I’ve been thinking about writing a post on Twitter Spammers for a long time. Well actually a specific Twitter Spammer. But since I never think it’s a good idea to go around name calling (it’s bad for you, and it gives too much attention to the person in question) let’s approach this in another way.
My friend Brian Solis has a personal policy of never saying anything negative about a specific person. If you ask him about someone that he dislikes, he says: “I won’t tell you what I think about John Doe, but I will tell you what I think about people like him.” Subtle and yet direct at the same time. Plus no one can ever claim he said anything negative about John Doe. It’s a win-win.
So we’ll leave my specific Twitter Spammer unnamed (mostly because I don’t want to give her the google juice)…but I will say what I think about people like her.
Why Does This Matter?
There is a disturbing trend happening on Twitter. The Opportunists are popping up everywhere. Opportunists are people who follow trends or fads, and try to Get Rich Quick by tricking innocent people. They try to capitalize on the Talent and Hard Work of the people who came before them. They pretend to be something they are not – and if no one calls them on it – THEY GET AWAY WITH IT. I’ve said for a long time that Perception is Reality. This is especially true in Social Media.
So I’m writing this post as a call to action. Not just for my own community here in Houston, but for the hundreds of communities all over the World who are dealing with Spammers & Opportunists of their own.
You’re A Twitter Coach – Wait…Strategist?
So now you’re probably wondering what a Twitter Spammer/Opportunist looks like. Well for starters, their Twitter bio states that they are a “Twitter Coach”, “Twitter Strategist”, “New Media Thought Leader” or some variation thereof. Okay – I’m not exactly sure what a Twitter Coach does – and I’d actually be willing to buy that…except the people making these claims have been on Twitter for less than 6 months and don’t really know the first thing about Social Media, Technology, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, or even Psychology. The problem is – they’ve never actually done anything but claim to be experts. If you ask them about The Clue Train Manifesto they stare at you blankly, and if you mention Plurk or Pownce they think you’re speaking a foreign language.
There’s nothing wrong with being late to the party (we can’t all be early adopters). But it’s not okay to substitute the knowledge and hard work of the people who paved the way as your own. And it’s definitely not okay to claim credit for things you didn’t do, or to pass off other people’s work as your own. Especially when you’re trying to get paid for it.
Real Influence
The second way you can tell a Twitter Opportunist, is that they talk about their follower number A LOT. They talk about how they went from 100 to 16K twitter followers in 4 months. And then they claim that this is Organic Growth, while at the same time trying to sell you a program to increase your twitter followers or worse a Twitter for Profits Course.
They think that influence has something to do with numbers, and yes sometimes that can play a part. But real influence has very little to do with follower count, and much more to do with deep relationships that are built over time. In fact, some of the most influential people I know on twitter have less than 100 followers. But they can pick up a phone and with one call make unbelievable things happen.
Twitter Opportunists treat their Twitter Followers like cattle. The more heads the better. They think that this buys them protection or leverage. And they are wrong on both counts. As my friend Jeremy likes to say:
“Sure, build an ‘Elite Power Account’, but don’t call yourself expert, maven, guru, or coach. Spamming Twitter does not make you a Premier Thought Leader. It makes you an Idiot. A paper millionaire with a fistful of Enron stock. The numbers are impressive, but have no value outside of impressing people who don’t know any better.”
It’s like that old saying, “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice…wait you can’t fool me twice” (you know it’s a problem when I’m stooping to quote Bush). But seriously, Influence and Social Capital aren’t just buzz words that can be thrown around willy nilly.
So What Can You Do?
I’ve done a lot of soul searching on this issue, and I’m going to give you a list of things I think we can do to help manage this problem (I’m not naive enough to think it’s going to go away). But first, I want to tell you why you should do something.
The question I keep asking myself is why haven’t more people called her out publicly for her behavior? Is it because they are scared of her, or because they don’t want to give her more attention? Probably no on the first count, but possibly on the later. And then I was talking to one of my bestfriends Tara Hunt and she said that the real problem is that in “Proper Society” it’s not okay to call people out or embarrass them in public. That’s just bad manners.
She’s right. It’s bad manners. But if we all stand around being “proper” and trying to “rise above it” – we’re going to wake up one day to an even bigger mess then we are facing right now. Then we’ll have let the Opportunists win. It’s just like standing by and watching someone get bullied – but not stepping in to help. Only we’re the ones getting bullied!
Well – I say enough is enough. So here’s what you can do to help us save Twitter (and any other Social Network or Real Life Network for that matter) from the invasion of the Opportunists:
- Block Them. In Twitter there is a text link in the right sidebar that says “block”. Use it. If enough people block someone on twitter they are removed from the system.
- If you see someone taking credit for something they didn’t do, telling a half-truth, or bold faced lie – Call them out. Send them an email first, but then if they continue the behavior call them out publicly. If enough people call Bullshitake (yes I’m quoting Guy cause I love him) on these people, they won’t be able to trick the people who don’t know any better. Think of it like doing your civic duty to keep our community safe & secure.
- Tell your friends. One of the things I’ve been guilty of in the past is not protecting my friends from people I knew were Opportunists. I would make the assumption that they were smart and would figure it out for themselves. And they usually did – but a lot of times it was AFTER they had already been burned. So if you know someone has the wrong intentions, is an Opportunist, Spammer, or Social Climber – warn your friends.
- UPDATE: Thanks to NickW for reminding me of this point. Email Twitter with your concerns. If you love this service – send them a message and let them know that you’d like to see them take more action on their end. And when you block someone – also send their name to spam@twitter.com. And if you do email them – be sure and mention this simple UI change proposed by Andrew Hyde: A Simple UI Change to Make Twitter Unattractive to Spammers
The moral of this story is that together we have a much stronger voice then any of these Spammers with their inflated twitter accounts, we just need to use it. My friend Angela told me tonight that a lot of people are in my corner, and knowing that gave me the courage to write this post. Let’s use our voice to give every member of our communities that same courage.
UPDATE: Other Posts You Might Find Useful on this Topic:
- Twitter Marketing: Why You Don’t Need to Mass Follow Users
- Twitter Twerp Scan – Block Twitter Spammers
- Dear Twitter Spammers, You’re Doing It Wrong
- Here Comes Twitter Spam & How to Fight It
- Eight Tips to Spot Twitter Spammers
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Erica OGrady is the CXO of Peanut Butter Media. She is currently HOMELESS while working on a project called Twilight & Tea. Erica is a Writer, Adventurer, Explorer who Still Believes in Santa and Following Your Bliss -- For more information Text ERICAOGRADY to 50500
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Well darlin, nice post, but why don’t you name the douche bag publicly? God knows I would…
Exceptionally written Erica! Especially agree w/the tackiness of announcing how many followers you have or using apps to build a following. DM me the name chick, I have no problem calling them out.
Amen!
A couple of other ideas:
1. Don’t autofollow. Lots of these people are banking on autofollows to build their numbers.
2. Use one of the twitter utilities available to check out new followers. I like twittfilter.com.
Thanks for taking a stand!
Jim – I like Twittfilter too! Little known secret, my friend Chris Peri built it (partly for me). He’s @perivision if you’re not following him already. Also love the suggestion about no Autofollow. I know twitter was discontinuing Autofollow across the board, but I’m sure there are ways around that.
Paige & Deena – I don’t want to give her anymore attention, she doesn’t deserve it. But people who have met her – already know who I’m talking about
Agreed 100% Erica. Thank you so much for posting this finally. I believe that this is exactly a great way to start cleaning up Twitter or #SaveTwitter if you will. You have my full support and I know I don’t speak alone. I might have not been on Twitter since the day it started, but I give credit where credit is do. This is something the person you are talking about, hasn’t done. On her radio show today, when she spoke about a certain Local Place, credit was given, it was taken. I am cool with people who don’t want to give credit, it really doesn’t bother me, but don’t claim something that is not yours. Some of us actually really try hard to build a great community with social media outlets and give back to our local communities. Others don’t and should not claim any responsibility for it.
In essence I agree with the sentiments here very much, although I’m often more direct about the persons involved (forgive me, I’m an Aussie, and we’re about as diplomatic as a bucket of turds at a dinner function). In practical reality, I’ve simply decided to spend a few minutes each week weeding out the cr@p from my Twitter follower/followed lists. The signal to noise ratio has improved drastically (credits to @paulmanwell for reminding me about signal to noise
), and it’s pretty easy to see who’s noise after a day of follow-ness. These days I’m over my follower numbers and in fact happy to keep it low, and I choose to follow those with something interesting to say to me (indirect as it may be). “Block” is indeed your friend as the spammers rise. 
In future however, Twitter will have to take more affirmative action, in my opinion.
NickW – AMEN. I forgot that was the 4th thing on my list – Email Twitter with your concerns. I’m going to go update the post now!!!
If you’re losing money to someone who claims to be a “new media thought leader” you kinda deserve to have your money taken. If you’re scouring the Interwebs for ways to increase your follower count, you REALLY need to have your money taken.
Yeah, these spammers are douches, but the only way you lose to these dorks is if you’re trying to follow in their path.
So I got a phone call from a very large company looking to build a “customer engagement” team today and they wanted advice. I specifically said avoid those “doucebags” that claim a lot, but have delivered very little. Good work Erica! Now lets all go out there and make something.
Great post. I’ve have been silently watching this growing trend for quite some time now. Know how I deal with these twerps? I simply refuse to follow most folks that follow me unless they have something meaningful or just funny to speak about. I don’t need a freekin’ coach.
I really like Twimailer because it allows me to see a few recent tweets about a new follower and it gives me options to follow, block, or report as spam right in my inbox. So what I only have 70 followers? I only follow about that many folks so that works for me.
We all know that there is always some jerk at a party that ruins the good time for everyone else. Thanks for the read!
Went to bed with this on mind. I feel bad for this individual. Is what she is doing wrong? Yes. What if she was never the popular kid in school, nor had much attention growing up and her only way to feel that is through her tactics on Twitter. Does she know what she is doing is wrong? No clue. I personally will use the BLOCK option more.
99% of the spam profiles are automated and run, en masse, from a central software deck. It’s bad form for a human being to get angry at a code robot — just block them. That’s the most we can do for the hygiene of Twitter and it’s expensive servers. Once all Twitter users make it a point of fact to just block spam followers, rather than keep them to inflate their egos, this sort of advertisement will become more difficult.
Sadly, it will never go away, though. Simply because it works — that’s why I still get emails from Nigerians (and now, brave US troops who want me to help them smuggle out $23 million of Saddam’s money.)
Not to jump onto a soapbox first thing in the AM, but: this is because America’s education system failed decades ago and we’ve got a sizeable chunk of our population operating at roughly a third grade level. They drive vehicles, they vote, they spend lots of money on movies and they even reproduce. They also happen to be online and have access to a credit card.
As long as those people exist to be taken advantage of, other will be taking advantage of them.
And the people of twitter said..Amen.
Great post Erica!
AWESOME! If there were a Twitter Bible, I’d expect this to be found in the Twitter Book of Exodus, in the Twitter Ten Commandments…
But seriously though, very well written. I’ve been having disconcerting thoughts regarding the influx in popularity Twitter has received over the last couple of weeks. I actually DM’ed the Twitter Traffic Machine guy after he started following me, asking him why (and you were on point when you said this, which is why I’m going to use it) he thought “influence has something to do with numbers.” No response… meaning no desire to indulge me and even more so, create a “relationship” with me… interesting, no? *swiftly Qwitted
Erica, thanks for a thoughtful post and great writing as always.
One of the best things about the Twitter community is the way that people look out for each other. I continue to be grateful to you and @gdruckman for ethically and cleanly giving me a heads up about The Person In Question.
Saw something this morning on Twitter: JeanineDealRT @lovepeaceunity Tweet everybody the way you wish to be tweeted.. “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” ~ Gandhi
What goes around, comes around. Thanks for all the good you do for ALL of us!
I wanted to clarify a few points. First – this isn’t an issue about Twitter specifically (Twitter is simply a good example in this case). We’ve all seen people like this in our communities. And this problem IS NOT going away.
But I know that I’ve contributed to this growing epidemic by staying silent – not for months – but for years. Maybe it’s because I’m not in my 20’s anymore, or maybe it’s because my Bullshitake tolerance has gone down – but I’m just tired of seeing the work of my friends devalued and diluted.
I’m writing a followup post to this about Community. And I’m going to highlight all the incredible things our Houston Community has done and is currently doing. Let’s take the focus off of the problem, and put it onto the solution.
Yes yes YES. As you know, I call these people the Twitter Pyramid Scheme. It’s obnoxious.
Here via @greeblemonkey – great post. We do talk internally, and we do call bullshitake. I just have a hard time with calling it out in public; I do enough policing here at home.
Agree with Jim Hughes and Greeblemonkey. I want to autofollow because I want to assume that I would be interested in everyone that’s interested in me, but it just isn’t so. It might take me a few minutes a day, but I feel better vetting each person before I followback.
Exactly what happened to usenet, and email, and search engines, and many other things we all love and rely upon.