How To Handle Twitter SPAM On Your Twitter

Posted on 05. Nov, 2009 by Cory in Twitter

So, you’ve made the decision to join Twitter. You’ve taken advantage of the various tools available to help you figure out who to follow – such as Twitter’s search engine and Twitter Snipe – and you’ve started to build a following of your own. As this process unfolds however, you may find yourself having to deal with that internet bane of long standing – SPAM.

Twitter spam is the result of people taking advantage of people who are following them by sending them unwanted direct messages or just following them with the intent of just increasing their own follower count, i.e. they have no actual interest in them or their tweets.

However, different people define Twitter spam in different ways. For example, if someone decides to follow you, and -mainly to be polite – you follow them back you in effect agree to receive direct messages from them. While it may upset you if some of these people subsequently bombard you with marketing pitches that you have no use for, it can be argued that you asked for it by agreeing to follow them.

You can proactively avoid a lot of headaches from the get-go by checking out another user’s Twitter profile before deciding whether to follow that person back. Many Twitter profiles will provide a link for “why they use Twitter.” If a person’s profile provides full disclosure that their account is intended to announce promotions or be product-centered, then that is what it is likely to be. So, try looking at a few days worth of the person’s tweets to see if following them back makes sense.

Twitter’s policy on direct messages is clear: If you follow a user, you’re allowing that person to send you direct messages. While some have noted it would be nice to follow someone, but withhold the right for them to send DMs (Direct Messages), this capability doesn’t exist yet. Therefore, you need to use your own judgment as to whether someone is spamming you via direct messages. Aggressive marketers and some PR types all too often will send a “thanks for following me” direct message, which can become quite annoying.

If the follower has been up front about the purposes of their account, don’t be surprised if he or she floods your inbox with messages about products or services. You try might politely DMing them back that you generally don’t prefer to receive direct messages, but this may or may not end the practice.

Twitter users that are primarily interested in pushing a product or service like to artificially build up their following list by following as many people as they
can. In extreme cases, these automated accounts have followed so many people they’ve threatened the performance of the entire Twitter system.

As a result, Twitter has now set a limit on how many people users may follow. The limit is either 2000 or 110% of your followers, whichever is greater. At 2,000, if the reciprocation is not within 10 percent, the account’s ability to follow new people is frozen until the follow/followed ratio evens out.

If you think you have a clear case of someone committing follower spam, you should report it to Twitter for investigation. However, you should also be careful about doing this except in extreme or malicious case. At this point in Twitter’s history, some spam might not be ill-intentioned, as businesses and individuals figure out by trial and error the most effective way to use this platform.