I’ve been getting steady Twitter follow notifications since I really got in to Twitter as more than just a passing glimpse about a month ago. Many of these notifications are from legit Twitter users. However, Twitter spammers are absolutely horrible about hiding their spamminess.  Following are my top signs that a Twitter follow notification is from a spammer:

1. They are following more than a thousand Twitterers but are followed by very few. Very few is relative.  I’ve seen some followed by under 10.  If someone follows thousands of Twitterers, they are bound to get a bunch of autofollows, so having even a hundred followers could still mean spammer.
2. After reviewing their profile and deciding to follow, you get an auto DM that say “thanks” for following them and (here is the key) it contains an affiliate link to some “Make Money Online” scheme site.
3. Upon reviewing their profile, you see that that they have less than 5 updates.  The updates they do have are a couple words long.
4. Upon reviewing their profile, you see that all of their updates are the same thing.  For example… hey, follow my link (because I am not smart enough to realize that you know what an affiliate link looks like), and you will receive: a) great wealth, b) hot chicks, c) a great body, or d) great wealth, hot chicks, and a great body.
5. Their profile link is an affiliate link.  Good god people! Do people really click on tinyurl profile links? Are you that crazy?
6. Their profile bio and/or Twitter name imply that they are an SEO, and they have less than a page of updates spread out over the last year. Ok, I can accept that you may have been skeptical of Twitter with regards to SEO.  But if you are not on board now, I’d say you are a spammer or an incompetent SEO.
7. While not a 100% guarantee, if they have a picture of a hot chick, preferably barely clothed, I’ll lay money that they are a spammer everytime. It’s amazing to me how many hot chicks there are on social media sites, and how they love to post their scantily clad profile pics. Awesome!

So now that I get to the end of this list, I guess you are probably wondering what I consider a Twitter spammer. In my mind, someone who is only on Twitter to get you to follow a link of theirs that will make them money is a spammer. I personally don’t care if you are using Twitter for SEO or just to spread the word about sites you want when you post a link.  But if all you do is post links to your crap without offering anything of value in return, that screams spammer to me. You are best not even following me if that is what you want me to do, because I will never (no never) follow your links.

If you have good links and you actually communicate with me on Twitter, I will likely follow your links that intrigue me.

I’m not exactly a power Twitterer, but I do okay.  So, there must have been some unique attributes of my profile that appeal.  Now, if I can only figure it out so that I can increase my friend base!   You can find and friend me on Twitter as esoomllub.

By killing my time, I mean that I sometimes go overboard and don’t really grasp how much time an activity is consuming until it’s too late (missing other deadlines — a natural outcome for a procrastinator). I am going to try to keep using Twitter enough to really get a grasp on the power of tweeting, but stop short of just tweeting and reading tweets all day (or at least for hours on end).

You can check out my tweeting, critique my tweets, and follow me if you like!