Comments on: Take a Minute to Purge Your Twitter Followers

By: Susan Cartier Liebel

Susan Cartier Liebel — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:49:30 +0000

Good point, Dan. When I block, though, they can’t follow, again, which is a time-saver, too. Your suggestion is definitely a huge because now you are only purging once a month instead of daily or even weekly. I’ve also noticed Twitter is getting very good about getting rid of spammers on their own so they may actually (hopefully) be doing the job for us in some ways.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:14:42 +0000

I completely agree with you that the numbers are irrelevant.

One trick I use is to check my followers only around every month or so to determine who I should follow back. I find that doing that leads most of the spammers to just disappear on their own because they are really only following me to get me to follow back so they can add to their own numbers. When I do not follow back right away, they flee.

By: The Social Media Detox | JDHacker | Legal Technology and Practice Management Guide

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:00:01 +0000

[...] the advice of Susan Cartier Liebel to purge your twitter followers who add nothing of value to your agenda or [...]

By: Susan Cartier Liebel

Susan Cartier Liebel — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:23:37 +0000

Unfortunately, right now there is very little to do but purge. Think of it as swatting flies. It’s unpleasant but it must be done or otherwise they are all over your picnic food.

By: Doreen Clemons

Doreen Clemons — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:29:32 +0000

I’ve been doing that, but these sleazy followers won’t shake off my coat-tails after I block them. They’ve been in my list for at least two days, and it’s been even longer in the past. Is this just the way it is, or am I supposed to something other than block them?

Thanks,

Doreen

By: Matt Austin

Matt Austin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:28:26 +0000

Great tip. Also worth mentioning – don’t automatically follow those who follow you unless you want to unwittingly end up following the link in Susan’s post!

By: Susan Cartier Liebel

Susan Cartier Liebel — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:55:01 +0000

Linda, you don’t ‘escape’ it, you manage it I find a minute or two a day when I check my e-mails is a small price to pay.

By: Lisha Fabris

Lisha Fabris — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:45:42 +0000

Hi Susan. Thank you for writing this post. I recently cleaned up my followers/following (takes SO much time). But I found, once I did it, it only takes a few minutes every few days to stay up on it.

I agree with everything you have said. It’s apalling what is going on with the twitter spammers and the “traffic machines.” How do we escape it???

By: scottpalmer

scottpalmer — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:33:55 +0000

When I receive a spam email with a fake address that ends in “target.com” or with “UPS tracking number” in the subject line, I don’t feel that the sometimes vulgar content reflects on these companies at all. As well, I don’t believe people check a user’s followers list with a critical eye. If they see followers with obvious profanity or other objectionable names or avatars, they most likely won’t click on them.

Since there is no automated way to handle this today in Twitter, unlike email, I believe having followers of this nature is not a negative. These spam followers don’t reflect poorly on your image, they are a price of doing business and being a prolific poster on Twitter.

I’m a enthusiastic proponent of caretaking and pruning one’s social media presence. I agree that if we all have enough time to do this, it’s one more way to present a positive and professional image to our clients and friends. However, there are so many social media tasks already on my list, I simply don’t wish to take the time to address something that few if any folks will view. Likewise, I don’t have accounts on dozens of social networks, even though one could say that I should to do social media the right way because it would take up too much time for little return. Handling these notifications to check and see whether you want to block a user may take a moment, but if it’s an interruption to your flow, the time/attention cost is much higher.

On the law of unintended consequences front, blocking a spam Twitter account could be akin to clicking on a link in a spam email or loading its tracked images. Doing so proves you are a real person who monitors Twitter, not another spam account like themselves. Just as a list of valid email addresses is much more valuable than an unverified one, a list of valid Twitter accounts may be more valuable to these spammers very soon.