Seriously?
Jan. 6th, 2010 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiOne of the things I find fascinating (and annoying) about Twitter is the random bots who follow you. Not the pure spambots (which are an old issue), but the targeted twitter feeds of legitimate small businesses that are designed to drive folks their way by posting real content, but using some sort of automated twit-search software to add folks.
The most recent example? I Tweeted about yet another school kicking Blackboard to the curb, in this case Portland State.
Less than a minute later, I was autofollowed by Roofing Portland. Because mentioning Portland means I clearly live there, right? And have a house. Surely the location field in my Twitter profile must be a lie, right?
This happens even more open for local links, of course. I've got business "following" me for mentioning Cambridge, Harvard Square, or whatnot. They usually drop me after an hour/day/week, either because I didn't follow them back, or because the actual goal was really to send me that first email alerting me to their presence.
As an aside, I do get enough bogus requests that it's entirely possible I've missed some legit ones; if you're waiting to be re-added on Twitter -- or, for that matter, on LJ, where things can also drop through the cracks -- drop me a line to poke me. Oh, and my Twitter feed, unlike my LJ, is generally professionally focused, with a good chunk of my content covering stuff related to learning management systems and issues related to them (with a decent chunk also touching on book and review stuff.)
The most recent example? I Tweeted about yet another school kicking Blackboard to the curb, in this case Portland State.
Less than a minute later, I was autofollowed by Roofing Portland. Because mentioning Portland means I clearly live there, right? And have a house. Surely the location field in my Twitter profile must be a lie, right?
This happens even more open for local links, of course. I've got business "following" me for mentioning Cambridge, Harvard Square, or whatnot. They usually drop me after an hour/day/week, either because I didn't follow them back, or because the actual goal was really to send me that first email alerting me to their presence.
As an aside, I do get enough bogus requests that it's entirely possible I've missed some legit ones; if you're waiting to be re-added on Twitter -- or, for that matter, on LJ, where things can also drop through the cracks -- drop me a line to poke me. Oh, and my Twitter feed, unlike my LJ, is generally professionally focused, with a good chunk of my content covering stuff related to learning management systems and issues related to them (with a decent chunk also touching on book and review stuff.)
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-06 04:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-06 04:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-06 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-07 04:40 am (UTC)That said - the bots are people who totally don't have a clue and think that Twitter is a free equivalent of Google Adsense... you have to assume they paid someone for that awful advice too.
Blecch.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-07 08:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-07 08:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-08 06:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-08 06:44 pm (UTC)That's the saddest part.