People’s obsession with followers and fllwrs

Follow @marcoRecorder
Fllwrs is an app that’s been around since 2011. The app checks for changes in your Twitter followers over time and it records followers that have been added or lost. The funny thing about this app’s users is that, especially at the beginning, many of them forgot to untick the option not to let Fllwrs post on their behalf.The result is something like this:I’m not displaying the name of the profile above because some people don’t welcome open constructive criticism on social media. Anyway, why would you show this to your followers? It sort of shows quite some vanity and obsession with followership.As you can see from Fllwrs’ faqs page:

Will fllwrs tweet automatically on my behalf?
That is completely optional. You may enable or disable that feature at any time. To do so, log in and go to settings.

At this regard, I have also found an interesting article by @scottparent from which I quote:

“First, let’s take a look at a business that is using Fllwrs:

Caucus World is a social media business based in London. They claim to “develop deeper insight through engagement and participation.” Hmmm OK. I’m curious as to how they do that. If their Twitter stream is any indication of their methods, I’d say they’re not very good. First off, the have a total of three tweets in five weeks time – that’s not a lot of engagement or participation. Second, those three tweets aren’t even real human updates – they’re automated jabs at people that have unfollowed CaucusWorld using Fllwrs. Again, I have to ask how this fosters engagement and participation?”

The best bit of the article is the following paragraph which basically highlights why people don’t have a real solid motivation to display their Fllwrs performances:

As a business, what is the purpose of using Fllwrs and calling out those that have stopped following you? Are you looking to embarrass those users? To what end? Are you hoping that by calling them out, they’ll be guilted into following you again?

I would also add that this applies not only to businesses but also to journalists, bloggers, consultants and other professionals using social media.

Let’s step back and think about what message that sends to the world about your brand. First, it seems to suggest that you are petty, shortsighted and punitive. Second, and more importantly, it advertises to the masses that your Twitter stream is so mundane and lacking in value that people are regularly unfollowing you. Is that the message you want to send?

Can someone out there provide a good argument for using Fllwrs and display your daily performances publicly? Besides, if you want to monitor your followership I would recommend Twitter Counter and Followers’ wonk as way better tools.

I’d be happy to hear directly from @_fllwrs what they think about thus. I understand this is great advertisement for them. It is actually how I found out about their very successful app (they have over 900.000 followers on Twitter!). However, can you convince me that showing daily performances in followers’ growth is the best for the user?