Don’t Litter Twitter
Enough is enough. We’re starting the campaign against Twitter Litter.
Over the last six months or so, more and more third party services are popping up that integrate with Twitter that force the user to tweet when they use them. This leaves users with a decision; use the service and tweet, or don’t use it at all.
What this means for the community is that it is sometimes bombarded with irritating posts about what piercing, Harry Potter character or M&M colour you are.
Most people use Twitter to have conversations with others about things they’re mutually interested in. They don’t use it to see the results of inane quizzes or games, similar to those that have littered Facebook since the advent of applications. Unfortunately, unlike in Facebook, there is no overarching policy towards these services and no option to block them.
The lack of a third option (to use the service but not be forced to tweet) on some of these services is a situation that needs to be redressed. Allow users to use these services without forcing them to spam their followers.
From an advertising point of view, brands should not Litter Twitter in this way. The key for successful social communications is understanding the space and adding value, not devaluing the service by creating spam. And good practice is to always make sure any interaction is opt-in, rather than opt-out.
If you think people and services shouldn’t Litter Twitter, sign our petition; also let us know your thoughts and feelings in the comment section of this blog post. If you would like to help spread the word of the campaign then we have created a badge for your blog. Whatever you do though, don’t Litter Twitter.
Sign the petition here
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/dont-litter-twitter.html
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Excellent post. Sign me up to this campaign!!
Enough is enough for Twitter litter
Yes, yes and yes. I’m in.
Yup count me in.
Fully support your ideas and general etiquette could be improved. Launching 10 posts in a row (or more) is madness – if you are a follower you soon think about unfollowing
I agree, I don’t need to know what colour M&M people are.
Definitely signed up! Seems that millions of users last tweet is ‘just found a great site to get thousands of followers – click here!’
Put the social back into social media.
Maybe I don’t get this post, but…
Should not everyone be allowed to mention what they want? Is Twitter not a tool to shout out what you think and if people think that what you shout out is great they follow you back?
That was a long sentence
Seriously: freedom of speech. If you spam and litter on Twitter, you ultimately loose your followers.
Cheers,
Volker
[...] ok – before i go on and speak more about strategy, I should mention the post about “Don’t litter Twitter” by the guys from Jam. I think we should all have “freedom of speech” and should [...]
Re: Volker
Automated tweets, or spam, actually do two things that impairs our freedom of speech:
1. As they are automated, we have no control over their spread. Twitter Litter is not when you are consciously spamming, but when a company does it for you. As most of the times you can’t really see the result from your, for example, quiz without sending a spam to all your followers. That can hardly be seen as freedom of speech, can it?
2. As twitter gets flooded with automatically generated tweets, it becomes harder to spot the user generated tweets that you actually want to read. Hence, it becomes more difficult to get your voice or message across.
We are in an early stage of companies littering twitter, but imagine when this moves past the marketing innovators and is adopted by the greater mass. You will have to start to unfollow a lot of people as the automated tweets will flood your screen.
I also believe in freedom of speech, but if someone is screaming and making a ruckus in a public area, I promise you that he will be silenced quite soon.
Hello Chris,
Thanks for the comment and the note, and the reply of course. Might want to add an automatic reminder when you post a comment
I agree with automated tweets being bad for Twitter and the community, but I started unfollowing people doing that, and assume so do most people. They don’t block up my tweet list and will continue to be less effective if more and more people actcually start blocking those spammers.
It is an easy way to do, isn’t it? Just block them. I don’t actually remember if Twitter allows to flag people spamming?
It should happen and Twitter should have an option to flag people: just the other day someone sent me an @ reply trying to sell me something. A few “blocks” and that person should be removed by Twitter, shouldn’t she?
Automated Tweets: I agree, anyone using social media should not delay tweets or send automated tweets. But, it is entirely up to them because they become impersonal, the opposite of what social media is about. Hence they loose out in the long run, less followers etc. If you autofollow people who follow you, then you are in the sh* and shoud stop that
Your second point, again, if you use a twitter tool, e.g. Tweetdeck, you have your favourites and your friends in columns. All the spam just dissappears automatically. I don’t believe that Spammers will take over as the community on twitter will react, as described above, on blocking them etc.
Unfollow is only 1 click away – so honestly I don’t see the problem. Maybe I don’t see the problem as yet.
Do you follow me on Twitter yet? @ballueder
Hey Volker,
But if we need to flag people because of automated tweets, doesn’t that have an impact on your freedom of speech idea? You flag someone because they are doing something inappropriate, in this case spamming. Instead of flagging each and everyone who happened to press that link and sent the automated tweet, isn’t it better if we work together with Twitter to stop these?
What we are trying to do is bring Twitter back to what it was meant for: a platform for people to update their ’status’, share views and share interesting online content. Not a marketplace for companies to get brief and broad brand penetration, whilst pissing people off.
Looking at Facebook, the sharing of Quiz results has dropped significantly, because it is unwanted content. I believe it is the same with Twitter, just that it is still too easy for companies to spam the channel.
As you say, people who spam will not have long life expectancy on Twitter as people will unfollow, but I think that Twitter should step in and work against automated tweets, as its not what its there for in the first place.
From my viewpoint, you are suggesting many ways to work around the spamming, while still actually letting it to continue. Isn’t it better to just try and make it stop? The problem isn’t massive yet, but I believe it should be taken care of before it becomes a real nuisance.
Chris
Chris,
Not saying you don’t have a point but you will never stop people from saying what they want to say.
Maybe an analogy works: Hyde Park Corner. Some people listen to some of the speakers. Some have interesting stuff to say, some might try to sell you something.
Yes, I would encourage people to not trying to stand in Hyde Park trying to sell things, but I cannot stop them, can I?
By putting a banner up saying “Stop Selling in Hydepark”, I just create awareness but not necessarily a call for action.
But, if instead, I stop listening to them and start listening (following) the guys that have something to say, and spread the word (RT, discuss, talk about it), then the sellers will have no followers /listeners left.
That is the Twitter principle – for me anyway.
Cheers
Volker
Hey Volker,
I’m not saying that people should be silenced, or kept from saying what they want to say.
The problem is that Automated Tweets or Spams, for example the tweet “What Colour M&M are you Quiz” is not what people want to say, it is an advertising message created by websites like lolquiz to drive traffic. The M&M quiz became the most tweeted message of the day, joined by three other quiz automated messages. This makes it quite difficult for people to unfollow others when they are following thousands.
I don’t believe that this is the purpose of Twitter, nor a matter of what people saying what they want to say.
Another big reason to stop the Twitter Litter is that auto tweets are risking the servers to crash due to overload.
really? I don’t think so.
yeh right.. great post, Thank You
complex post. due one detail where I quarrel with it. I am emailing you in detail.
Hey hey you guys cool down.. every one has a point…
Anybody wanted more details, BUZZ ME!
Bram Selleslach | (Online) Sales | Internet Marketing
Fabulously just posting this remark to show that I drop in on your blog daily.