blogging tips

Blogging Tip: When to Follow/(Un)follow?

kaylaannauthor

Hello Bloggers!

A little while ago, one of my blogging friends reached out to me and asked about the rules of following. Should we follow every blogger we come into contact with? Should we follow any blogger who follows us? Do we unfollow bloggers after a time?

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First off, let me just state: there are no official rules. For the most part, this is based on your individual preference as a blogger.

Now that that’s out of the way, let me get down to what I believe about following.

If Someone Follows My Blog:

  • I will click on theirs and look around. I’ll probably even read a post or two.
  • Now, just because they followed my blog does not mean that I will follow theirs back. I will only follow a blog back if I like the content (for instance, I probably will not follow back a traveling blog while I will follow back fellow authors). So, I already have a limited amount of people who I follow.
    • There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. For instance, I follow a couple of travel blogs and make-up blogs, not necessarily for the content, but because I enjoy the blogger’s writing style.
  • In my opinion, you should not follow someone just so heighten your follower count or theirs. I prefer bloggers to follow my blog only if they are genuinely interested in what I have to say.

When to Unfollow a Blog:

  • I never unfollow anyone (even if I haven’t commented on their posts for awhile) unless they post something that I find repulsive or antagonistic.
  • For instance, if a blogger I choose to follow is a fellow author and all the sudden their whole blog turns aggressively political, I will probably unfollow because I don’t want that on my feed. Otherwise, I don’t really unfollow anyone.

What do you think? Are your “rules” different from mine?

Let me know in the comments!

©KaylaAnnAuthor

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Published by kaylaannauthor

30 thoughts on “Blogging Tip: When to Follow/(Un)follow?”

  2. Hi Kayla, this is an interesting read. I agree with you. However, I have 3 blogs and on all of them, I have ended up following so many people from so many different interests (I’m a sucker for crafting, cooking, a great writer, parenting blogs, Christian articles, blogs about animals, and more!) that often I find it hard to find certain people I want to catch up on, because my list is so big. What I mean is, if I haven’t chosen to follow them by email, sometimes I cannot find them through a Google search and so I have to trawl through my ‘blogs I follow’ list to find them. And no, the search button does not work, even if I have spelt their blog correctly. So I trawl through and unfollow anyone who has never bothered to interact with me – it’s amazing the amount of bloggers who will follow you but never ever press a LIKE for any of your posts, not comment. It makes me feel that they just followed me to get a follow back. By getting rid of the surplus, I can concentrate on the few hundred (😊) that really interest me or converse with me. Other blogs I unfollow would be people who are writing about subjects I have not currently got time to indulge in: for example, on my blog about anxiety and depression, I was following alot of people who were writing about suicide. It got a bit too intense. But the good thing is, when you click unfollow, they remain on your list, so you can go through and find them again at a later date. I have followed and unfollowed people several times. For me it helps prevent me from becoming overwhelmed. I do the same with email follows. I was getting 25 emails every Tuesday. I have cut it down to 3, you of which are one of them. I love the way one chop and change like this to suit one’s capacity for time. 😊

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    1. Wow, I didn’t know that you could unfollow someone and still have them on your list. What a great piece of information to know. It sounds like your system is working but don’t you ever get overwhelmed by 3 blogs?

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      1. 😊 It’s a daunting thought isn’t it? 🤣 No, I don’t at all, because my main one is the one I use, then the old one I use for reblogging other people’s fantastic posts because I love bigging people up and sharing their posts to a wider audience, especially if they don’t have many followers or the post is so good, I want to keep it to re-read it. I have only just discovered that on the mobile app there is an option to save posts!

        My third blog is a once and for all one that I used to publish my drama sketches so that people can copy them and print them off as they wish, so I don’t post on there. I have now turned it into a book but I have left the sketches on so that those only requiring one, don’t have to buy the whole book, but can use the one they want for free.

        Yes, when you go into ‘Blogs I follow’ on the Stats section it brings up a list of blogs you follow and you have the choice of it being either listed in alphabetical order, or by the date you began following them. You can switch off email posts or choose to have them sent to you immediately, daily or weekly. But when you try to switch off emails doing it from the link at the bottom of their posts, if you do if from there, you actually unfollow them by doing this. It is a silly set-up.

        So yes, you press unfollow, but they remain in the list, so you can go back and find them easily if you change your mind .

        I hope that helps! Have a blessed day. xxx

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  3. I follow if there are common interests. I unfollow if the content is geared to political and religious views and there is consistent use of profanity.

    I unfollow if the blogger has not posted in 15 days unless I know there is a reason.

    I follow and unfollow several times because I enjoy so many and this is my way to keep from being overwhelmed. With that said, I have regulars, which I always follow. Most of them are blogs where I respond to their weekly challenges and they respond to mine, as well.

    Then, I write for Go Dog Go Cafe, which is time-consuming and I get a ton of emails but I love it and will never give it up.

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    1. Eugenia! What a breath of fresh air it is to speak to you. Goodness, you wrote this email over a month ago, I am so sorry for my tardiness.

      Again, you share your wisdom. I cannot imagine how many emails you get because of your Go Dog Go Cafe, but I know you run it so well!

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  4. I think many people struggle with unfollowing because they never think about it when they hit the follow button. It needs to be an educated and sure decision when you press Follow. It makes your life much easier.

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