Take it personal if I unfollow you

I now have a zero tolerance policy for following certain groups of people on Twitter. Having caught the Twitter wave well before it actually began, when people signed up and thought “what the hell is this thing for?” I have to say that my tolerances have been diminished for certain types of folks there.

If you happen to fall into one of these categories, there is a GREAT chance that I have either already unfollowed you or plan to in the very near future.

1. Passive Aggressive – no time for it. If you don’t have the balls to say whats on your mind to the actual person you are intending to put off, then you deserve to be unfollowed.

2. Hashtags – they are idiotic, and if you use them to somehow “enhance” your communications or emphasize a point, then you idiotic. Most people don’t even know what hash tags were even created for in the first place because if they did, they’d know that they are irrelevant now. People who use hashtags to add color to their tweets are like the people who talk in ghetto slang in order to somehow get street cred (e.g. the Nick Cannon’s of the world)

3. Social media strategists or experts – sorry, but 99% of you are folks who stay at home and don’t want to get a real job. There are probably a handful of genuine experts out there in “social media” and its likely that you haven’t ever heard of them. Thats because they are busy working and not self promoting.

4. Self promoters – I’ll allow a certain amount of self promotion to cross my Twitter stream. After all, as Loren Feldman says eloquently, Twitter is great for spamming links. I’ve been known to post links to writings on other sites. But, if you’re using Twitter as a platform to become a psuedo celebrity, then i want no part of that and will ultimately unfollow you.

5. Excessive negativity – have enough of it in my daily life, don’t need to read more on an opt-in basis.

6. Conservative politics or religion – couldn’t be further from my wheelhouse. I won’t follow anyone (knowingly) who thinks Sarah Palin is great or would even consider voting for her in 2012.

7. PC fanboys – I rode the Windows is awesome train my whole life, then I got the iPhone. Now, i am an Apple fanatic through and through. If you are a “PC” then I simply can’t follow – sorry!

8. Seesmic users – now I am getting a little carried away but seriously? What is with all the poseurs using Seesmic desktop? That app is terrible.

Of course, I reserve the right to add to this list at any time. I can think of probably half a dozen other examples of things I disapprove of on Twitter. Anyway, the hash tag is just really, really, REALLY annoying. Please don’t do it.

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