Seriously, people hate being followed and unfollowed the same day. A friend is starting to block people who operate like this.You can always tell who they are by their follower numbers and number of updates. It’s obnoxious and counterproductive. I want to get to know a person before I follow someone and these auto-bots “dump” me before I’ve even exchanged a message with the person. It is very depressing to get dozens and dozens of Qwitter notices every day that some auto-bot has unfollowed me. It’s like a slap in the face.

Auto-following/unfollowing is anti-relationship building. It’s saying that you are only interested in following me if I give you what you want when you want it (follow back within 24/72 hrs). It’s like some stranger walking into my house asking for a reciprocal friendship on demand. I don’t know who you are! Why should I follow you on your terms? Give me a reason. Let me get to know you.

I may not remember every follower but I remember the marketers/usernames of those who dump me after one day. Not warm feelings, I can tell you. Quality takes more time but what is quantity worth when you burn all of your bridges?

That said, spam is still spam – you can paint it purple and put a bow on it, and it’s still spam. Folks still aren’t going to like it and one needs to be careful on certain things. I still stand firmly behind my previous videos with tips on using Twitter, watching out for Twitter spammers, etc..

Hummingbird, in my opinion, is not like the other automated tools out there, because it is finding targeted folks to follow. I like that. I do engage my followers – as many of the 4,000+ as I possibly can! I don’t find & follow folks just to sell them stuff, I do so because we have something in common and in Twitterville, we’re all neighbors, chatting & sharing coffee over the virtual backyard fence.