A news article on Yahoo! Tech news today that I followed from my Technology and Software News page says the problem with Twitter spam is going to get worse before it gets better. And after only a couple of weeks on Twitter, I could see what they meant!
As a newbie to Twitter and with a public profile, I have already noticed a few of my new followers have been purely following me in the hope that I would follow them. However, unlike most new Tweeters, who more than likely reciprocate by following out of politeness, I blocked them instead.
Why? Because when I looked at their profiles and saw their tweets, it was obvious they were only their to market themselves… in a BIG way. This was even more apparent when I saw that the number of Tweeters they were “following” far exceeded the number of “followers” .
It’s already hard to keep up with tweets on a day-to-day basis from just the few Tweeters I’m following. It was obvious these new followers’ only intention was to spam me and I definitely don’t want to be spammed.
So, my advice to newbies like me, is to check out who has started following you before you start following them. If their Twitter page is full of self-promoting tweets (probably automated), and their followers are few and far between but they are following a huge number, block them. Hopefully, this will help prevent your Twitter page from being spammed.
After reading the article on Yahoo! News I followed another link with suggestions on how to banish Twitter spam. It pretty much reiterates what I’m saying here. Take a look, you may find it useful.
