How To Lose Friends and Alienate People On Twitter


After the usual 10 – 15 minutes of clearing junk from my mail boxes and spam comments from my blogs, I turned to Twitter and sure enough, more junk. More spammy new followers and – to waste even more of my time – crapola in my inbox there too from some ____ who can’t find anything better to do than send out their own spammy self-promotional crap.

Before I get down and dirty with the post – let me just say I could have titled this post a number of different ways like “what not to do with Twitter” or “how to be a complete and utter moron on Twitter“… But, I’ll stick with

How To Lose Friends and Alienate People On Twitter

We’ve all been there. We’ve all been Twitter rookies. Heck I still consider myself a bit of a rookie with the little blue bird but I have certain rules of engagement that I learned along the way so far.

Perhaps I, like you and many others, have a tendency to steer well clear of anything spammy.

But then you get people like ‘ToniaTomas8551″ who is so generously introducing us all to some amazing, fantastic, awesome new websites. There’s a ‘shocking discovery’, it’s a ‘marvelous product’ and we really must ‘check the product out’…

Here’s what you get when you hook up with Tonia (like I believe that is his/her/its real name):

Twitter Spam

Check it out! You’ve got obligatory sexy chick as the avatar. You have the made up name with the AOL style names and numbers (‘cos the world is full of people called ToniaTomas – right). You’ve got all the signs of loverly spamola (no link, no bio)… Everything to make you think – yes, yes, yes, I’ll have me some of that!

I bet you’re rushing over to Twitter right now to checkout all those amazing links?

Well let me save you the trouble: Each and everyone of them goes to:

Twitter SpamWhat I do not understand and what I cannot comprehend is the thinking behind such a complete and utter load of _______! Why do people do this? Would you? Do they really think the road paved with gold is laid by spam and self-promotional garbage like this?

Do they really think that after years of seeing fake book covers and product ‘boxes’ that we are so darn stupid enough to click the link and fork out $47 on some get rich quick scam.

I know that you won’t fall for this sort of immoral, cheating, trickery – but some people will.

Some people, possibly new to the web – looking for opportunities to earn a few farthings – may fall for that crap. Shell out their $47 only to be given a hard lesson in the bs and bogus content the web is cluttered with.

The Ultimate Book About Internet Scams would be littered with web pages that look just like the above. I just wish every person starting out on the web or looking for some sort of opportunity was aware of the scams and trickery to avoid – and here – my dear friends – is example 37,146,903.

Save your $47

If one person comes across this page and, as a result, they become more aware of the scams and trickery to watch out for – then my work is done. If I help one person keep their $47 safely tucked up under their mattress – then it will have been a good day!

Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts…

 


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  • http://www.twitter.com/RolfSimons Rolf Simons

    Thanks for the nice post. I don't believe in those tools but always you get a little worried. Would it work?? Thanks to you I know it's money down the drain.

  • http://www.twitter.com/pksidhu Sharan

    The only people who'd fall for the spam account are the ones that are new to net/twitter. And I really doubt they'd have gotten to your website, sir. So please add some info on actually, voluntarily alienating your followers. Being a bigoted, politically incorrect prick isn't working for me. Maybe it's 'cuz I'm a chick. But more tips, I'd love to experiment in my free time without abusing anyone personally. You know unless they deserve it…

  • MikeHypercube

    I think people may be missing a point on these kinds of things, likewise the email ones of the last few years. It's a self-referential pyramid system. People don't need to be stupid themselves (though they are); they just need to believe that other people are stupid. The “Greater Fool Principle” is the basis of every time honoured scam including modern day spam. I of course haven't clicked through but I imagine if you did you would find that the advice you have paid for is to send out scam accounts just like this, or more likely to install a program that does all that tedious stuff for you. Just like old schemes to “Make money addressing envelopes” where in fact all the envelopes you addressed were telling other people how they could make money stuffing envelopes. It works for as long as someone out there thinks there is someone else as stupid as them so they hope not to be the one on the bottom of the pile.

  • http://twitter.com/myview09 prashanth

    @martinkoss i'm not new to web and i actually know well of the kind of cheaters in web, but i might 've fallen to one of those nasty tricks of the spammers… Thanks for saving me a $47 for today :p

  • moondustwriter

    yep- it really bothers me when people are trying to sell me a load of ___ on Twitter. “Get a Life!!!'

  • http://www.martinkoss.com/ Martin Koss

    Well, I know it's only 5.30am and I've only had one coffee… but I am confused by your comment:

    “The only people who'd fall for the spam account are the ones that are new to net/twitter.” Yep. I think I said that.

    “And I really doubt they'd have gotten to your website, sir.” My website? This website? What's MY website got to do with the scams? The scams are on someone else's website… And who are 'they' who you doubt would have to gotton to my website?

    “So please add some info on actually, voluntarily alienating your followers.” Why would you want to purposely alienate your followers?

    “Being a bigoted, politically incorrect prick isn't working for me.” I may not be politically correct but which part of anything I ever wrote is bigoted?

  • http://www.martinkoss.com/ Martin Koss

    Excellent contribution to the discussion Mike. I appreciate your thoughts and really like the “Greater Fool Principle”… Good that I'm not the only one who remembers all the classified ads offering a world of fast cars, luxury homes, yachts and everything else in the millionaire lifestyle – all as the result of stuffing envelopes… lol. Every 'fools' marketing will find the fool to sell to – unfortunately.