Sometimes it is hard to recognize Twitter Spam at a first glance. Unfortunately, spam can appear on Twitter on many forms, but it is generally pretty easy to ignore, especially if you are following a large volume of people.
The most common form of Twitter spam comes from small business owners who probably do not even realize that what they are posting could be considered spam. These individuals typically have heard of the power of social media and simply got on Twitter to try to promote their business and somehow managed to get a sizable number of followers before turning their Twitter account into a stream of useless links to their products and services. Other accounts belong to true spammers who know exactly what they are doing. These users are often quite easy to spot due to the fact that they follow an extremely high volume of users and have a Twitter home page claiming to be a “social media guru” or other such nonsense. Others choose to bombard their followers with direct messages with invitation to obscure social media games or blog updates.
What to Do About Twitter Spam
What you decide to do about Twitter spam is partially affected by what you are actually using your Twitter account for. If you are following a limited number of users (less than 200), it can particularly annoying to be faced with pointless self promotion or affiliate marketing every time you check your stream. Thankfully, your Twitter stream is based solely on who you have decided to opt to follow, and you can simply stop following or block anyone who is posting content you feel is not useful, including spam. If the user is someone who appears to be new to Twitter and simply not aware of the local taboos, a friendly message to let them know they’re overdoing the self promotion might be all that is necessary. Sadly, the prevalence of spam in the direct message end of Twitter is more difficult to control, and many users who follow a high volume of users (over 2000) often decide to stop checking their direct messages entirely. If you are so inclined, you can also report the worst spammers to Twitter might sending a complaint to @spam.