Kind of a controversial topic for y’all today. The ol’ follow/unfollow method has been around as long as Twitter has. There’s no real doubt that it works, in the sense that it will get you new followers.
But, are these followers any good? Is this a spammy tactic? Will it increase engagement? So many questions…
To answer some of these, our pals over at the Social Media Lab figured it was time to do a real experiment to find out. This one is too good so we’re just going to kick it right over to them…
- (01:16) According to blogger, Coffee with Summer, if you play the follow/unfollow game, you’re actually stunting your growth because you’re losing credibility.
- (01:47) But, WorkMacro says the follow/unfollow method is crazy successful. They’ve gained 90k IG followers in one year using it.
- (02:54) Social Media Lab’s hypothesis: using a follow/unfollow strategy will gain more followers, but not more engagement.
- (03:11) They’re testing this using automation tools that manage the following and unfollowing for you. All of the tools they tested comply with each platform’s terms of service.
- (03:43) They used 3 Twitter profiles and 4 Instagram profiles to test this out.
- (04:27) They set the follow/unfollow criteria based on relevant hashtags, people following competitors, and location (only for local businesses).
- (05:18) Unsurprisingly, growth happened. By an average of 192% increase in followers. Dang!
- (06:44) So did engagement go up? Sort of…by 1/10th of a percent. But that’s not nearly the whole story.
- (07:22) Link clicks went up 44%, Retweets went up by 50%, and replies went up by 89%.
- (09:10) If you want to do this for yourself, pick a tool that complies with each network’s terms of service.
- (10:17) Be strategic about which hashtags you use. Not just relevant ones, but specific too.
- (11:30) Go slow with follower growth, or you’ll get flagged.
- (12:43) Don’t unfollow too fast either. Give it a few days.
For more details about the experiment and results, smash that button below ↓
