Why No One Follows Your Lists - An Explanation

Now that most of the hoopla over the launch of lists is over, I wandered over to the lists that I am on, just to take a look around. It turns out, for nearly all the lists that I am on, they are quite unfollowed.

Perturbed, I took a look at the list that Mashable Man @BenParr is on, some 693, to similar results. I was taken a bit aback, why take the time to build these lists if they are unused?

After all if a list follows 190 people and no one follows the list, then no one is followed. Zero.

So what is causing these ghost-town lists, unloved and lonely? It's quite simple actually, they all do the same thing. 99% of the lists that I am says the same thing "Tech bloggers." Well hell, follow two and you follow all those lists.

A few people have been doing better, @scobleizer for one. His lists are different, they are curated directories. Most lists are crass "who do I follow that does this," lists.

Also, how many lists do you follow? I follow two, and am 90. I have a suspicion that that is quite common.

So, stop worrying if no one follows your list. In all likelihood they already follow a list quite similar. So, in a small way they like you, if you can twist the logic.

Of the lists that I am on, only four have more following, then follow. That is a pathetic ratio. What should we do? Stop making inane lists. If you want to make a list, do it like this, or this. Do that, and people will follow.

Just like with your Twitter account, if you do not do something unique and interesting, you will not get followed. Your lists are the same.

- This guest post written by Alex Wilhelm, of TheNextWeb