Tweeples
will tell you either how fantastic or fickle Twitter
can be – sometimes both. Getting the most out of the service isn’t difficult
and you can start by culling any spam
from your feed and avoiding it in the future.
Don’t Be Followed by Spammers
Following
thousands, speaking in keywords and sporting no followers (except maybe one or
two other spammers); it’s quite easy to spot
Twitter spammers. Look out for the automatically generated usernames which
are often used. For example, “A1C2eQQQ is now following you on Twitter”. Make
sure to block these types of accounts
as soon as possible so they cannot follow you.
Being
followed by one of these accounts doesn’t mean you’ll be seeing their messages,
but you don’t want to be retweeted by them or be seen in anyway as an easy target for other spam account holders.
Never
retweet a spam message or even tweet the name of a supposed spammer, even in
jest – this just makes you easier to
find.
Avoid Bad Programs and Money
Making Schemes
Make
sure you take every step to avoid Twitter spam or malevolent attention. It is
important that you never give your
Twitter username out on questionable third-party sites. You may be tempted
by the ‘triple your followers’ promise, but doing so will inevitably land you
on a list of targets.
Don’t
use auto-follow bots or any other automated programs. An automated email to new
followers can be effective in greeting the masses, but Twitter is all about transparency and real conversations.
Leave auto-responders to the spammers.
Websites
such as Retweet.it promise you more followers,
and may deliver, but the value of your
tweets will be watered down and your audience may not appreciate your
influence and ‘unfollow’ you.
Choose
your tools carefully. There are many programs and services out there, but some
hold more water than others. Here are some handy
tools to simplify your life:
-
TweetDeck –
Twitter browser, compatible with Linux, Mac and Windows.
-
Twhirl – Desktop
client which uses the Adobe AIR platform, compatible with Mac and Windows.
- TwitterFeed – Made
to feed blog posts via RSS into Twitter. Very handy for frequent bloggers.
-
TwitterFox – A
Firefox add-on with popup notifications.
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