Today, I thought we could talk about what you do when another blogger follows you. Do you follow back automatically, or are you more selective?
I’ve never been one to automatically follow back. A lot of sites that follow me are clearly spammy or not something that interests me at all, but aside from that, I usually go take a peek and see if their content looks like what I’d be interested in reading regularly.
I only follow blogs that I’m genuinely interested in reading. I do all my blog reading in the Reader, and I get pretty easily overwhelmed, so I don’t like to have my feed cluttered with a lot of blogs I’m not reading very often.
Since mental health is my niche, I’ll follow back pretty much any mental health bloggers, although sometimes a new blog will follow me and I won’t notice it in the sea of spammy new follows. With non-mental health blogs, I’ll sometimes wait a bit before making a decision on following back. If people are genuinely engaging with my blog and I’m interested in what they have to say, then I’ll often like to read their blog even if it falls outside of my usual reading preferences. I’m sometimes a little slow on the uptake with this, though; it takes a while for brain cells to connect in my head.
Then there’s the question of like-for-like. Do you ever like bloggers’ posts that don’t interest you in the slightest simply because they’ve liked yours?
I’m big on genuineness when it comes to blogging. I like community and mutual engagement; that’s what makes blogging a wonderful thing. But the artificialness of the follow-for-follow and like-for-like game isn’t my thing, and I don’t do it. It does seem to be a popular strategy, though.
So, now it’s over to you. Do you follow back? Or automatically like back? Why or why not?
The blogging toolbox series has tips to support you in your blogging journey. It includes these posts:
I usually check out the bloggers who follow me. Funny though I have had a couple people follow me and I go check out their page but the page is not available. So I tend to be selective but also I have a wide range of interests.
I think the page not available thing usually happens when a blog has changed to a different URL but the blogger’s Gravatar is still linking to the old URL.
Thank you! This i did not know!
I’m just like you in everything you wrote
I agree! You can’t follow back everyone who follows you!
Yes!
I do not do the like-for-like or follow-for-follow. I recently began seeking out sites to follow and have stumbled upon quite a few great ones. I have also recently begun subscribing to email lists as a way to support the blogger. I figured if they are spammy or uninteresting can easily unsubscribe and will do so without attaching guilt. Same with I follows. I have reached outside the mental health community as of late and into art. That shouldn’t be surprising as my love of art shows. I prefer educational mental health blogs over personal ones because I find the personal ones to be a bit whiny.
I limit my email list subscribing to the people I care most about hearing from (like you).
New to bloghing
Really
I’m with you on authenticity. I want people to like and comment on my blog because they genuinely enjoyed it and found it helpful, not because they want a like back. Same with follows. That said- I just started a new blog and haven’t experienced any spamming on this one yet! My retired blog was another story…
No fear, the spammers will find you again! 😉
Oh, I don’t doubt it! Sneaky spammers
I whole-heartedly agree with your view, in that I always at least check out the person who followed me’s blog, and if it’s something I’m interested in then I’ll give them a follow-back. I personally don’t believe in the automatic follow-for-follow view, as it makes the whole blogging adventure a bit superficial.
I feel much better if I know the people who follow me have even the slightest genuine interest in my blog
Me too.
I always check the blog and see if its something that interests me, and usually it is.😁
So many interesting blogs out there!
I only follow blogs which interest me, like yours.
I always check out their site first and read a few posts. And similar to you, I typically follow mental health blogs that follow.
I do check if the we have similar niche which is what i am usually interested in and i follow back otherwise I don’t follow back. I am also a newbie but I realized earlier that there is no point automatically following a blog I am not interested in because I will not engage or read their blog post.
It’s crazy to me that people can authentically build a following without engaging in lots of follow backs, but I agree with the majority here I follow if it’s of interest to me and I can actually engage with content
I think mutual engagement is important to build a following, but being selective about it is more likely to build a community.