I screwed up on Twitter, but thankfully, I was able to ‘start over’.
During the past 2 years, through the use of a few tools and services, I ended up following 4,000+ Twitter accounts on my primary Twitter account (@catholicservant). The unwanted side-effect was it became full of inactive and spammy accounts. I tried finding some online ‘unfollow’ tools to weed out the junk, but Twitter has locked down their API so tight, there aren’t many options other than manually clicking ‘unfollow’.
Thanks to a quick Google search, I found the answer. Wipe ‘em all out with SocialOomph! Yep, throw out the good with the bad and start over.
Some of you might be saying, “Isn’t that bad etiquette to dump all those people you were following?” Perhaps. The sad reality is I was following so many people and my home feed was so cluttered – I was essentially following NO ONE.
So, here’s how you do it, but be careful – it’s permanent
- Create an account at SocialOomph. The ‘Wipe’ feature is only available with a ‘Pro’ account. (They do offer a trial.)
- Add the Twitter account to your SocialOomph dashboard.
- Goto Followers/Friends > Wipe All Friends.
- Select the Twitter account you want to wipe and click ‘schedule’.
- NOTE: It took about 45 minutes for my list to be wiped. YMMV.
I should mention that I’m operating 8 Twitter accounts. Most are work-related, but a couple are for personal projects. I only wiped two of the personal accounts. If you’re considering doing this on an important account, be sure that you want to do it.
Now I’m off to rebuild my Twitter follow list, but this time more selectively.
