The question has come up, is Twitter is simply another form of Spam. I don’t think so and I will show some of the differences.
Wicipedia defines Spam as: Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.
Based upon the definition listed above, Twitter could be construed as Spam, but let’s look deeper.
The term Spam is generally reserved for E-mail. It was a considerable problem when most people had E-mail accounts with much smaller storage capacity. A spammer could fill your account with trash and you would miss important messages.
Twitter is much different because the information is listed on their own servers. You can choose which messages, if any, you would like to read. I see it much like a newspaper. There are many adds I don’t read. I am allowed to choose what section I view. I am not required to click on an add, to go from Sports to Weather. If Twitter ever changed to that method, it would definitely be Spam!
The way Twitter works now is simply a convenient way to broadcast your activities. News agencies are finding Twitter extremely helpful in finding information. This was made clear as Twitter was one of the few outlets for the people of Iran to show the world their outrage over the recent elections.
Businesses can use it as a form of advertising, or to drive traffic to their websites. Look at is as a direct mail ad campaign without the cost of printing or postage. It is even better if you are not asking for a purchase, but rather offering vailid information.
Please give us your input on the subject.
Ken Bear Cole
Hey Bear,
I have been hearing a few folks referring to Twitter as a SPAM engine. I would image these people also HATE junk mail?
I know this is anecdotal (since I am a Twitter expert), but I receive calls from people who say they found my ad on Twitter. I also have five times the number of Google listings BECAUSE of my twitter feeds. Of course, there is such a process as search engine optimized twitter messages.
In the end, Twitter is just ONE tool in a small business operator’s arsenal. Craig’s List, WikiDWeb, Yahoo Answers, Business Blogging, Direct eMail, Cold Calls, and Tradeshow (just to name a few) are others. No body in business today should rest on just ONE marketing method. Explore new opportunities. Talk with others here online to find out what they are doing, what works and what they are struggling with. Just because something didn’t work for someone else does not mean it will not work for you.
Thank you Bear for posing this question to stimulate the conversation.
Twitter is 99% junk. Of course, 1% has a value, but the signal to noise ratio is too high, IMO.
It’s not spam because you “opt-in” to get the messages. If you don’t like them don’t use the service.
It’s true. i think Twitter is nothing but spam central. It has its uses but as it stands now mostly useless.
Because twitter have been seen as a marketing tool for getting targeting and potential customers. More and more web publishers and marketers become interested to use Twitter. Perhaps this is the reason that driving up Twitter spams.
to me the key to twitter is you decide who to follow and who not to follow or block~it is as simple as that~can’t spam when no one is listening to u!
While I do have a twitter account, and post to it somewhat regularly, I do not read all the posts of those I follow. I don’t see it as spam, because you don’t receive the messages automatically, you need to manually go to the site in order to look at them.
There’s a difference between legitimate commercial messages that might be of genuine interest to some people (if they don’t interest you, it’s easy to unfollow the sender) and being bombarded every few minutes by a spammer offering you something sleazy.
Worse still are the advertising messages you haven’t signed up for, sent to you as fake “replies” from someone that you’ve never heard of.
There’s no question that Twitter at the moment has a major problem with spam, but the enormous number of accounts that Twitter has suspended recently for spamming shows a genuine commitment to dealing with it.
If you want to hit back against spammers flooding your Twitter timeline, the best way is to block them (click on their name, then when you see their profile go to the sidebar on the right of the screen and click on Block).
Next, follow twitbroom, the spam-busting service which tweets the spammers’ names to followers and gets them ALL to block the spammers. Just type the “at” sign, then twitbroom, then the spammer’s name (WITHOUT the “at” sign), and end your message by typing the hash key then adding the word twitspam (don’t leave a space – twitspam should come immediately after the hashtag).
This will make sure that as many people as possible see your message and block the offender. Enough blocks, and the spammers are kicked out.
It only takes a moment, and helps you get your own back on the spammers and reclaim Twitter for the people who use it for its proper purpose – making friends.
Thank you for the comment Aislinn, although I feel you need to be challenged a little.
While everyone is free to do as they please, participating in a program where people are encouraged to block other people for no other reason than because one person said the target was a spammer is pretty horrible. Maybe you can see the point better from a different angle.
What if you called all your friends in the neighborhood and asked them to call the police and complain about a specific neighbor. Maybe their dog barks, or maybe they don’t cut their grass or maybe they are a member of a minority that you don’t like? In America, groups of people use to do such activities. They would wear white hoods and burn crosses on lawns.
Twitter is an open network. You follow someone, you receive their updates, you stop following, you stop receiving their updates. Simple!
If some one is sending you @replys with business solicitations, then Twitter.com has a spam account, you simply follow the account and DM them with the account name of the offender. Twitter’s SPAM investigation team then will research and use DATA to ban the account.
What you are suggesting people do is turn into a linch mob when all you need to do is unfollow the offending party.
Twitter is micro spam! No, really, Twitter is a medium, just like a missile; it can be used for constructive reasons as well as destructive reasons. It is the user that determines what we call it.