No, You Don’t Have to Follow Back Everyone Who Follows You

It’s Not Always Necessary

I’m sure you’ve heard it: “You have to follow back everyone who follows you on Social Media.” It’s a statement that is repeated over and over again. I’ve heard it from friends, family members, and even people in the media. But is it true? Should you be following everyone who follows you on social media? While technically, this isn’t a law, there are some excellent reasons only to automatically track some of your followers. Below we’ll explore why this might be the case so that next time someone tells you that you should automatically follow back every new follower who joins your list of followers, they’re wrong.

It’s not a law

No rule says you must follow back everyone who follows you on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. It’s not required by the platform or its owner either. The only time it becomes a requirement is if you want to maintain good standing in your community, and even then, there are ways around this.

I’m not going to lie; I’ve been guilty of following back everyone who follows me. But that’s because I don’t know any better, and if you’re reading this article, chances are that you don’t either.

The truth is, no rule says you have to follow back every person who follows your account. There are many reasons why it might not make sense for your business. Here are just a few:

• You want people to see only some of the posts from accounts directly related to yours, for example, if you run an online store and someone follows another online store.
• Your brand is trying to build credibility by having fewer followers than actual customers or clients, so it looks less like spammy advertising when only those customers see content from other brands’ accounts in their feeds. This strategy also helps reduce follower fatigue.

If you’re following back because you want to, that’s fine.

If you want to follow back to help someone build their audience.

If someone else is telling you that it’s not okay for them, or for some other reason they don’t want your help or they don’t need it, then respect their wishes and move on with life instead of trying to argue with them about it all day long and night.

It’s a personal choice.

You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you. That said, if someone has been following your account for a while and seems to be worth your time, then go ahead and add them. But if someone follows you because they want more followers themselves? Don’t feel pressured into returning the favor because of some unwritten rule that says, “If someone follows me, I need to follow them back.”

There are plenty of people who will tell you otherwise. It’ll hurt their feelings or something like that. If someone doesn’t care about getting an unbroken chain of mutual follows going between themselves and everyone on Twitter and Instagram, then their feelings won’t be hurt by being left out in this one regard.

If you want to avoid following everyone who follows you, that’s okay.

If you’re overwhelmed by having over a thousand followers and are worried about keeping up with their content, there are ways around it.

You can choose to only follow a few people at once or unfollow people as they lose interest in your account. If this happens often, you can also unfollow anyone who makes offensive comments on your posts. You have the power here.

There are no hard and fast rules about whether or not to follow someone who follows you on social media.

You should follow back if you want to. You should not follow back if you don’t want to. Following people back is not a law, an obligation, or a requirement for anyone who uses social media. It’s just something that some people do because they enjoy connecting with new users and making friends online or because they want the ego boost from having more followers than someone else.

There are also many reasons why someone might choose not to reciprocate when another user follows them. Maybe it’s because they don’t like their tweets, maybe it’s because they have too many mutual followers already, perhaps it’s because they need more time, energy, or patience for another social media account right now the list goes on.

It’s your Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook account, and you can do it as you please. If you want to follow back everyone who follows you, go for it. But if that seems like too much work or pressure, don’t feel bad about always choosing not to follow back. The most important thing is that your followers feel valued by their interactions with you, and if following back on Twitter isn’t part of that equation anymore, don’t worry. There are other ways to ensure they get what they need from their experience with your brand.

Thanks for taking the time to read. I’d like to hear your perspective.

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