To follow or not to follow – that is the question. And no matter where you are in the big game called Twitter, it most likely matters to you who you are going to follow and who you are not. And believe me, there are plenty of twitter spammers out there that have caught on to some creative methods to get you to follow them.
Now I know you have probably read a dozen other articles as to why someone will or will not follow someone, but I thought I would throw some ideas out there too. I will say this right now – If you use Firefox, Flock, or another Mozilla brand browser that will accept Greasemonkey scripts, get yourself the Twitter User Classify script. I recommend using this as a touch-stone rather than an absolute game breaker for following someone.
The Spammer
When you see a user that follows 1,997 people and has only 15 people following them, and their “joined Twitter” date was 4 days ago – red flags should be flying. There is no one in their right mind that would use twitter “the right way” with this follow/follower ratio.
Where’s Waldo?
This person has only posted a few tweets advertising their affiliate product, MLM program, or some other ad-laden site and hasn’t been seen since 2007.
The Hot Chick
I am sure that girl who I have seen used in 20 different avatars is just having the darnedest time promoting her web site through so many names, such as Jenny, Jessica, Sarah, Jackie, Camille, Laura…the list goes on. (note: this doesn’t refer to actual twitter @usernames – only to their bio name). Mosey the Owl will be coming for you dear!
The Twitter Quitter
Yep – this is a new one that I am sure has got past me a few times. It’s good to be subscribed to a service that tracks who unfollows you, such as Qwitter or SocialToo for this one. This spammer follows you, and they may have an impressive following and show up as a Social Climber or even Socially Healthy. But not too long after, they drop you like a hot potato. Their avatar picture will most likely be displayed in your Twitter homepage for awhile – giving them free face time on your site, while keeping their follower count low.
You Want to be Friends? Really?
This group of followers does not fit into your interest category at all. You might like classical but they are hardcore acid rock fans. You like Obama, but they worship Bush. You say tomato and they say to-MAH-to. I am not really sure why this happens. They might like your feed for some particular reason. Or quite possibly, Mr. Tweet made a horrendous mistake at picking similar interested users! In this case, it’s your call whether or not to follow, but most likely, you’ll leave well enough alone and pass on the follow-back.
Summary
I will probably come across more twitter-types out there later on, but for right now, this is a list of a few of the types that I will not be following. The important thing is to follow someone (in one way or the other) who inspires you, makes you laugh, or care about and you will be well on your way to developing a solid twitter following.
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