I share a lot of different content on my Twitter feed, and every once in a while somebody will write back to me and say, “Hey! I didn’t like that.”

Occasionally, several users will object. Often this will be about subjects where people have strong belief systems – for example, religion or politics. In all of these cases, I make the effort to communicate with the person and explain my reasons for sharing this information.

If enough people complain at you, and the reaction is strong enough, it can make you think seriously about what you are doing and the best way to move forward. You might wonder if you need to change your ways.

In and of itself, this is a mistake. Why? Because you’re not looking at all the data.

Let’s say there are a hundred people in my network. I submit a tweet, and five people write back to me and complain. I open a discourse with all of these individuals and we have a little bit of a back and forth. Ultimately, two of them decide to unfollow me.

But when I look at my network, the number now reads 86. What happened?

People typically vote with their feet. If you get bad service or food at a restaurant, chances are you won’t write a letter. You’ll just never go back. On Twitter, the unfollow function is the most powerful feature on the entire network. Most of the time, nobody knows you have done it. You’re just gone, like magic.

In the example above, while five people felt strongly enough to approach me directly about my stream, as many as twelve other users decided they were better off without me. And nary a word was said.

Of course, this works both ways. What if after the incident my network had climbed up to 110? Let’s say five people retweeted my link, their friends had seen and enjoyed it and several decided to follow me. Despite the complaints, my net gain from this content was +12.

So, does this mean all of my content from this point forward should follow the same line? No, because it’s an isolated incident. You should never change who you are or the things you do because of one bad (or very good) reaction, or even a few. What matters is how your network responds to you over time. Polarising opinion can have great value, but if all your press is negative, something is definitely wrong.

Your Twitter network ebbs and flows like a living organism. It pays to monitor it because most of the time, most people won’t contact you with praise or criticism. They’ll simply make their vote count by operating silently in the background, perhaps by recommending you to a friend, or by clicking on the unfollow button.

You can’t do much to control what goes on behind the scenes, but by paying attention to the data – in all of its forms – you can spot positive trends or implement damage control before it’s too late.

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