In the world of social networks there are two elementary principles on how people connect with each other. The “Friendship-Principle” and the “Follower-Principle”. You know Facebook and yes for sure you know Twitter. By now they are offering almost the same flower bouquet of features, but there is still one big difference: It’s the way people connect with to each other. On Facebook people are friends with one another; on Twitter they are following people they are interested in.
But what’s the difference?
Well, to be friends, both have to “follow” each other. There’s no other choice. But if you follow someone, the other one doesn’t have to follow you back. You follow them and if they want to, they can follow you back … or … not. One big advantage of the “Follower-Principle” is, if you don’t want to get any news from someone anymore, you don’t have to finish your friendship with him. And in the case the other one is also following you, he will carry on following you and also will carry on getting news from you. This gives you much more flexibility on which news you want to get and in which you are not interested anymore.
By the way: Finishing a friendship in the social media world still fells like breaking up a friendship in the real world. Did you ever tried to finish a friendship on Facebook with someone you know? 😉
Tripmii gets the “Follower-Principle”
Since the beginning of Tripmii, Tripmii used the “Friendship-Principle”, but now it’s time to switch to the “Follower-Principle”. The main feature of Tripmii is writing Tripblogs, in other words sharing travel-experinces while travelling the world with other travellers out there or get inspired by other Tripmii travellers’ journeys out there. So it feels much more natural to us to give you more freedom of choice on who to follow and getting news and updates from – rather than having to ask for a friendship first.
Most of the other social media platforms like Instagram or Pinterest are also using the “Follower-Principle”.
What does this mean for you and your friends after we did the switch?
All of your friends, will be your followers and you will follow them back. That’s pretty much the same way as it was before regarding news, updates etc. From that point on you can decide on whom you want to follow and whom not. Find interesting people on an interesting journey and chose to follow them if you’d like to stay updated … it’s not required to know them in the real world! And following definetly won’t feel anywhere close to as akward as asking strangers for a friendship!
Follow people, if you want to receive news & updates; unfollow them, if you don’t want to get updates anymore … and maybe start following them again later. It’s up to you, it’s that easy!
Another new feature is, that you are now able to block people. We hope, you will never need this, but if you feel someone is getting too personal or anything – e.g. with his/her comments on your pictures, you can block him/her immediately. They won’t get any news, can’t follow you, can’t comment on your pictures anymore and won’t be able to view the pictures you put for followers only.
We think, that this principle fits much better with Tripmii and your interests.
What do you think? Do you have any questions? Leave us a comment!
