#UFO | The New Trend Word of Twitter?

10/03/2009 | By Richard Darell

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Having a great amount of followers on Twitter is great and I try and connect with as many as I possibly can and have time to. Still wish I could connect with more people. Usually see interesting people and tweets all the time but if I were to connect with everyone I wouldn’t even have time to breathe. So, here’s the thing. Having a great amount of followers also brings some interesting side effects. When people don’t like your tweets or if they think you tweet too much (which I clearly do…I’m a Twitter addict and have a sleeping disorder so bear with me) they are very keen on telling you just that and everyone else that follow them. It’s in their every right to do so of course but I sometimes wish I had a comeback for those people. I hate sitting idle by and just…err…have nothing to say. I want to be able to say something with as few words as possible.

This is what I came up with. From now on I am going to use #UFO as my reply. Why you ask. Well, simple really. It has a double meaning and it’s a fast way to make a point. Not in a bad way, just to sort of make a notation it wasn’t a nice tweet.

UFO = Unfriendly Follower Opinion

Obviously it also stands for UFO which I kind of think people are sometimes when they make mean remarks about what you choose to tweet and how. Twitter is the fastest growing Social Networking site becuase of one thing. Because you are allowed to share your unpolluted opinion to your followers. If they are why shouldn’t you? Right?

My hope is to get this one to stick so that everyone knows that when used it just means…well yeah…”Unfriendly Follower Opinion“.

Now, what’s your opinion?

Author: Richard Darell

Known as a leader in social media, Richard shares his extensive knowledge of cutting edge design with designers and developers all over the world. Richard founded Bit Rebels in 2009, and currently the site welcomes over one million visitors each month. Minervity.com, another one of Richard's very successful sites, is known as the go-to place for design tutorials and information on the latest techniques. Richard's creativity has also led him to a very long and successful career in music as a song writer and producer for International artists. Richard hails from Stockholm, Sweden but also spends time in Los Angeles. Follow Richard on Twitter: @Minervity

10 Comments

Diana Adams

October 3rd, 2009

Richard,

This is a very interesting post. I also follow a lot of people (over 17,000) and I agree, it’s tough sometimes to keep up. It is impossible to make everyone happy, and you are right, every now and then someone is having a bad day and they take it out on you through a tweet.

Like you, I always just sit there quietly looking at it, but I never respond because it is just not my personality to retaliate.

It would be nice though to have this hashtag to use in certain situations. I like this idea a lot. I’m actually surprised nobody has thought of something like this until now.

As usual, you are on the cutting edge of creativity. Thank you for this.

Oh, and at the risk of sounding naive, what is the other meaning of UFO?

[Reply]

Manz

I’m just a small fish in the twitter ocean, with a very small amount of followers. However, I have had a comment here and there where I could have use the #UFO tweet reply! I’ll be keeping an eye on twitter activity to see if it picks up

Sara

#UFO… nice lol

That random Unfriendly Follower Opinion can just GO fly off!

I wonder sometimes what people are thinking when they complain about tweets. It just makes me want to say, “Hey buddy, you know what? You’re following me. You can read what I wrote, enjoy, unfollow or ignore that last tweet. C’mon, it’s not freaking rocket science”… but probably with added profanity lol

lissnup

October 4th, 2009

Few weeks back I came up with my own version on this theme #fu – Friday Unfollow

Brenda

I like the idea. I too could have used this in the past. I hope it takes off!
Thanks for sharing your creativeness.

Marcome (pronounced Marko-may)

Having lots of followers might be overwhelming at times but it’s compensated by the variety and abundance of encounters you do. I’ve never before had so many new friends on other social medias before twitter. I enjoy the exchange and passion people have for sharing and discovering. As a music Artist, it’s the best reward I’ve had so far, being connected real time with real people. I love twitter!

Kat Caverly

October 26th, 2009

Richard #UFO is delightful and although I think lissnup’s #fu is hysterical, I think it is important to always take the high road when faced with anything negative.

I might unfollow a Twitter user whose stream is not relevant or even distracting to me. I might even block and/or report as spam an overzealous Internet marketer or a spammer. But I won’t tweet or post anything about them at all. But then again I am in the JOY business.

Brent ~ the roseman

February 13th, 2010

Have to admit, I prefer the #fu over #UFO… but then it could be construed as being rude. I guess #UFO is better.

dixie451

February 25th, 2010

I love it,, and will probably use it as well,, However,, remember ” Everyone has THEIR opinion about EVERYTHING, whether we like it or not..It might seem to us a #UFO but it IS there opinion..

Hmmm…. #UFO still doesn’t sit right with me. Too much of a familiar usage in another field as Unidentified Flying Object. May I suggest: #ENUF as in: Exceptionally Nasty Uncouth Follower