There have been several conversations in my tweet stream lately about spammers on Twitter so I thought I would give you a few ways to rid your stream of them.
Blocking Spammers in TweetDeck
If you’re using TweetDeck you can hover over the offender’s avatar and click the gear icon (bottom right), and go to User > Block & Report Spam to report them to Twitter.
Note: Sean isn't a spammer, but TweetDeck isn't showing the offenders from yesterday & his post is about spam so it seemed appropriate for a screenshot.
Here’s the link to @SeanMcGinnis’ 13 Ways to Spot a Twitter Spammer post mentioned in the screenshot above.
Blocking Spammers in Hootsuite
In Hootsuite you click on the offender’s avatar (picture) and a window showing their bio pops up. Underneath their avatar is a gray link with a skull graphic which says Report Spammer. Click the link to report them as spam.
Scanning for Spammers
Another way to control spam is through using a service such as TwitBlock to scan your followers for potential spammers. I have used this service more than once myself. TwitBlock scans your followers and lists those who are potential spammers for you to block or report as spam. There is also the option to “not block” for when it makes mistakes. Of course, doing nothing will do the same thing.
Click to view larger
If you click the arrow at the bottom of a potential offender, details about their likelihood of being a spammer are shown including stats such as how many people do not follow them back, how many people follow them per day, and how many people block them. Unusually high follow per day rates can indicate they are using spammy/illicit means of getting more followers.
Click to view larger
If you still aren’t sure someone is a spammer, you can click on their name and view their tweets to confirm this for yourself. Examples include Tweets talking about how great something is followed by a link (Ex: Check this out! or [insert product] worked for me!), or offers of a free iPad for example are more than likely a spammer’s tweets.
Click to view larger
Although you may never completely get rid of all spammers (we can dream though) I hope I’ve helped you rid your stream of atleast a few of them. Happy Tweeting!