Ever wondered what twitter considers spam ? Well here is a list to start with
- If you have followed a large amount of users in a short amount of time;
- If you have followed and unfollowed people in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive follower churn)
- If you repeatedly follow and unfollow people, whether to build followers or to garner more attention for your profile
- If you have a small number of followers compared to the amount of people you are following
- If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates
- If a large number of people are blocking you
- The number of spam complaints that have been filed against you
- If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account
- If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using hashtags
- If you post multiple unrelated updates to a trending or popular topic
- If you send large numbers of duplicate @replies
- If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies in an attempt to spam a service or link
- If you repost other user’s content without attribution.
- If you have attempted to “sell” followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive following or follower churn.
- Using or promoting third-party sites that claim to get you more followers (such as follower trains, sites promising “more followers fast,” or any other site that offers to automatically add followers to your account).
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Seriously, we must adhere to this list. Are we not tired of the spam?
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I absolutely agree with 6 through 15. I question what is considered a large about of users (#1 and #2) – I also question the limits of #3 and #4..and yes #3 is quite annoying which would like to people reporting you as spam and blocking you, so that is a bit redundant. I do not agree with #5. Most of the top tweeters are only sending out links such as http://twitter.com/guykawasaki
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Wished this was posted on twitter’s site map 4 all to see.
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A useful list – as a twitter Newbie I have to say that there appears to be a lot of it going on. To me, networking has always been about organic growth. I first entered the workforce as a freelancer in teh early 1980s – pre-widespread Net access – and if you wanted to build a network of contacts it was done via your work, trade shows, word of mouth, etc.
This meant that it took time to build a network, but that network was gold – no dross, no spammers, each member hand-picked. Today electronic media has allowed us to build massive networks but with little ‘quality control’.
I don’t see the point of buying followers unless you are a mass market publication / seller – and in that case it’s likely that unless targetted the folowers you buy are not good matches to your needs.
It may be slow, but I honestly suggest build up organically – lets make 2010 the year of quality not quantity.
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I know a few of the ones listed, such as #2, 3, 14 & 15 can be the most irritating.
Great list. Good to see they are trying to limit the annoyances caused by some. I have not had much of an issue with Twitter spam, it is easy enough to just block that annoying Tweeter… But for people who are trying to build a brand or market, these are definitely some good rules to follow, I agree with Cal that they should be on Twitter’s site map.
Interesting ! Thanks for sharing !
Hm, this is all very arbitrary. What is a “large number of users” and what is a “short amount of time”? I’ve been working mostly as the social media marketer at my company and there have been days when all I did was find relevant people and follow them. Does that mean I could be picked up as spam only because I’m trying to build relationships?
There are folks who follow by the thousand every day and unfollow those who don’t follow back . Hope it is clear now
#9 – does unrelated mean that the topic has nothing to do with the hashtag name?
@Kathy Yes , you are right , that is what it means !
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