something to offer. But I’ve just found that building an audience on Threads has — at least for me — been an easier endeavor.
You probably already have follow rules
I think most of us have some internal “rules” about who we follow. At least, I think we should. If you follow everyone you see no matter what they post, or even if they don’t post at all, you’re not the kind of person I’m talking to here. I wish you luck with that strategy. But some platforms will actually penalize you for following too many too fast…especially if most of your new “followees” don’t immediately follow you back.
I would suggest that if you’re investing that much time following everyone, you’re probably not posting a lot of useful content that would make someone want to follow you back. You’ll have to excuse that guess on my part. But I’d bet that in many cases, it’s accurate.
I follow people who post amusing or informative content. Sometimes, I’m looking for something that’ll make me laugh, but sometimes I’m looking for something that’ll make me think. I like photography, so someone who posts beautiful original photography is likely to get a follow. I like pets — particularly dogs — so if you write about dogs (and post photos of them), I’ll likely follow you, too. But I like lots of different things, as you might guess from the lack of a single, precision-narrow topic on this blog.
If you entertain me in some way and you seem like a decent person, something that can be hard to find on some platforms, I’ll probably follow you. If you don’t choose to follow me back, I won’t take offense — if I even notice. But on Threads, the community seems to be willing to follow back a little more often. I find that to be a welcome surprise.
I do have some follow-back rules, though
One of the drawbacks I find in social media are people who follow just to get followers themselves. They’re not interested in getting to know anyone they follow. They don’t even seem to care what those people post. To them, it’s all about numbers.
There are others who are only interested in selling something — their products, their services or their reputation as an “influencer.” I have no interest in playing along with that.
So I have these rules I try to employ when deciding if I click that “Follow Back” button.
1. I won’t follow you back if you don’t post interesting content.
I’m going to check out your feed. I want to see that you post at least somewhat regularly. Even though Threads is a sister site of Instagram, I’m not expecting all photos. In fact, even if you do post photos, post text with them. Tell me what I’m looking at. Tell me where you were and how you came to take the shot.
Text posts are fine. If your profile only has a bunch of “Hi” posts to individuals but no other content, I have to wonder why anyone would willingly follow you.
Share something about who you are. Give a glimpse of your personality. Tell me a story.
2. I won’t follow you back if you only post porn links.
I know, I know…some of you probably think, “What’s the internet without porn?” Well, I’m no prude. But if your posts are nothing but links to porn sites (especially porn sites with URLs that appear to be shortened to something else), I’m not going to follow you back. Those links scream malware to me.
Beyond that, if all you’re going to post is links to a site I’d have to subscribe to, you’re trying to sell me something.
3. I won’t follow you back if you talk constantly about digital currency, investing, or money schemes.
I don’t invest in Bitcoin and similar digital currencies. The chances of my doing so are about the same chance you have of winning $6 trillion in the PowerBall lottery. I don’t care how much you’ve made. Good for you. Really.
But it’s not happening with me.
4. I won’t follow you back if your posts are full of hate or anger.
We all get angry. But when post after post focuses on how ticked off or miserable you are, sorry, but that’s just exhausting.
As for hate, I don’t discriminate. If you mock people because of their religion or lack thereof, their shape or size, their gender, their race, their sexual orientation or any other popular subjects bigots like to target, there’s almost no chance I will have any interest in following you.
The same goes for politics. I get that we all have candidates we love to hate. But at least talk about something else once in a while.
5. I won’t follow you back if everything you post is in a language other than English.
I’m not trying to be xenophobic here, but until Threads manages to add the translate button other platforms have, I’m going to have to stick to this one. I have no idea what you’re talking about and no easy way to find out.
This one will be the first one to change when there’s a little “Translate” link added to Threads like the one its sister site Instagram has.
6. I won’t follow you if you want me to then follow you somewhere else to ‘chat.’
Though in some ways it’s a disadvantage, at the moment, I’m glad that Threads doesn’t have an internal private messaging system. There are far too many who follow people on Instagram thinking that this along gives them license to start up very spammy conversations on that platform’s private messaging system.
It doesn’t. It doesn’t at all.
When someone I’ve just followed starts sending me messages like they’ve known me all my life on Instagram, I generally block them.
When someone I’ve just followed on Threads doesn’t have messaging, asks me to also follow them on Instagram, and then they start sending me those “chatty” messages there, that’s a no.
And when someone I don’t follow sends me messages that start with things like, “Hi, handsome” or anything else that seems a little too familiar, that’s going to just be a block.
I think many people have similar rules in mind. Most probably never take the time to put them in writing like this. But I think many of us know when we decide not to follow someone exactly why we didn’t click that “Follow Back” button.
