Twitter spam has continued to become a bigger annoyance on the microblogging service. Of course all social networks have their own share of spam problems. The opportunity for free marketing is just to good for some to pass up. Sadly for us users it really kills the experience. Most of us just want to use Twitter as it’s meant to be used, as a huge distraction from doing actual work.
So we’ve created this field guide to help you identify the most common strains of Twitter spam. We’re also going to teach you how to report the little bastards. While this won’t stop the flow of all spam, it can certainly help.
Let’s get started.
Increase Your Flock
So these folks are pretty much the worst of the worst. They typically promote some horrible Twitter software package that will grow your followers by 10,000 overnight and I assume increase your penis size as well. Their work helps put these software packages in the hands of yet even more people who shouldn’t have them.
Affiliate and MLM Marketing Bird Crap
Affiliate and MLM (Multi-level-marketers) are arguably the pond scum of Internet marketers. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very smart affiliate marketers out there doing great work, but they aren’t doing it on Twitter. In the pyramid of silly online money marketing opportunities these folks are at the bottom. Their success depends on pushing their spammy techniques to the edge. They create 1000’s of fake profiles, and dump their promotions over, and over and over again.
Slutbots
Slutbots are really annoying because most of us guys are easily fooled. When we see a hot avatar we can’t help but click through for a closer look. Sure you might already know she’s a bot, but it doesn’t hurt to check. Sometimes you even click their horrible links and get routed through a barrage of dating sites, usually landing up on AdultFriendFinder. So yes gentleman, it’s safe to assume any hot girl wearing little to no clothes in her avatar is not real, unless of course it’s @avflox.
Gift Garbage
My cat leaves me gifts sometimes. Typically I find them in my shoe and in the form of vomit. Like finding these in my DM inbox, it’s not a great way to start the day. It’s best to unfollow these folks upon receipt. No doubt they’ll be sending you lord knows what in the future.
@reply @ssholes
@reply spam can be especially annoying. After all, your replies stream is one of the more valuable pieces of real estate in Twitterville. It’s here you can have more intimate communications with your buddies and see who retweets your 140 character masterpieces. The above strain shows the “carrot on a string” technique, a specially crafted message that banks on my curiosity and vanity for a click through.
How to Report Spammers
Now that you know how to identify the worst offenders it’s time to learn how to send them directly to the Twitter Spam Department. Actually it’s just one guy, and he’s sorta an intern and he comes in like every other week.
I guess I’m trying to say that this method is not the greatest solution, but it’s the best we have right now. One might assume that if enough folks report a particular user, some type of smart and killer algorithm will suspend the account, and in the process make Twitter a better place to play.
Here is what to do:
- Follow @spam
- Wait for them to follow you back
- Check out the @spam favorites for more tips while you wait for the return follow
- Report spammers via DM Â by sending the user name and a link to an offending tweet. Or you can @reply spam with the user name
- Pat yourself on the back
- Go make a sammich
Bonus Points:
Report spam even easier with Seesmic Desktop. This Twitter client has a spam reporting feature build right in that automatically crafts your DM to @spam.
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