Here is a scary thought: email with no spam control. Frightening isn’t it? Well, even scarier is that is exactly what social media is going through right now. While the spammers on Twitter and Facebook may not be as notorious as those behind the Nigerian email scams, they have become a nuisance at the very least.
Spam Control: Facebook vs. Twitter
If you look at the two most popular social networking sites, Twitter and Facebook you will see work in progress when it comes to spam control. Still, of the two, Facebook is far more advanced in their anti-spammer policies.
One of the biggest reasons behind Facebook’s strict policy can be attributed to the actual premise of Facebook itself. Serving as an online representation of real-life relationships, Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg realized the importance of real conversations and connections and more importantly the importance of keeping out ‘delinquents.’
Although Twitter may be behind when it comes to filtering out spammers, this is partly due to the openness of Twitter itself. One of the biggest reasons why Twitter became so popular is because it allows users to interact with others in an open and direct space. A user doesn’t have to send a “Friend request” to someone to chat with them, but can instantly message him or her as soon as they sign up for an account. While Twitter does monitor suspicious activity and has disabled hundreds and thousands of accounts, as the say goes: “You’ve got to take the good with the bad,” which in the case of Twitter means allowing spammers to annoy just about anyone at the cost of letting everyone communicate with one another.
How To Spot A Spammer On Facebook & Twitter
So how do you know who are the spammers? We all know what to look for in emails, but how do we know that the person we are following on Facebook or Twitter isn’t actually a spammer in disguise. Here are some easy ways to tell:
The Same Auto-Feeds
One clear way to tell if they are a spammer is to check their updates on Twitter or Facebook. If you see that more than 90% of their updates are from an automatic RSS feed and is sending out the same content every time, this is an immediate red flag. While you may actually be interested in herbal green tea from China, it isn’t helpful if they tell you it 5 times a day, 7 days a week.
The Generic Profile
Another way to spot a spammer is to check out their profile. On Twitter especially, this is sometimes a sure giveaway. One of the most obvious things to look for is if they have a link in their profile. If it is sending you to an adult website or trying to get you to re-finance your home, your best bet is to unfollow them.
If you’re still not clear on if the account is legit, then check out the rest of their profile. A few other things you can look out for is an unbalanced Followers/Following ratio where in they are following 2,000, but only have 50 followers, and also their bio information. Remember that if it sounds fishy, it most likely is.
Joseph is the Director of Marketing at Viralogy.com & works in social media & sports consulting. Read more about him at http://JosephAYi.com .
Tags: Facebook, Social Media, Spam, Twitter
It’s funny. When I first started Twitter, I would follow anyone that followed me because I felt it was a great way to connect and meet new people. I loved the idea of being able to have this large news stream in front of me with so many interesting discussions going on. However, I soon realized that Twitter spammers were growing and so were these bot accounts. I wasn’t seeing news feeds anymore of people I was interested in following, but instead reading a bunch of advertisements. Granted marketing is done through Twitter and that’s understandable, but not when it’s all that’s talked about by the same person. At the moment, I realized I needed to restructure my follower list and did so. Even though I lost a lot of followers by doing this, good riddance! I want to develop meaningful relationships and discussion with people. If someone only follows me because I follow them back, what benefit are we truly getting out of social media? I can now look at my Twitter stream everyday and see great news and conversation with people I interact with on a daily basis.
@Frank Thanks Frank! I really appreciate the comment. I was pretty much the same way when I started out. I would follow EVERYONE thinking that was the way to go. When I saw the big names in social media following hundreds and thousands, I felt I had to do the same. In the end I realize that we need to control our own feeds, or we subject them to spam galore. Happy holidays!
[...] deems as ’spam.’ Twitter goes in-depth on this topic by outlining what is classified as ’spam’ in their [...]
[...] deems as ’spam.’ Twitter goes in-depth on this topic by outlining what is classified as ’spam’ in their [...]