Just a heads up, if you try to get people to stop following you, you might get accused of being a “Twitter snob.” But frankly, that’s a risk many of us are willing to take. Social media tools are just that, and it’s entirely acceptable to use these tools however you want to.
So, basically, if you want to stop people from receiving your updates unless you allow them to, just go into your Settings, and check the box at the bottom to protect your updates. You’ll be able to approve/deny people who try to follow you.
If that’s a little too proactive and not retaliatory enough (someone of us like a little spite), go into your list of Followers and block the ones you don’t want following your updates anymore.
That’s all there is to it.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t want to protect my entries, so I’ve been having to block people to get them to stop following me. It was getting ridiculous, because my Followers were three times the size of my Following. Most of them were Twitter spammers, anyway, so I didn’t feel bad about it. They have +1000 other Twitterers they can follow.
It’s pretty frustrating that they make you take action like that to ditch followers. But really, unless Twitter finds a way to make money, real changes aren’t likely to come very soon. I mean, they can’t even keep the service up, let alone make it easier to use.
Is there a way to mass delete followers? I’ve got a bunch that I’m following that I’d like to delete – either they haven’t followed me back, they’re spamming, or we’ve just kind of lost the conversation … either way, I’d like to get rid of them quickly, without having to go through them one at a time. Is there a site that provides that?
Hmm.. not that I’m aware of. Tweepler.com might help?
You can mass delete with Twitter Karma.com…although it’s been a tad weird lately.
Frank
http://www.greengamma.com
You can use this http://huitter.com/mutuality/
This also tracks your twitters more efficiently http://sprnch.com/twitter_timeline_public.php
I just want to remove the names of the Tw Spamers from my list so they don't show up when people see who I am following. I blocked them but the names still show up with an "unblock" option. I will have to terminate the Tw account for my organization if this continues.
Similar to the previous problem – I have two followers that I have blocked but their picture and/or name is very offensive. I don't want people thinking I have weirdos following me but I don't know how to remove them. Even though their blocked, others can still see them in the list.
Can you help me? I keep getting email messages that people are following me, BUT I don't even have a Twitter account! When I type in the email address that is receiving the messages, hit the "Forgot Password" button (as I don't have an account), I get that "Oh snap! We couldn't find you" message. So, how can I block these messages? Thanks for anyone's help!
I had something weird happen. I opened a second account but didn't choose to follow anyone on it. Still, somehow TW said that I was following 20 people! I didn't select them and I don't know how they got on my following list. I finally learned how to remove them so I won't have to continue to follow them, but now I want to remove their tweets from my list. Can anyone PLEASE tell me how to do that? Thanks for any help!
Diane: People can just put in your email address and sort of "invite" you to join by asking to follow you, even if you don't have an account.
Anon: It auto-follows people when you sign up unless you opt out of it :S