While Twitter is, for the most part, spam-free, there is a growing problem with Follower Spam. This blog post from Mashable and this article by David Berlind on Information Week describe the problem very well. Here are some characteristics of a Twitter spammer:
- Follows a large number of people (hundreds or thousands) in a very short period of time
- Uses bots / screen-scrapers to build up a list of people to follow
- Little regard for following people based on similar interests
- Tweets are mostly links back to their blog / web site
Why is this spam? Because each time that one of these spammers start to follow you, you get a New Follower e-mail. The e-mail looks like this:
Subject: MakeMoney999 is now following you on Twitter!
Hi, Joe Smith.
makemoney999 (makemoney999) is now following your updates on Twitter.
Check out makemoney999’s profile here:
http://twitter.com/makemoney999
You may follow makemoney999 as well by clicking on the “follow” button.
Best,
Twitter
It’s not always clear from the User ID of the new follower that this is someone spamming you. So you click through to their profile and see that they are following thousands and only have a handful of followers. If they have posted any tweets, they are usually promotional links back to their web site. In other words, this is good old fashioned spam.
Stop Twitter Spam is not objecting to:
- Businesses using Twitter as a way to do conversational marketing or provide support as long as they are using an opt-in approach for building their list of Followers
- People using Twitter like Instant Messenger. If you think someone is sending you too many tweets, just un-follow them.
- People who are using Twitter to broadcast mundane details of their life like eating a tuna sandwich
The main objection here is people spamming the Twitter community with these new Follower notices in an attempt to build a community on Twitter. We are compiling a list of Twitter spammers and will make that list available to anyone who is involved in any Twitter anti-spam initiatives. We are also submitting ideas for battling Twitter Spam on Get Satisfaction, which is Twitter’s platform for customer support.
If you are aware of a Twitter spammer, the best thing that you can do today is block that user. According to this post on Get Satisfaction, Twitter actively monitors blocking activity and will terminate the account if enough people block it in a short period of time. If you think the time has come for a ‘Report Spam’ button on Twitter, read this thread on Get Satisfaction. 04/09/08 Update: Twitter has added a ‘report spam’ option!
If you’d like to get involved in Stop Twitter Spam, send us an e-mail or contact us on Twitter.
If you’re looking for a way to eliminate the New Follower email alert, read this Anti-Spam Settings guide. But be warned, turning off this email means that you won’t be alerted when non-spammers (friends, family, readers of your blog, etc.) start to follow you on Twitter. And it doesn’t block the spammer from following you.
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