The Twitter message and the link were certainly unremarkable enough. The Tweet read, “Twitter: is it distraction or savior – or something else?” The link was to a major metropolitan news web site. But, something about it made us pause.
Here’s what happened, and it’s happening all over Twitter, all the time.
If you viewed just one of the Tweets touting this article, you wouldn’t think twice. It would certainly look to you like someone appreciated something and wanted to Tweet about it. Nothing too remarkable there.
The article itself was also unremarkable enough. It told how Twitter can build your business. Half of it was stuff you’ve read before and the other half was the typical bad advice you’ve also read before.
Warning Signs
However, in this case, scores of different people tweeted the exact same message, with the exact same wording. They did so almost all at the same time, all on the same day – and then stopped for good.
What you’ll notice in the screen shot above is that none of these folks “re-tweeted” someone else’s message. “Re-tweeting,” by the way, is a way of saying, “I agree with this person” or “I, too, liked the article that she mentioned.” Re-tweeting is a way of showing respect, admiration, agreement or thanks to someone who actually wrote a tweet that you found worthwhile. It’s a very cool thing when used honestly.
But please notice, these folks have “independently” created their own message. And, they are all using the EXACT same language. How could that be? Hmm… if that doesn’t make your “hogwash siren” go off, I don’t know what will.
(Please Note: the screen-shot above has been altered to protect the innocent – if there are any innocents, which I seriously doubt. Read on, but remember, don’t waste your time punching in the phrases, links, or Twitter names, because we made them up to protect, well, us. If you want to know the real names and links, just give us a call).
The Author’s Not Even @ Home
What you’ll also notice in the screen shot is that no one refers to the author of the linked article by her Twitter handle. They all refer only to her real name. On Twitter, that is really, really odd.
That’s probably because the Twitter handle for the author (@JRMishmash, for instance) has not been used for several months. Now, that might not make you suspicious right away, but remember, the article is about the power of using Twitter.
Yes, fans and fannies, it’s the old “fake expert trick“:
I’m an SEO expert whose own web site has no traffic.
I’m a relationship expert who only pumps my own stuff.
Or, in this case:
I’m a Twitter expert who never Tweets.
In an almost direct quote from her company web site at Mishmash PR, we find that she guarantees “measurable results” because:
Mishmash PR develops campaigns that will harness public relation strategies, social media, Web 2.0, and SEO-powered campaigns to deliver your customer message.
But, it’s all blather. The amazing thing is that she and her company are selling you their social media expertise and they don’t have any. They don’t Twitter and don’t participate in the ongoing, online discussion at all. All they do is sell their stuff.
Automation and Semi-relevance: the Name of the Spammer’s Game!
We were pretty sure general sliminess was involved here since those “hogwash sirens” had gone off more often than a Kansas tornado alert.
So, we asked Mike Keliher, one of our “Board of Learning Directors“, to help us explain what was going on here. He pointed out:
Well, you’ll notice that none of these people write messages at/@ other Twitter users. At the very least, that’s lame. It’s often a solid indicator of spamminess or other general bullshittery.
We like Mike not only because of his willingness to help us, but also because of his colorful language. He went on:
You’ll note, too, that @birdsofafether and @goshmoney, for example, have posted similar/identical messages and links several other times, too. More importantly, I’d bet a case of beer that these accounts are part of a network of accounts that claim to offer folks “100,000 impressions for only $12!” and things like that.”
The seediness of it almost makes you gasp. Well, not gasp, since there is a ton of such seediness on Twitter, but you get our point. Keliher finished up by telling us:
They set up a bunch of sort-of-real-looking-but-not-really Twitter accounts — and propose to help others spread word about their stuff for a few dollars. Or they link to pages in an effort to increase those pages’ Google juice. Or they are used in one way or another to game any system that’s unsophisticated enough to be based on sheer numbers.
We’re sure thankful for folks like Mike Keliher. I think it’s pretty fair to say that if we wanted to hire a PR firm, we’d pick his company (Fast Horse, Inc.) – instead of one that jiggers the links to their non-existent work on Twitter.
No More Cobbler’s Kids Excuses
Remember, it’s entirely within your hands to say “stop” to this kind of duplicity. Instead, if someone wants to optimize your web site and increase your web traffic, just ask them to show you how they do it for their own site.
When they say, “Oh, I get all my business from referrals and from my speaking engagements,” tell them to go jump.
If someone wants to sell you a seminar about the power of networking and building relationships, simply try to interact personally with them in some way.
When they say, “Oh, I’m much too busy for you,” tell them to go jump.
And, if someone wants to sell you a seminar about social media, just ask them to show you what they are doing with it.
When they say, “Oh, I don’t use Twitter, but you should,” tell them to go jump. And tell them to stay there!
Thank You: inuyaki.com’s Spam photo is used under Creative Commons license.
13 comments ↓
First of all, thanks for the kind words.
Second, I suppose I should reiterate the half-assed protection clause of “It appears…” It appears as though these are spammy accounts. It appears as though these twitterers are acting in collusion with one another for the sake of inflating the ego and the Google juice of Mishmash PR. Etc.
And of course, I’d like to point out that Michael and Sheryl are the eagle eyes who noticed this whole mess of Twitter seediness. They asked me how I might explain it, and I took an educated guess. But these two had the scoop — not to mention the great article above explaining it all so well.
Finally, about that photo you have up top: Garlic Spam? Really?
As always, great informative post. Well written, good observation, and I LOVE the attempts to clear through the “bullshittery” that’s out there. Is Mike from England? Sounds like such an English word to me. (I feel I can generalize as that is where I am from!). Can I steal that word?
Michael, Sheryl, thanks for the sound information.
No, Megan, I’m not from England. But as a fellow appreciator of nice-sounding, made-up words, you’re more than welcome to steal — well, borrow — “bullshittery.” It’s one of my favorites.
Thanks Mike and Megan,
Megan, Mike is from Minneapolis, which is one of the few locations on the planet where they take such terms to the next level. Consider, if you will, that there is still no decision in last year’s race for that second Minnesota senate seat.
One place, however, you will not find any “BS’ery” is on the blog Mike writes for called The Same Rowdy Crowd – http://thesamerowdycrowd.wordpress.com/author/mjkeliher/
Thanks for the dead-on article. More than once I have linked to a site on a twitter recommendation and I thought they accidentally entered the wrong URL. Now I will know better and stop following.
Michael and Sheryl- keeping the world safe for twitterers everywhere!
Thanks Jackie,
You may also have noticed a number of Twitter links that bring you to a page that clearly is being tracked. I don’t like to be tracked, thank you very much. We could devote a whole blog just to Twitter deceit.
I think to leverage twitter, it’s increasingly important to cut through the clutter, and establish mutually beneficial relationships with people with great ideas.
I’m finding that I’m being followed by fewer of those, and more spammers, porn purveyors, and sell-sell-sellers.
Yet, the relationships I’m developing with cool, knowledgeable tweeps makes the investment worth it.
Thanks for this post. It is one to which I will refer my new to Twitter clients. The last several months have seen an explosion of junk on Twitter. It can be hard, especially for new folks, to sort through it all. spammers, multilevel marketers, people gaming the system to gain followers fast and build ‘authority’ yet never use the system; people only promoting their thing.
The worst part about, it in some ways, is when someone new to twitter gets sucked in by one of these folks , or buys an ebook or a program that tells them to use auto direct messages and that that is THE way to get followers & make money. Or signs up with a program to get x number of followers everyday, d the program retwets that spammy message once every x # of tweets.
People – if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. But if you find you’ve been caught up in it early on, you can recover, just go into settings and deny the program access to your twitter account. Start over, building followers one tweet at a time.
Many people automatically block someone who sends a “get x #of followers a day,” auto DM. I try and reach out to newbies who have been conned into these programs and suggest it might not make the best first impression. I ask for a real DM, or @reply – sometimes I get a real response, sometimes it’s never responded, sometimes they are rude in their reply. The 1st ones I follow back and reply to, the 2nd I do not follow back, the 3rd set I block.
In recent months the phrase “keepin it real” has a whole new meaning for me.
Thanks Ava and Cathy,
Ava, you point out something that is really disturbing to us. It’s taking more and more time just to sift through the masses of “fake” followers. Even less than a year ago, most people who followed us on Twitter were real people who were trying out a fairly cool new technology. Now, unfortunately, scads of unsavory types fill my follow list. It’s getting almost like spotting a needle in a haystack to find someone worth following back anymore.
Which leads to Cathy’s point and suggestion to help the misguided. That seems like such a herculean task, Cathy, but we’d love to know more. We’ve suggested in this blog that “Discussions” in LinkedIn Groups be real discussions, not sales pitches – and even challenged a few of the folks posting outright spam or sales messages in those groups, but we’ve hesitated to engage people directly. You might just give us the “kick in the pants” to do more.
Curious to know if you’ve written about how reaching out to newbies is going – the successes and the challenges of it – in your blog?
Thanks to both of you – the Twitter neighborhood that was once so verdant and green is increasingly being invaded by pimps and the pushers. Cathy brings up a great question – do we have a responsibility to our own neighborhood?
I agree w/Ava about the value outweighing the garbage…at least at this point. Yes, we have a responsibility to our own neighborhood. I am a wahm, but I don’t have a lot of time to spend on twitter. However, I am committed to no auto dm’s, etc. & I REALLY try to respond to all followers w/in a few days. The higher the number gets, though, the harder it is to do. Still, I just don’t see the value of gaming the numbers w/no relationship. However, relationships have been my “thing” IRL, too, so why be “not me” on twitter??
Loved this post. Thanks!
Super cool Post, Folks! Indeed, there are plenty of Twitter users trying to “oversmart” the others in order to get their followship. I prefer, to have lower number of followers, but i can count on them even out of the twitter communication. Trust is precondition for successfull value adding community. Autoreplies ain’t the way to gain trust and most of the times, first time contact with new follower is very important and more personal it is the better. Therefore i choose to write, RT or reply personal tweet to new folks in my community.
Have a super cool day,
greetings from Slovakia
i.
Michael and Sheryl:
“The Twitter neighborhood that was once so verdant and green is increasingly being invaded by pimps and the pushers. Cathy brings up a great question – do we have a responsibility to our own neighborhood?”
If I were to include those words in my blog, wouldn’t that be an open and shut case of plagiarism? Yes. And that’s what people are doing on twitter when they copy without giving retweet credit. Maybe we need to educate people to that?
You also raise an apt metaphor — that of a neighborhood. How do we protect what’s good in it?
Thanks Cindy, Ivana and Ellen,
Just this morning I have a new follower with 25,000 followers. She’s been on Twitter for two months.
(By the way, if you want to know a lot about a Twitter follower, go to http://www.twitterholic.com and put in their Twitter handle. Her real name is not given and she has no link to a web site or blog. She’s clearly found some sort of auto-follow program).
Cindy and Ivana, I met Ellen on Twitter, back when I could distinguish the real followers from the fake ones. Today, I have 20 fake followers for every 1 real follower – and I simply no longer have the time to look through them all in order to find people who are real.
And, darn, Ellen, I’m not sure I have the time or energy to write any more articles about cleaning up a neighborhood that has already gone to pot.
And, one more thought about plagiarism. During the Chris Anderson debate about his outright copying of information from Wikipedia for his book, Free, many people said, “What’s the big deal – we live in a copy and paste world.” Clearly, it’s not just Twitter where the neighborhood is going to pot.
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