How to mass unfollow or follow people on Twitter .. and more!
Here is a new update to this post –
Please read this latest version of the best tool for this, viable as of Friday, August 20th, 2010
How to mass follow and unfollow on twitter FOR FREE?!?!?
Here is an update to this post – Be sure to check out this updated version for the >10k club!
How to mass follow and unfollow on twitter: over 10k club!
So you’re sitting there wondering “I wonder who is following me that I’m not following back!” or the more realistic question “Which of these folks that I’m following are not following me!”
Here is our good friend Friend or Follow!
It’s actually very simple to use. Simply browse to their site, enter your name hit submit and you’re off!
Pet the bunny! :) 
Then suddenly you’re brought to this wonderful page!
At that point, you can click on their names and decide if you want to continue following them or not. It’s a useful way to see who it is that you are following who is not following you. But the benefits don’t end there!
Simply by clicking on Fans, you’ll get a list of people who are following you, but YOU are not following back!
This happens to the best of us, or they’re spammers which haven’t been removed yet, in either case you can click on them and choose to follow or not!
Here is where it gets tricky. Let’s say you chose to follow ‘x’ number of folks and they’re not reciprocating, and you decide “Alright, I’ve had enough of this!” I hear it more often than not.
Well, with Friend or Follow here, you can open up every page, perform your 3-4 clicks and remove them as friends. Oh I forgot, I don’t have that kind of time and carpal tunnel, do you have another option?
Introducing Twitter Karma!
The security conscious folks abound will be concerned about using this as it does require you to enter your password (It will be performing calls on your behalf so that’s understandable that it needs credentials)
You need to be cautious when using this, if your API limit is close to being maxed as it may “appear” as though it’s not working. Just try again in an hour if it’s not working as expected.
(Infact, merely connecting the first time is often enough to exceed your rate limit – Be warned)
Then simply change the “Show” field to “Only Following:”
Pop on down to the bottom and make your decision:
If you’re looking to drop everyone, do a “check all” and “Bulk Unfollow” and it’ll go through and unfollow them.
A bit of warning, this may take some time, so please be patient. I find the best way to keep up on whether it is working (Because it goes into work mode the instant you click it: Would be to go to your twitter homepage, and watch the numbers increase/decrease appropriately.
One of the hardest parts for me to unfollow people is, I enjoy reading their conversations and interacting with them, regardless of whether they’re following me. But Twitter Limits and other restrictions force you into these situations! :)
One of the nicest parts is it will show you when they “Last Updated” so you can feel better removing people who haven’t updated “Ever” or “not in a year” or so.
So remember, if you’re looking to mass follow, mass unfollow, or take any kind of mass actions (Or even just get a feeling of how unbalanced things may be) – The two tools mentioned above will help you achieve that!
Be sure to be running the latest version of TweetDeck and Adobe Air also, just in general :)
And be sure to add me @cxi on Twitter and @cxi on 12seconds!