Tracking Unfollowers in Twitter

/ Mae Clair

Hi SEers! You’re with Mae today. This is going to be a short post, but one I hope you find as valuable as I did when I first discovered the trick I’m going to share. I must give a shout out to Hugh Roberts of Hugh’s Views and News who who turned me onto this little gem. Ever since he pointed me in the direction, I have used this tool faithfully to manage Twitter followers and unfollowers.

Followers are easy to spot. Just hop over to your profile, click Followers, and the most recent appear at the top. From there it’s easy to visit and determine whether or not you want to return the favor and follow back.

Unfollowers are trickier. Someone buried deep in your stream may have decided to unfollow you, but without scrolling back through a long list, it’s difficult to sort them out. 

Close up of part of laptop keyboard with return key in blue with a thumbs-up icon on key

In the past, I used an awesome tool called Manage Flitter to track followers and unfollowers, but when Twitter changed policies for unfollowing, Manage Flitter was no longer able to share those I lost. I went into mourning. Eventually, Manage Flitter closed up shop altogether. 

It was during a post about Twitter tricks on Story Empire that Hugh mentioned Who Unfollowed Me in the comments. I was completely unfamiliar at the time, but boy have I become a dedicated user since. Who Unfollowed Me sorts out the pesky tweeps who follow, then abandon you once you follow back. No worrying whether they’re buried in your stream, because Who Unfollowed Me will sniff them out no matter how old or recent. They’re also great for showing your new followers in a single glance.

So how do you use this excellent service?

Go to Twitter and search @whounfollowedme (be sure to follow!). In the profile, click the link for who.unfollowed.me. Click the button to track Twitter unfollowers. There is a premium version that removes ads, but the free version works just fine for me. You also get a quick overview of other stats (when you joined Twitter, last tweet, and more). I visit about every third day but at least once a week to weed out my unfollowers.

Many of you may already know of this wonderful little tool, but if not, I hope you find it as useful as I do. With a tip of the hat to Hugh, drop your thoughts in the comments below.

Ready, set, go!

bio box for author, Mae Clair

55 thoughts on “Tracking Unfollowers in Twitter”

  5. Hi Mae, I really can’t image what people gain by following and then unfollowing? Do they think you will dedicatedly read and share their twitter posts if they never interact with you? It is a weird and incomprehensible behaviour to me because I see no real gain to them.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Pingback: Tracking Unfollowers in Twitter – tw.maruti nandan

  10. Pingback: Tracking Unfollowers in Twitter – computerhacker.com

  12. This is a great tool, Mae. I’ve used Unfollower Stats for years, but if you’re not paying for the premium service, they cut you off after a certain amount each day. I am on my way to try Who Unfollowed Me right now! Thanks for another great post.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Glad to be of help, Beem. I think you’ll find Who Unfollowed Me a great tool. And now that you mention it, I’m pretty sure Manage Flitter had a daily cut-off on their free platform, too.

      Like

      Reply

    • Hi, Kevin. Yep, Hugh is a great blogger to follow. I’ve learned several tricks from him.
      Even if you’re not active on Twitter, I think you’ll find this tool a helpful one. And yes, it’s odd how many people follow even when you’re not active. I don’t have that so much on Twitter, but Instagram? I haven’t been active on IG in months and I’m constantly building followers on there. It’s crazy!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  17. For years, I’ve used unfollowerstats.com, which has a paid and free version. The free works well for me. I’ve had so many people follow me to get a follow back and then unfollow. With these great tools, we can nip this in the bud. Whounfollowedme sounds like a great tool, and it was lovely of Hugh to mention it. Thanks so much for sharing, Mae. I’ll check out this tool as well! 💕🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Sounds like you have a good tool too, with unfollowerstats.com, Harmony. I wasn’t aware of that one, but it sounds like it does an excellent job as well. It’s sad that there are so many tweeps out there just in it for the numbers game of gaining followers and then ditching them. I love that there are tools available to weed them out!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • Yep, I used Hootsuite before I found Manage Flitter, Staci. That was an excellent app for tracking unfollowers, but sadly it’s not around anymore. Who Unfollowed Me is the cream of the crop for weeding out those pesky follow/unfollow tweeps, and so easy to use. I still like Hootsuite for other functions. Thanks for reminding me I haven’t checked in on it in a while!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  20. Thanks for sharing this, Mae. I’m on Twitter, but not very active. I can see how this would be helpful to those who want to build an engaged community. Empty follows on any platform are time wasters, and following just to “trick” someone into following back is the worst.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  21. I used to pay for an app that would track follows and unfollows, but I decided it was an expense I could cut so let it go years ago. I am excited to discover this, Mae! Thank you (and Hugh) for sharing! Have a great weekend!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  24. I just signed up. I once used a tool (can’t even remember the name) but I haven’t tracked it in years. At first I thought why would I care if someone unfollowed, but you have a point about those pesky tweeps. People like that annoy me. Hugh always has some great tips on his blog. I recommend people follow him as well.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • He does have great tips, and is definitely worth following.
      Since I’ve been using Who Unfollowed Me it’s been a real eye opener to the number of Tweeps who follow only to unfollow once I follow them back. It’s ridiculous that it’s just a numbers game to some people and all they’re looking for is building their numbers.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  25. Great post, Mae. I use this tool regularly and always unfollow those who unfollow me. It’s fascinating to see how folks use this platform. Thank you for sharing.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Glad to hear you’re using it too, Gwen. And isn’t it amazing the amount of accounts that follow you and then disappear or are shut down by Twitter, because they’re not legitimate? Those stats blew me away!

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  26. It had never occurred to me that someone would follow you on Twitter just to get you to follow them – and then dump you. Such cold-blooded treatment needs weeding out and this sounds like an ideal tool for that!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  27. Pingback: Tracking Unfollowers in Twitter | Legends of Windemere

We'd love to know what you think. Comment below.

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s