DISQUS

Chris Charabaruk · 9 months ago

When I started getting popular on Twitter (about mid-January), I switched off notifications because I was getting so many in a single day from real people following me. Since I don't believe in auto-follow, I just use Tweepler to let me see if anyone new is following me. It's certainly made dealing with Twitter a lot less stressful, since Tweepler won't show me how many times someone might have stopped and started following me.

Not to sound like an ad for them, just pointing out that it's a good way to avoid follow spam. Hopefully Twitter will figure out some way to automatically block these revolving door accounts, though, for everyone who does keep notifications on.

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

I don't mind getting the follow notifications. Getting them lets me see a name and, especially if I know who it is, pay attention. Auto-following lets me message a lot more people, and it's funny how I practically assume everyone is following. When they're not and I want to send a DM, it's almost annoying if I can't.

Patrick · 9 months ago

What about auto dms? Do those count?

Hutch Carpenter · 9 months ago

Can you block these accounts to stop them from following you?

Tamar Weinberg · 9 months ago

I complained about this to Twitter. If you block someone and then choose to unblock them later in the future, Twitter gives you no other choice - you *MUST* add that person as a friend. I don't think that's fair. That said, I understand Louis's frustration - these 2 guys are also spamming me with the refollows.

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

They aren't the only ones, but they are fairly visible. Twice a day? Really? They're just begging to get suspended.

Chris Charabaruk · 9 months ago

Hutch: Blocking them should work. But the thing is, if they're doing this to Louis, they're probably doing it to everyone else, too. Twitter should add a check on users to make sure they're not "revolving door" followers, and ban accounts with this kind of activity.

Patrick · 9 months ago

I have a script in my twitter account (using a service called TweetLater.com) That auto unfollows and vice versa anyone who follows me, WITHOUT sending a auto dm since most of current followers hate it. If you go to tweetlater.com theres a way to make it so it will auto unfollow someone when they autounfollow you.

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

Auto DMs should be one time occurring if you are using them, Patrick. The issue of Auto-DMs has been discussed a bit recently. SocialToo recently turned them off and will block them at users' request, including those from TweetLater. That's less of an issue than these odd follow bots.

Patrick · 9 months ago

@Louis I've gone in to tweetlater.com and told it to not send a dm. I told it to auto follow but not send an auto dm.

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

Patrick, I think that's the right choice. I won't tell you what to do, but I think that is the right move.

m · 9 months ago

Inbox is one word.

Richard Azia · 9 months ago

Simple solution for me. I don't follow anyone new for at least a few weeks, I ignore the follows.

Patrick · 9 months ago

Lous, Thanks some people have told me that I shouldn't auto follow because i might get some spammers. After I get new followers I dbl check to see if there a person or a spammer or a twitterbot. If its a spammer I unfollow asap

Richard Arblaster · 9 months ago

Am I being too kind and putting it down to there being a twitter glitch on a daily basis? My updates figure tends to fluctuate at times as well.

Richard Azia · 9 months ago

I automatically mark as read and archive all messages about new twitter followers. It's only when they start interacting that I start caring, no danger of auto follow dm that way.

Jim Connolly · 9 months ago

Great post Louis! Another reason for this follow/unfollow tactic is to gain higher follower numbers. The user follows whatever their maximum follow number is. There are so many people using auto-follow, that these guys can add 600/800 new followers a day. Then, they delete the people who don't follow back and repeat. As more people follow them, the number they can follow each day also increases. There are around a dozen people with over 30k followers, who use this approach.

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

Good data here, Jim. It'd be interesting, since you were so specific, if you could tell us who those dozen people are with 30k followers who are doing the follow/unfollow/refollow dance. Not that we should care, but that's annoying.

Jeff C · 9 months ago

JIm's spot on. People are using new software called 'Hummingbird'. I read one users post instrucing his minions on how to use this Twitter cancer to quickly build massive followings. Basically, w/ Hummingbird, you manually choose a Twitter account, and the software automatically follows everyone that person is following. The post instructions said "wait 24 hours, then unfollow (I assume it's an automated, easy feature) anyone who hasn't followed you. Lather, rinse, repeat".

Obviously, people w/ larger follow/follower numbers are being targeted. Once that 2,000 barrier is breached, there's nothing to stop these asswipes from having 10, 20, 40,000 strong spam/junk peddling accounts. I still hand check each new follow, and am blocking anything suspicious, which is about half the activity now. It's a flood, it's a pain in the ass, and I fear it will only get worse.

Robert Scoble · 9 months ago

I hate auto DMs. I consider them spam.

Susan Beebe · 9 months ago

me too! totally annoying

Darrin Crow · 9 months ago

Wow, way to bust the bots! We got a twitter terminator here! It's true though, I hate it when accounts like that mess up Twitter.

Boom San Agustin · 9 months ago

I have actually REFOLLWED a lot of followers. But I'm not a spammer. Sometimes, I find that I'm suddenly UNFOLLOWING several people whom I never tried to unfollow. It just happened. So naturally, I refollowed them. This has happened to me several times and a few of my followers got unfollowed more than others... so, I refollowed several times. Frankly, this is getting tiring.

Sometimes, it's this situation that causes the "Follow/Refollow" thing! But I agree that @PoliticalUpdates and @twtr.us have clearly crossed the line here. I'm just saying that not all these situations are spams. Maybe they're just like me... ;)

Tamar Weinberg · 9 months ago

Boom: do you refollow people 20 times to even be considered in the same possible category? This is what Louis is pointing out. I understand that sometimes people unfollow others by accident and then refollow, but that's not the case with either offender in this post.

Don't equate them with your activity. I've seen friends of mine unfollow/refollow me more than once given the "bug" in Twitter, but it's just not even comparable. You're off the hook. ;)

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

I would echo Tamar. I've refollowed a handful of people after unfollowing all who weren't following me in SocialToo. But if you're doing it manually, it won't show up as regularly as those I highlighted above. You're safe.

Twittergator · 9 months ago

Auto Dm's are not spam! When you follow somebody you are wanting more posts, info, interaction from them. Effectively you are giving permission to this person to communicate with you. So if you have given permission to be tweeted, how when that person then tweets you is that spam? If you people who complain about auto DMs did not follow everybody, not only would you not receive the tweets you are complaining about, but it would also discourage the clueless from using auto DMs just for spreading links.

Tamar Weinberg · 9 months ago

Auto DMs are not spam? I guess this is why I follow only a select group of people. I understand if you "effectively" have given permission to receive DMs, but you did not give them permission to send you a stupid DM that everyone else and their mother got too.

If you're going to send me a DM, send me a personalized DM or don't send me one at all. I'll unfollow you if you spam me.

Robert is right. Auto DMs are quite annoying, and most/all would consider them spam.

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

I consider Auto DMs spam. That's why Jesse of SocialToo has turned them off and is actively seeking them out to be blocked.

Guest · 9 months ago

Auto-DMS are spam. YOU might like them but if the people who follow you don't like to receive them, why are you sending them out? I unfollow anyone who sends me an Auto-DM. And yes, I can a genuine message from an Auto-DM, they are completely predictable.

Robert Scoble · 9 months ago

Twittergator: they are absolutely spam. They are the most annoying thing I get now. Anyone who sends them is a real jerk. Real jerk. You are absolutely in the wrong here. You are ruining your reputation if you are using them. My friends ALL complain about them. Only assholes turn on auto DMs.

Pierre · 9 months ago

Hi Louis,
Here we go:
Political Updates (you mentionned it, but it's still active)
Three O'Clock Pot

There are more but unlike you, I don't keep all my emails ;-)

This spam is really a pain...

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

Pierre, yes, I should have mentioned Three O'Clock Pot as well. I have seen that spammer too.

Richard Azia · 9 months ago

Twittergator: Anything that doesn't require your attention to be sent on twitter is spam. With over 50,000 messages sent on twitter and after reading 10,000 tweets a day automated messages do become spam, as do RT. It's just part of life. Use a service before automating everything.

Mushin Schilling · 9 months ago

Why on earth would you automatically follow someone that follows you? What's wrong with checking someone first if you want to follow them? What is this amazing worship of quantity over quality?

Robert Scoble · 9 months ago

Mushin: I follow people automatically because they can not send me DM's (which I rely on for my business, which is getting news tips) if I do not follow them. If they follow me I believe that I should follow them back. That is a separate issue, though, from auto DMs. Auto DMs are horrid and anyone who uses them risks reputation damage.

Robert Scoble · 9 months ago

Twittergator: Automatic messages are NOT "communication" from them. That's communication from a computer, not from a human. I can tell and it really turns me off.

Susan Beebe · 9 months ago

twittergator: just because I follow you does not meet I want DMs, it does mean I want to follow your tweets (hopefully real content), not something churned out of a bot (fake content, typically salesy spam crap)

riaz · 9 months ago

ah yes the technical definition of spam vs the real definition of spam. Spam is something that is not wanted not something that you "opted into" somehow. The simple reality is, you will have less followers if you use an auto dm because some will unfollow you, and those that don't will have less respect for you (unless the auto dm is somehow relevant to the follower which right now is pretty much impossible inside Twitter). As scobleizer said - "you are ruining your reputation"

riaz · 9 months ago

Interesting that warzabidul regards an RT as spam.. I read somewhere that Scoble treats it as a measure of how well he is interacting with his audience. It is definitely a better measure than the number of followers, and an excellent guide to what your audience is interested in.

Richard Azia · 9 months ago

By this I mean that if I like a link I'll tell you why I think it's relevant rather than cut and paste what someone else wrote.

Richard Azia · 9 months ago

If you see the same RT 20 times a day for two or three days it becomes spam, like chain letters and other crap. It's got no added value. I have no idea why you think I should follow the link.

Meryn Stol · 9 months ago

In a few days, I got followed three times by a "Prague Bob" (which actually has lots of followers... not sure if some people actually like him). After the third time, I blocked him.

Mushin Schilling · 9 months ago

Robert Scobble: I see how u use twitter... Well, gotta wade through what you consider spam then. Have someone create you an auto-blocker. Sell it to the ones who need automatons to keep up with things. Make some money. Simply stop auto-following, trouble disappears...

Twittergator · 9 months ago

Mr Scoble, why the need to follow back? Generally; DMs or an @ is perfect for saying thanks for following. The only reason auto DMs are seen as of no value, is because you follow everybody. If you only followed people that are of a genuine interest to you or your business then you would see this. Twitter was never meant to be an instant message, one to one, service and those that use it that way are the ones complaining.

Twittergator · 9 months ago

riaz, I only want followers that are interested in my tweets, so if somebody finds my tweetin' irrelevant I would prefer...no... encourage them to unfollow me! Why do I need 500000000000 followers who pay no attention to what I say?

Mushin Schilling · 9 months ago

Hear, hear!

Richard Azia · 9 months ago

To which I respond, do you want highly engaged twitter users to follow you or do you want twitter users that log in five minutes one day per week? The more engaged the user the more they will dislike auto DM, simple reality of twitter.

Twittergator · 9 months ago

Without doubt I would prefer the person who is engaged with my tweets / me for 5 mins a week over a Scoble who will probably be logged in all day every day yet never even see one of my tweets, let alone engage with them. Simple reality of Twitter.

Richard Azia · 9 months ago

Have you seen what happens to a community where people engage five minutes a week? They fail. Why be part of a community you won't get a reaction from in a week? You want communities to be dynamic. Look at how you're using friendfeed. What if I waited a week for the next answer?

Asankhaya Sharma · 9 months ago

Twittergator and Richard Azia, both of you need to get a life ... :)

Richard Azia · 9 months ago

Ashankhaya and you need to contribute to the discussion. After all you're lurking on people that need to get a life ;-), What does that say about you :-).

Asankhaya Sharma · 9 months ago

That just says that I do not know a way to turn off looking at comments and I still want to follow Louis Gray ...

Michael Fidler · 9 months ago

It's nice to know that Jesse can put a block on these accounts. I was having this occur a few weeks ago, but it stopped. Next time I'll let him know right away. Thanks

Tamar Weinberg · 9 months ago

I reported twtr_us to Twitter about 4 times and they finally took action on the account. It's been suspended since March 5th.

I hadn't noticed the Political Updates refollow spam, but the same guy followed me 20 times, so I guess he's just as bad as twtr_us. I'm going to report him to Twitter now and suggest that you do the same.

riaz · 9 months ago

twittergator: I follow only few people who interest me and I have already my real world friends, my email marketing friends and my "internet technology" friends - an auto dm would be treated as spam by the majority. Maybe I need to have 3 different twitter accounts? <grin>

riaz · 9 months ago

Richard Azia: yeh I can see that being irritating.. need the ability to group the same links like in friendfeed..

Tamar Weinberg · 9 months ago

Curious question: is everyone commenting on this entry via FriendFeed?

I seem to be the only one who is using nested replies because I suppose I'm the only one actually physically commenting from Louis's blog post. ;)

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

Tamar, your efforts are appreciated. :-)

Many of the comments on the blog are synched over from FriendFeed. You're not the only one using Disqus natively, but yes, much of the discussion is happening over there. Sometimes, most of it happens natively. I like the combination.

Jeremy Chone · 9 months ago

Did not have this one yet. But, I get lot of "Free Laptop" notification spam.

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

If you ever do get a free laptop from it, I'll interview you and write it up.

Liz · 9 months ago

They are bots, looking for Auto-Follows to up their follower count. I'm not sure why it keeps trying so frequently. I've had people follow me, then unfollow me if I didn't automatically follow them back (say within 24 hours) and then a few days or weeks later, refollow me and start the process all over again. But none as persistent as your examples.

With the Tweetergetter system now, follower numbers are not a good indication of value or importance. Maybe they never were but before I could at least understand the basis of some people's popularity (popular blog, news feed, internet celebrity, etc.). Now, you can be a top person on Twitter after being on it for a month, longevity is meaningless.

I use to think it was great that Twitter was a network with few, if any, rules but it is frustrating over the past 2-3 months have people have come in and "gamed" the system. I think it devalues Twitter but I guess it was inevitable that people would try to manipulate the system.

Jannifer · 9 months ago

I really hate the TweeterGetter system & don't understand why Twitter doesn't suspend those accounts that use it or at least the person who created it.

Twittergator · 9 months ago

riaz; ah email marketing interest, now I see why you have this "push" marketing philosophy going on. Dude, your "friends" will only see your DM if they follow you back, indicating they are interested in YOU and your tweets, they want you to communicate with them. If they are auto-following everybody that follows them, then yes they will receive many irrelavent messages, but that is their own fault. Although Twitter is completely opposite to email, a comparison would be you entering your email for....

Twittergator · 9 months ago

.... a newsletter about gardening, then when you start receiving the newsletter, reporting it as spam because actually you have no interest in gardening. And just like the idiots that are alledgedly following then unfollowing to get you following back, the person whose gardening newsletter you have reported as spam will get no value from you subscribing, they could talk to you about gardening till the cows come home, but they will never convert you to a customer.

authorlisalogan · 9 months ago

Thanks for this post--I was just talking about how a spammer kept refollowing me every time I tried to dump them. I do auto follow, but it's good to know I can block people here just for the spam value. And I do not believe in auto-DM's. They're an annoyance that costs me money when I'm twittering from my phone, since I pay per text.

riaz · 9 months ago

You assume that your twitter followers are all interested in gardening.. However, in twitter, with the various groups that might be following me (and me following back) having the auto dm be relevant to them is impossible right now. It is either too vague (and obviously automated, which irritates) or more detailed but irrelevant (using the gardening newsletter analogy.. the auto dm is about gardening but they followed me for my email marketing tweets.)

Patrick · 9 months ago

I watch the show 24 and when I say something about that show people reply back to me. I try to find somnething that all my followers like. Sports, TV, Music, Polictics. I try and keep everyone up to date with everything I tweet. The more updates I have and the more variety the more likely I am to have followers who like that section. So I try and tweet almost anything I can.

bloqhead · 9 months ago

This type of spam is starting to annoy me more than email spam. It's one thing to receive email spam but now they're bleeding over into popular social tools. I don't think I've gotten popular enough to see this and I hope it doesn't get too bad. Lately I've been getting a bunch of Twitter follows daily but I read all of them, check the Twitter profile and their updates and then I decide if I want to follow them.

The only ones I've been getting are the ones that say something like "Just got my free computer LOL" and I block every one of them. It has sloped off a little and I hope it doesn't get too bad. I don't use any sort of tools in unison with Twitter, except for apps like DestroyTwitter. I like to be completely genuine to my users but SocialToo looks like a great tool

Robert Scoble · 9 months ago

Twittergator: you're wrong, but you'll eventually realize the error of your ways. Beliefs like yours are what destroys communities. I've seen it over and over again since I joined my first online community in 1985. By the way, how I use Twitter is documented at http://www.kyte.tv/scobleizer

Judy Rey Wasserman · 9 months ago

Good article and I plan to RT it after I leave this comment.
I have had the same experience. I had not thought that it was about bringing the follower to my attention . I am known and daily stated that I follow my followers. I am a big proponent of doing so for those who are in business or want to network with others, including making friends.
It seems that some of the spammers follow and then unfollw to get more followers-- without it costing them the ability to follow others due to Twitter follow ratios. A few people seem to follow and unf9ollow, or start new accounts when Twitter closes them down with this tactic. It is only a small handful o f people who behave this way.
I agree that it is almost always someone who is a basic spammer, seeking to sell but not als be a real part of the community.
Thanks for the insight.
Judy Rey Wasserman
http://twitter.com/judyrey

Bill · 9 months ago

I noticed this trend over the past week or two as well. In fact, several of the accounts that were following me, then unfollowed and refollowed are legitimate people, with legitimate businesses. I can imagine that this activity will play havoc on their businesses and is not smart at all. I am not sure if they are trying to stay top-of-mind with this tactic, gaming the system in someway or just trying to be annoying. Needless to say, I do track all follower emails - grouped by name in a separate folder via an outlook rule (since subject from twitter start with their name) and if there are accounts with more than one notification within a few days that they are following me I get suspicious. Granted, some of them followed a while back, unfollowed at some point and then refollowed so those don't strike me as the "spammy" type - maybe I wasn't providing as good of value then as I am now, which is true.

Anyway, if in a few days time there is more than one follow from the same person, I simply ignore at this point - will probably move to blocking them soon.

Wendy Piersall · 9 months ago

YAY that twitr.us is suspended - these two accounts have been driving me crazy for weeks!

jmacofearth · 9 months ago

This is great information. I disagree about the AutoFollowing practice and more so about the AutoDMing practice, I think this one post hits the problem on the head. Squarly on the head.

Prokofy Neva · 9 months ago

OHHHH I didn't realize what they were doing, I wondered why somebody would keep following and refollowing me like that. They also stack up lots of alts with names like seowiz123 sewiz234 etc. Well I just delete them if I see they are hustling something so obviously. I have a rule that if anybody's profile has the word "SEO" or "Leadership Training" or "Social Media Consultant" in their description, I will not follow unless they have a redeeming quality -- and "father of five" will not be that redemption.

Jesse Stay · 9 months ago

Just FYI, if you see any of these please report them to me (and block them so Twitter knows). I'll ensure no one on SocialToo auto-follows them (and we'll retroactively unfollow anyone that autofollowed them in the past).

Jesse Stay · 9 months ago

Robert, I'm reading your Naked Conversations right now on the iPhone Kindle app, and the section where you talk about Seth Godin's "Interruption Marketing" fits auto-DMs to a tee. I'm going to do a post on it tomorrow I think. auto-DMs are the new "Interruption Marketing". (note I've never read an entire book of Godin's, but I love what I'm reading in Scoble & Shel's book about it)

wecandobiz · 9 months ago

I don't see anything wrong with auto DMs. I send a response to all my followers thanking them for the connection, which happens once and that is it. I make no apology for extending a courtesy to them, even though I automate the process. And I am always happy to receive thanks from others when I follow them.

When you network you expect to get contacted. Twitter provides some great methods for unfollowing, blocking or even reporting anyone whose contact is getting overwhelming.

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

Liz · 9 months ago

But if the people who receive them don't like Auto-DMs, don't you realize you are annoying them? It might make you feel good but it'll result in many people unfollowing you.

wecandobiz · 9 months ago

If a simple "thank you" in a DM puts someone off following me before they have received any tweets then I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Networks on Twitter are likely to be fluid I believe. I, myself, follow and unfollow if I see that the content being tweeted is no longer relevant to me, too plentiful or of marginal value, or that I am just not "connecting" with the other party; much the same way that I drift between blogs. That's normal, isn't it? I expect it to happen.

I am not on Twitter, or any social network, to collect followers like Pokemon cards.

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

Susan Beebe · 9 months ago

Jesse nice work on SocialToo and DM management... thanks!

coachpalmer · 9 months ago

great tips on the post comments. This was starting to be a problem for my inbox.

Renee · 9 months ago

Wow, great post...I thought I was imagining names disappearing/reappearing. One person is very good: he waits several days or a week so you don't notice his name reappearing. Reading this post, finally realized what's going on. Why do people think they're going to get away with annoying hundreds or thousands of people and no one's going to complain?

grapplica · 8 months ago

nice insights, tnx

Bwana McCall · 8 months ago

Dude, I'm STILL getting this today. It's ridiculous and annoying. I'm thankful for Gmail fitlers.

benin · 8 months ago

One of the things about Twitter that a lot of these "follower in a box" type of devlopers don't understand is that although it is a very open system, there is something about Twitter that is very different than Myspace and some of the other social networks that lent themselves to these types of companies that create these robotic follower getters. In essence, anything that you do on Twitter that comes across as generic and isn't personal is immediately perceived as spam. Additionally, I would rather have a more tightly knit Twitter following where my followers and I share interests and conversation than many followers who don't or won't talk to me.

Now here is one of my pet peeves is the automatic direct message that some Twitterers have enabled for their accounts. If I am going to get a text message from a direct, it would really be good if it was at least somewhat original.

benin · 8 months ago

I also wanted to add that directs are sent to twitter users mobiles if the get mobile updates. depending upon their plan they can actually get charged for these auto DM's. Not good at all.

Cee · 8 months ago

Even more annoying ist the fact that both @PoliticalUpdate and @twtr.us have found a way to "let me follow" the automatically. As I follow only a few people I remember who was the last one I followed. A couple of days ago I saw @twtr.us on top of my list. Today it was @PoliticalUpdate. Weird!

Danna Crawford · 8 months ago

Thanks for the information! I've added your link to my wall!

Julia · 6 months ago

Ok, I'm pretty new too Twitter. I signed up for the service Tweetlater which I like and find helpful. When someone follows me on Twitter my tweetlater account auto sends (sorry no one hit me!) :) a DM that says thank you for following me. There are no links in it or anything like that. I just thought it would be good netiquette. Now reading these responses I'm rethinking my decision. Should I stop the thank you DM's?