When you are notified of a new follower, how do you respond?

1. 87

   btrbellposted 10 years ago

   When you are notified of a new follower, how do you respond?
   
   Do you go to their page and check them out? Do you read any of their hubs? Do you mke sure that they are legitimate? I have a lot of followers who seem to be advertisers. Hubpages are really good about weeding them out but I do see many hub authors that are following them.
   
   

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2. 86

   billybucposted 10 years ago

   I thank them for the following, read a hub of theirs and see if I want to follow them, and then offer them help if they are a newcomer.

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      btrbellposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      You are absolutely the best welcome for any new hubber!

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3. 72

   CraftytotheCoreposted 10 years ago

   When I am notified of a new follower, I do look at their profile and see what they write about.  I do read their Hubs, and comment.  I like to encourage other writers.  When I first started, someone was kind enough to vote and share my first Hub.  I found that to be a remarkable welcoming to a writing platform where I was new.  So I try to do the same for others as well.  Plus, I have learned a lot from reading Hubs here.  Where before I used to blog on a blogging site and never had one follower and only one comment.  I like it here much better.

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      btrbellposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I couldn't agree more! The community is what makes Hubpages!

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4. 80

   brblogposted 10 years ago

   I always check out their profile and at least one of their hubs. Most of the time, I will return the favor and follow them as well.

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5. 88

   Jackie Lynnleyposted 10 years ago

   I check them out if I am not too busy to follow or not and if I am busy I follow their latest hub so I will get a reminder! Don't think I ever get any spammers.

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6. 0

   sheilamyersposted 10 years ago

   Like the others, I go to the person's profile and check out some of their hubs. If they write hubs about things in which I'm interested, I'll follow them.

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7. 83

   Dallas Matierposted 10 years ago

   I noticed a while ago that there seems to be a tendency for people to go on 'follow binges', where they follow a whole lot of people at once.
   
   I don't really like that. It creates the impression that they never had any real intention of reading my stuff, and that they were just hoping to drum up some followers of their own. And, the amount of traffic I get through HubPages, compared to the number of followers I apparently have, seems to back that impression up (though, to be fair, I'm also aware that a fair number of people who were once active end up leaving the site, too).
   
   So, since I seem to have gotten a bit cynical about the whole process, by this point, the first thing I do is go to their profile to check their recent activity - to see if my name is just one of a long list that had been followed over a period of a few minutes, or whatever.
   
   I'll still take a moment to have a look at their stuff, either way - and, if they write stuff that I'm interested in, I'll follow them. But, I'm likely to be a little annoyed with anyone that follows me as part of a binge, so I'm a little less likely to give them the return 'follow' that they were after.

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      btrbellposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you, Dallas.I have also had several that haven't written any hubs. They are following 200+ people and have 15 followers. Or something similar. These are the ones that concern me.

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8. 75

   JohnGreasyGamerposted 10 years ago

   I rarely follow someone for the sake of it, and I detest people doing so just to get some attention. As Dallas Matier said, "follow binges" have been popular, and it's those kinds of Hubber that I like to stay away from. However in the unlikely event they have something interesting to say, I'll be sure to read their stuff, perhaps comment, give some vote ups and then perhaps I'll follow. It's even worse on YouTube, almost upsetting even, because I came here to write and share my work, and people just press that lil' green button in the bare hope they'll get the same back.
   
   While I do encourage people to spark some interest and lure people to your Hubs, this is NOT the way to do it. I would strongly urge any new Hubber to avoid the "follow for follow" technique because more often than not it will be a hallow experience and you'll probably want to write elsewhere because of this. Follow those who you genuinely wish to, and I guarantee they'll do the same. Do you know how I've got 300+ followers and only 60 following? It's because of respect.

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9. 74

   Kathleen Cochranposted 10 years ago

   Like everyone, I'm honored when someone chooses to follow me, especially if they've left fan mail.  The only way to respond to fan mail is to look them up, read a hub and leave them a comment.  When you stop and think about it, HubPages was pretty darned smart to set it up that way.  It keeps the writing the thing we revolve around so this is not just a social site.
   
   I learned to be selective about who I follow, so I don't automatically follow back.  I really like to support the hubbers I follow and try to look at their latest work at least once a week,  With only so many hours in the day, that exercise has forced me to limit the number of hubbers I follow.  It works for me but it took a while to figure this out.

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10. 72

    kidscraftsposted 10 years ago

    Usually, I go read their profile and then I try to read one or two of their hubs.  I also thank them for following me.  I like to discover new writers.
    I noticed also as some other mentioned that some people follow a big number of other people when they start; may be it's in the hope of having a core group of people following them faster?

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11. 80

    Seafarer Mamaposted 10 years ago

    I usually check out who my new follower is, and perhaps write back to him/her. If my new follower has an avatar and has written at least 1 good hub, I'll follow that person back.

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12. 85

    WryLiltposted 10 years ago

    I have notifications of new followers turned off... I have over 1200 I think, so don't have time to check them all out, and it's a boringly slow and tedious process. I'd rather write hubs that can help them all at once

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       creativedocposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       "smart thinking", Notifications of new followers turned off:-)

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13. 60

    The Examiner-1posted 10 years ago

    Since I only have a few followers at the moment (I am just starting) I read their comment and if they are new to me then I look at their site before I 'Approve' or 'Deny' their comment. I may read one or more of their Hubs, depending on what they write.

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14. 60

    flpalermoposted 10 years ago

    Immediately I  check their profile to know a little about them and see what their interests are. A follower chose to follow you because they were interested in your topics. If that is so, we could become friends forever.

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    1. 87

       btrbellposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you for answering flpaermo! I do agree with you! I think Hubpages is a community. Followers are part and parcel of building the community.

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