I’ve written on this subject a number of different times (See bottom of post for all of the various links on this matter!)    However what I am going to share here has been not a secret per se, I just never got around to SHARING how to do it, as I was busy actually USING it as a tool! OMG, right?!

Disclaimer: The following tool is FREE for 1000 Unfollows PER DAY. It cannot be used for Following FOR FREE.  Which is why I manually follow back using the twitter.com Webpage. It’s monotonous and slow as hell, but it is what I do!   But at least there is an answer to the unfollow!

BEGIN THE MASS UNFOLLOW ON THE TWITTER! :)

It all starts with logging in to the ManageFlitter Website.

These three steps run so inline it’s so simple! Click “Start” choose to “Connect to Twitter” which sets up an Auth against your acct with creds, and then it pulls in the database of who you are following and who is following you.  VERY SIMPLE. Basically mindless.

Then it provides a list of various categories.   If you want to unfollow people NOT following you, then simply select that category (defaulted) and go and CHECK the boxes of people you want to unfollow.   Wow, it’s that simple! Then simple choose “Unfollow selected” and you’re DONE!

BUT WAIT! THERE’s MORE!!!

Twitter “Rules” dictate that they cannot give you a “Check all boxes” option or else this would be so much easier. But in the effort of CHEATING, I advise you download a tool like “CheckFox” which will allow you to Check ALL of the boxes on the webpage [Up to 100 per page] and mass-unfollow those 100.

Then simply rinse-repeat and go from page to page to page until you’ve either unfollowed everyone you want to, or you’ve hit your 1000 limit for the day.

Either way, this has MASSIVELY cut what it takes to unfollow. Yay, right?   But it’s not limited to who isn’t following you.  You can choose people who’ve NEVER tweeted if you want, or who have no profile picture, or are TOO Active or INACTIVE. (I’d fall into the  “Too Active” category! ;)

There isn’t a whole lot more to add to this.  It’s clear, succinct, and straight forward :) If you know of OTHER tools like this which are as easy and free, mention it!   And if you have follow-back tools, mention them! I’ve stopped looking!

Links:

How to mass follow and unfollow on twitter FOR FREE?!?!?

How to mass follow and unfollow on twitter: over 10k club!

How to mass unfollow or follow people on Twitter .. and more!

Yea baby, you heard me! For FREEEEEE!!! This functionality existed in the past and then twitter stripped it away (unfortunately) There were numerous ways which I covered in the past here

How to mass unfollow or follow people on Twitter .. and more …

How to mass follow and unfollow on twitter: over 10k club!

But then it all went away.. until NOW! (Again ;))

Featuring Twitter Mutuality!

I decided to give this a try today – Why not (I had hit an odd condition where I had a bunch of people I was not following but should have been!) so I decided to give it a try.

First I used three of my test accounts in order to ensure that it would actually function/work, and if it didn’t or my account was compromised I’d be able to simply change the password and move on.    It seemed to function and operate as expected… so I took it to the next level.

Lo and behold, BAM!  It worked! It not only worked though.. it worked VERY well, VERY fast and extremely efficient.  All for the major price of $0 (Wow!)

Is my account compromised? Will they use my credentials for evil? (This does not use oAuth for verification, so it’s VERY possible they’re storing your credentials in some database for major exploitation.   My advise there – Use the tool if you want and then change your creds… Until I get confirmation one way or the other of how safe and legit this may be (I seem fine for now) you can take advantage of the tool and move on.

In the past I’ve discussed tools which had limits for having over 10K followers/following.  This tool does not seem to be even phased by my 16k followers, so take that to heart and take advantage of this! If this works for you and you like it, be sure to let me know in the comments or on twitter @cxi :)

By now, I’m sure you’re noticing a trend in the titles of my blog posts (Yes, I’m sure the core semblance you’re able to surmise is that I start it “EMCWorld Day x” and then a bunch of jibber jabber which you really have to stretch to understand, and even then you ought to be committed if you truly understand…:)) But I’m sure this will all come to fruition and understanding as you read through this particular break down! :)

Welcome to Day 2! Woohoo! I don’t know about you, but every single day is LONG, not in a bad way.. and getting back to the hotel late after being out with peers, colleagues, customers, partners and beyond until the late hours… writing these blog posts and waking up early in the morning certainly doesn’t help.  But it is all good – And I apologize for the lack of tweets… the ATT network just cannot sustain thousands of people DDoS’ing the 3G and Edge networks by simply trying to use their devices in a very small area :) [re:keynote, session, anything ;)]

I’m sure the first words out of your mouth when you see my blog posts is WTF IS UP WITH ALL OF THE RED PHOTOS! Yea, I know, I get it. No seriously, You’re preaching to the choir, or more specifically to roxanne – I wish she didn’t have to turn on the red light.. or atleast if the iPhone would have the ability to not take the powers of Suck and combine them with red lights to produce photos which look like this.. but we’re going to walk past that.. and we’ll start by quoting my good friend Charles Hood (@charleshood) to do that!   The masterful blogger Charles Hood said it right and properly in a recent Flickr photo he appeared in, where he said “When it comes to Social Media, EMC *gets it*.”  And let me tell you just how true that is.

So, our journey into Social Media at EMC and EMCWorld begins… at the Bloggers lounge!

The cast of characters in the photos above.. the sheer mindshare is enough to take on the world, twice and come out prosperous multi-fold!

Starting in order of sequence, It is paramount that I bring to you, the amazing, hyper-intelligent, cat loving and beautiful Jamie Pappas! (@jamiepappas)   If it weren’t for her, everything that Charles Hood and so many others have had to say would not be true as it is today, and we have her to thank for this!   Infact, if you have the opportunity to meet and talk with her, you will be better for it :)    I guess I cannot leave Stu-master @stu “Stuart Miniman” out since he is after all in the photo.  Stu is great too, and helps make the EMC Social Media experience what it is today as well, not to mention if you want to know about Fa-ko-ee, he’s definitely your man there too. ;)

I’m sure everyone has met, read and knows Barry Burke (@storageanarchy), I mean how could we not know the man who gave me the Symmetrix sticker which sits on my laptop.. ;)

Challenge me to say otherwise.. but I have to say.. the smile on Steve Todd’s (@stevetodd) face… if that doesn’t bring a smile to your face, I think you need to re-evaluate your priorities!

Bringing us on to Photo #4 which is the rare shot of the beautiful Mark Twomey (@storagezilla) deep in conversation with the mysterious non-blogging Gilda Farvid! (Hey! How did Gilda get into the bloggers lounge?!?! ;)) We’ll see about getting Gilda back on the blogging circuit since she joined our ranks of champions :)

HELP! HELP! HELP! There’s a Virtual Army at my door and I need some vSpecialists to extract my VM’s of Mass De…. eh, this example is going nowhere fast!  But people who are going up, up and up!, the motherload in this photo definitely calls for an “OMFG HOWZ CANS i MEETZ THEM!”  – Incase you cannot make out their names or faces… You’re looking at (from left to right) Simon Seagrave (@Kiwi_Si), Alan Renouf (@alanrenouf) and finally the champion master himself, the infamous Scott Lowe! (@scott_lowe)

Finally we have a group shot with the lot of us, you know of all of us, however on the far right the other hidden vSpecialist, Ed Saipetch (@edsai)

So what does this mean? Are you trying to say that everyone at EMC not only maintains a blog but a transparent relationship with the community, customers, partners and even competitors through mediums like Twitter and beyond?   No.. I’m not saying that, but you can.   This entire relationship around how EMC handles it’s social media is akin to that old adage, keep your friends close, and frankly we don’t have enemies.    For those of you who think we do… just remember how closely knit the entire tech community is – We’re not enemies, we’re all friends who at one point or another in the past (and in the future) will work together and collaborate on one thing or another – Welcome to EMC 3.0 – The future of not only doing things right, but doing it transparently.   (Disclaimer: Hopefully no one spanks me for in any way claiming what EMC’s social media strategy is, I’m just an observer, it’s pretty damn obvious ;))

But, that’s enough about the Bloggers lounge, social media strategy, ninjas and giant celerras! (err….)

I did attend a session! In between being unable to get a cell signal in order to make it onto conference calls, and meeting some absolutely great people at lunch.. no.. I did attend a session! Later in the week I’ll also have some mega-deep dives on sessions.. but being that I was only into one session today a little bit, I’ll give you a brief overview:  Architectural Deep Dive of the VPLEX! … Hmm, Yea I knew that, damnit, how dare I do my home work before these sessions…. Good session, absolutely informative for the FULL BALLROOM it was in (Can we say STANDING ROOM ONLY) around just the Architecture of the VPLEX alone? Yea.. Definitely good things coming from this bad boy.   So, sorry I won’t tell you much more than… you’ll see the deep dive later on the sessions I attend… (I hope I’m allowed to share what I learn from the sessions… because I will be anyway, grin)

Afterwards, with mega-sessions running continuously and constantly everywhere, I headed back down to the Bloggers Lounge where Steve Todd was interviewing people on the moment they realized their future was in technology (the watershed moment) [Oh, did I mention that the explanation of what the watershed moment involved Steve Todd serenading me with an indigo girls song? How can you not love this man?! :))   So, I did my interview (and separate other interviews which I’ll publish details on when I find out where it’s posted) And good thing… as my voice is dead from this point forward!   Dead how and why?!

I think that helps explain the first bit of it… My first Red Sox game, and they won! (Wow, the ENTIRE crowd really comes together as one large ecosystem, feeding upon each others emotions and the relationships and bonds from simply sitting near others.. this is definitely a reflection of social dynamics – It’s no wonder they do so well…! The cubs are similar.. except that’s purely alcohol driven. ;))   But after that involved spending an amazing time with my good friends at Emulex for a good bit before the night closed out and we headed off for some Karaoke!

Hopefully YouTube doesn’t block this wondrous short video I captured because it has ‘music’ included in it.. but I have a tendency to sing along… loudly… and lose my voice. #fail? ;)

I hope you other attendees have been taking advantage of everything the vendors, partners and beyond have had to offer because this is the time and place to enjoy yourself! :)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

$Wait!%$! You can’t end your post there! What? Why?! You barely even mentioned Emulex! Sure, but who cares about them, even though I really like their CNA’s.   Hmm, didn’t you meet someone who is an absolute rock star over there? Think.. think back.. ringing any bells?! ;)

Yes, I think it is important that if you’re not aware of Thomas Jones (@niketown588), a rockstar over at Emulex now is the time for the introduction!   Thomas GETS it.  You know how we were talking about EMC “Get’s Social Media”, well Thomas Jones really GETS it. (It doesn’t hurt that he’s buddies with Louis Gray ;)) But his take on things, his character, demeanor, Emulex should be proud to have an (I’m refraining myself from using expletives because of how much Thomas rocks :)) … amazing guy like this to take the company forward into the future :) – Oh and be sure that you get to see his Shirt which is signed with everyone’s Twitter ID’s :)  Okay.. enough… Time to crash.. have a GREAT Day 3 and be sure to enjoy all of the rest of your time at EMCWorld! :)

I don’t know about you, but wow! What a day! I started my day by waking up really early, forgetting countless things that I really need (business cards.. shaving gear, I really should check on that!) but hey, I’m here in Boston… so let’s revisit some of the events of the day.. (I’m sure you’ve seen some of these photos if you follow my twitter feed ;))

No day would start off any perfectly than having the opportunity to meet with the honorable Judge Wopner, presiding over affairs of foods.

The wonders and powers that conversation and CLEARLY looking like a geek will do (No, not Neil.. me! :)) as we engaged in a conversation with this Canadian SE from Dell – Great guy, Dell – You really struck it rich with a good guy like this!

The concert really kicked off to some good madness… this is the only photo I took of it… but it turned out decently for the iPhone.. so I’ll buy off on that one!

Yes, there were a LOT of others of us social folks than those shown here.. but these are the best three complimentary shots I can really get without lots of solo’s!

Each of these photos speaks… so many volumes about the social dynamic, the interaction and the pure culture we resonate whether it is peer to peer, customer to peer, or even out-lyers :)

Other than the gangsta street DBA’s who apparently bring their DataWarehousing to the STREETS of Boston for the late night crowd like some of us..

I think if there is much to be said… it would be in the form of this fortune I acquired for dinner.   So I look forward to you new people, new realizations, and your issues! :)

And if you see any of us that are shown pictured here.. come up to them, introduce yourselves, say hi.. and if you see my CXI shoes.. say hi ;)

Disclaimer: I like google, they’ve produced some amazing innovative things [IN THE PAST], but the past year or so has been a horrible game of Catch Up, as if they’re reading the newspapers about what’s been popular for a year and decide “Let’s make a knock off TJ Maxx version of something successful” and I’m sorry but it isn’t working!

Hi Google, you may know me… I use your Analytics, I host email off of your gmail redirectors, I also take advantage of numerous apps as well!

I feel it’s important that we discuss a number of… pursuits you’ve made in the most recent past.   Let’s start with…

Google Wave (-25)

WTF? I don’t want to go too much into this, because I think it’s been said by a lot of people.  Definitely, well done on mashing up a bunch of functionality very poorly to lump it together in an even more mismanaged interface.    We won’t discuss this any further.  I just wonder when it’ll be seen for the fail it clearly is, OR you actually innovate and make it into something successful.

Google Voice +-0

Hey! This is quite possibly one of the best things you’ve done in a long while! Sure it isn’t innovative – But it IS useful, in numerous ways most of which are likely not the intended usage, grin.   So, well done on executing a ‘strategy’ which has been done poorly for a very long time.  There’s a lot of potential there, and in the right cross-hairs it can integrate well, but innovation it is not.

Google Mail +-0

I like Google Mail, it’s like the Google version of Hotmail and Yahoo mail – Again, it’s not innovative, but definitely a useful strategy for getting consumers over to your network.  I know how the backend mail storage is handled and I actually find that quite nice and promising.  So innovative on the back-end, but from a ‘user’ stand point, there is no clear innovation which really stands out here.  Oh, integrating Google Talk into it? Excellent, Hey, wait, isn’t that like Exchange with Office Communicator? Yea, again nice catch up :)

Google Buzz (-50) WTF

Oh I get it! You think that by adding Facebook and Twitter together you’ll get Super Twitter Facebookery! Yea, totally. Following that logic, if I combine bugs with lightning, I should get lightning bugs.   But sadly, jumping 2-3 years late into something you PREVIOUSLY failed with Jaiku and trying to put some ‘Buzz’ around it by calling it Buzz? +1 in Marketing name Innovation, but a absolute FAIL on setting a clear direction, strategy and executing on it.   Just as an FYI: A majority of people use Twitter and Facebook as a means of communicating with a community, peers and others – and frankly if I wanted a consolidated source of whatever kind of ‘direction’ you’re claiming to project with Buzz – Err, I think I just described FriendFeed! Way to play catch up twice!

Google Android (-5)

Now you’re just taking the piss.   3 years after the release of the iPhone you announce Android! It may as well have been 300 years, because it’s pretty clear that in the most recent round of recession based layoffs that all of the talent which would have made the Android a complete success were no longer there. Grin.  This whole post may come across as negative, but in actuality it’s just an honest reflection of a constant (and moreso recently) failure to understand your audience, or I guess to understand we’re not simply idiots, we ARE buying Vision when we buy android, however you’re giving us a myopic vision so far filled with cataracts on the horizon.

Google Maps +1

I like and use Google Maps, though I wish you were a tad more respectful for preferences, to the kind of things I get out of Yahoo Maps.   You really took it up a notch here with Google Streetview, while that did nudge on some people’s ‘”Privacy” rights and violations, it did provide a vehicle for really breaking down barriers of ‘streets’ to bringing ‘locations’ to the masses of the world.   Why can’t you take this kind of strategy which said “Let’s do something like no other” and apply it to other areas, where you’re playing apparently LAME copycat games.

Google Search +5

To say I don’t use Google Search is like saying “Oh yea, I use Bing for everything”, which is clearly a joke.  Hey, I love Microsoft, and I absolutely love some of the innovations around Bing! Now make the content relevant to ME and we might be getting somewhere.  But I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have to search 25 pages in to find something I CARE about, whereas Google? You have my option on the first page? What’s that? It’s even in the top 5 positions, 95% of the time? Thanks Google!  It’s almost like this was the bread and butter you built your business on, but I digress.    You haven’t really innovated anything new in this space in recent times, other than “What’s local” and while you’ve kept up appearances of keeping the upper hand over all of the other search engines, I’m not saying I expect more from the search engine capability – But it may be time to see how you can leverage this to improve your other solutions and innovate! Oh and not through senseless tat like I’ve mentioned above.

Google BlogSpot “Blogger” +-You Don’t deserve a rating

I don’t think there is any lack of google searches you can find which won’t tell you just how much I HATE BlogSpot.   I’m sure it’s all fine and dandy for people who find WordPress or TypePad (Yea, I don’t like you either TypePad, but for different reasons) difficult.   However, Your FORCED and I mean FORCED like in Microsoft Style “Make me login with my Passport to try to do ANYTHING” submission you force upon me to comment on people’s blogs? Seriously? Hey, let’s CONSIDER for a moment open standards.  The credentials I use 99% of the time which happen to be tied to my domain do not automatically pass through when I hit a Blogger based site, and it wants to comment with the wrong creds.  I find the system doesn’t then let me comment using another set of credentials, I get frustrated, I don’t comment and I further go on hating BlogSpot.  Perhaps this is just a poor attempt at integrating Blogger (Who was decent BEFORE you purchased it) into the fold of the trillion other apps you have out here – Ooh, perhaps you should non-innovate on something “like” Microsoft Passport, but one which doesn’t suck like Microsoft’s or your own today! That’d be a non-innovation, but frankly, just opening up a Facebook/Twitter oAuth sounds like a better idea, grin.

Google Chrome +-0

Two years ago, I might have given this a plus, but seriously.   I do like the description on the google options page “A browser built for speed, stability and security” Strangely, three things it doesn’t exactly do very well.    Speed is AMAZING if I’m a single threaded boy living in a single threaded world, however as my usage goes up, scalability (not even mentioned!) goes through the floor, and with it goes Speed and Stability.   It’s because of that I cannot even begin to imagine it being appropriate for an audience like me.   I wasn’t even a “casual user” as I adopted the full use of Chrome 100% of the time, and found that I was using it for 98% of all of my web traffic, until I encountered scalability fail, and that story I’ll end there :)    The real story behind Chrome is a ‘competitive keeping up appearances battle with Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer’, but it isn’t exactly what I would call an innovative browser in any sense of the word, Sorry.

I could literally go on forever, because frankly Google has a lot of stuff, but I think I’ll end it on this one last ‘innovative’ note..

Google Invites +-WTF?!

Looking up the definition for “invite” by doing a “define: invite” in my browser, I come across several topical definitions: “tempt”, “have as a guest”, “request the participation”, “attractive and tempting”, although no where in those definitions does it say “Hey, let’s be a douche and stingy about our Invites”, I also seemed to miss the definition whereby “smoke and mirrors” was used in lieu of releasing a viable solution which actually DOES have a strategy and a vision.  Yea I know, it has the name “Beta” on it, which clearly means we have no semblance of planning, but let’s get with the program.   Every one on the planet wants to Opt-in for the latest and newest Google solution, just like everyone wants to try out the new Apple products 500 years before they’re “announced” yet, they’re so secretly kept under wraps that we’re all bored by the time they get released because it’s blatantly obvious.    Perhaps what might make your invites a little more, relevant could be Use Cases! (OMFG HE DID NOT JUST SAY THAT) Yea, I used the 4 letter word (2 words, 3+5 letters, but if you divide by 2, oh my!) Day 1 “Who has an invite for x!” Day 10 “Hey, anyone want an invite?” Day 100 “WTF Why is this still a crappy beta and I have a zillion invites!”    Yea, let’s focus a tad bit more on innovation, be a little more liberal with your ‘invite’ stream, and perhaps even have a viable feedback mechanism! (Whoa! Google Feedback with PSR like capabilities built into the application so people can provide content back to you? Oh no you didn’t!)

Alright, I’ll wrap it up here.  Seriously, I do love you guys, I’m sure you’ve lost a lot of great talent, and probably a majority of your creative talent too (If I’m wrong, let me know, perhaps you’ve overworked by trudging on some stupid project by some visionless neophyte, it wouldn’t be the first time!)  And if you want, we can sit down and discuss what ‘strategy’ and ‘vision’ are, perhaps even a little whiteboarding session on Creativity and innovation because I sadly haven’t been seeing much from you guys – And considering the level of talk of anti-trust and people considering Google to have even less Ethics than Microsoft did back in the day, I’d love to see so much more from you – Cmon, it’s the time of the “Cloud” so it’s time to get your head out of your asses and back into the clouds because that’s where “some” innovation might be found, frankly it’s gonna need more of it and not the constant parroting of what sucks today but in a cloudy model!

Feel free to challenge or call me out on anything I said, Googlers, Others, friends, foes and the like – These reflect my opinions and the thoughts and feelings of every one of you out there who would never say this in public but know you feel it and want to say something :)