SA's Top 20 Tweeters = Full of Crap

The spam and uninteresting lounge salesman have hit South African Twitter. And it makes me sad.

Was trawling through our top 100 Tweeters through Twellow the other day. Don't really know how accurate this is, but following a couple of interesting people in the Top 20 led to the following automated replies.

Thanks for following me. I look forward to our interactions. Have a look at my web site at http://www.bigprofitinc.com.

Thanks for the follow! Generate 1000's Of Views On Youtube Using These Strategies. http://bit.ly/OUmc0

Thanks for the follow!New forex product increases profit by over 300% in 91 days! http://bit.ly/1ZWvOb

Thanks for the following. Let me help you to increase traffic to your online business dramatically? Click here: http://budurl.com/TwitterS2L


I'm not even linking those things out of principle. It's sad. Unfollow. Social Media is killing the web.

Comments

  1. It's not social media that's killing the web. It's the Trolls. Y'know, those little buggers who consider themselves marketing professionals and use follow/friend based stats to measure success.

    "I've got 10938382 followers *snort*. Of course, I don't talk to any of them in any kind of meaningful way. *grunt* So what?"

    These are people who don't get social media. All they're interested in is hits on their blog and getting more people they can email with their inane newsletters.

    Actually the folks who follow them clearly know just as much about social media as the Trolls. They're happy to be spammed by these ingrates, because they figure since the Troll has all those followers, he must be doing something right. In fact, the people most likely to follow a Troll are also probably celeb-tweet followers.

    Where was I going with this?

    Oh yeah, social media is not killing the net. It's revealing where the trolls have been hiding. We just need to be smart enough to see them for what they are and avoid them. On that note, thanks for the heads up on the four Trolls in your post. I'll be sure to avoid them. Negative selection is, after all, a powerful tool...

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  2. Hi Andy,

    THe magic of social media is that not only do we not have to follow these idiots, but we can also block them completely and never have to put up with them again.

    Note to self: Go through followers and block spammy twits.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I normally thank people for following me on Twitter out of etiquette but now that I have realised that most of the replies are automated it's lost it's value.

    Is social media making us rude?

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Amod Mmmm not sure. Perhaps trolling is just human nature - but this is pretty much mankind trying to make a buck. Like spam ruined the telephone service (how much do you hate call centres?) - so it runs the risk of hurting the social environment.

    No prob on the heads up. I hate to resort to negative selection but hey...

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  5. @maggie We can block them - you're right. But when does the effort of blocking and filtering all the content outweigh the benefit that content gives? THAT'S my question...

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  6. @josie - Not rude. It's just a more and more a reflection of society. There are idiots in society. There are idiots in social media. Go figure :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Steve Harvey was on (South AFrican) Oprah a few weeks back and he says: "The reason why so many men cheat is becaus eso many women are willing to cheat with them."

    Having said that, I think internet business is the only industry where the old adage (or is that axiom.. not sure) "supply follows demand" does not necessarily hold water.

    Developers (most times) write programs or APIs they think could be a hit or they think someone could extract usefullness out of it. And because such programs/APIs are not commercially motivated, they make it available for nothing. They're being social.

    I think it is the availability of these rogue applications that turn good people into trolls.
    The availability of rogue software coupled with today's speed of business and our never-ending chase after instant gratification are collectively the driving force behind this "troll syndrome" exhibited on the web.

    And no the web is not dying.. or being killed off.. not by a long shot. It's merely evolving.

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  8. I don't agree that social media is killing the web. I think those using it have to figure out how to manage it for their own benefit. It's another learning curve, but one with loads of benefits.

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  9. Actually the folks who follow them clearly know just as much about social media as the Trolls. They're happy to be spammed by these ingrates, because they figure since the Troll
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    has all those followers, he must be doing something right. In fact, the people most likely to follow a Troll are also probably celeb-tweet followers.

    ReplyDelete

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