January 2009

My name is Brian Burns, and I’m a Tweetaholic.

OK, Good. I’m glad to get that out of the way.

These past few weeks have been a tough one for the service, though - accounts have been hacked into, and tons of new spammer accounts have popped up. I’m not going as far as some to swear off the participating alltogether, but my own user experience has grown increasingly frustrating lately, and it’s at least time for a change.

It used to be that I followed nearly anyone who followed me. If they weren’t over-the-top spammers (no, @penisenlarger, I’m not falling for that one), and as long as I thought they might provide some value, I added them to my stream.

However, especially recently, that approach has gotten me in trouble. I’ve gotten a lot of follows from people with 2,000+ followers themselves, who look like regular good users. The problem I find when I follow them back though, is they aren’t there to interact or to add value like regular users, but just there to bump their own creds, and boost their own products. They’re trying to build a brand (theirs), not a community.

This approach is tiresome… especially as I see it over time. Rarely is any one tweet insidious, but never really are the collection of their tweets of any value. I go along thinking that they may be at some point - that I’ll be able to pick up on something I can use - but there’s just no space for interaction in broadcasting.

So, this is my note to these people:

I have a new policy. I only follow people providing immediate value to my stream. Follow and unfollow as many people as you want. Get as good a following/followers ratio as possible. Even reply to some people (so it looks like you’re going back-and-forth). But from this point forward, you can’t fool me. I just unfollowed you.

My new policy, only a day later, has already significantly streamlined my stream, and delivered a much better experience. I’m glad I did it.

YOUR INPUT: What about you? What is your twitter policy? Has it changed recently, with the greater influx of stupidity?

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