@JoanMuschamp A “red flag” for you and me too.  Since joining Twitter back in 2008/2009 I chose to be selective in who I followed.  It wasn’t about the quantity, it was about the “quality”.

There are many programs out there to mass follow anyone and everyone on Twitter and many people use them to build their connections but not really ever connect to them.  They are primarily concerned about getting their messages out to the “masses” when they will actually get more positive results from making targeted connections

 I have noticed that when I get notified now that someone is following me and I click the link to check them out, Twitter actually tells me if this person is really following me….  If I don’t see that message, I DO NOT follow back.

It may take a little longer to investigate who you are connecting to, but in the end, the quality of all those comments and content that flow through my Twitter account are worthwhile reading – instead of losing them to mass comments and information that is of no interest to me.

I have always followed this criteria in order to follow back…

1.  They have to have taken time to fill out their Profile info so I know a little bit about them.

2.  I check their numbers – if they have a huge level of followers but don’t have a similar number of follows, they are most likely a thought leader with lots of great info and they are also choosey in following back  AND  if they are following huge numbers but have very few followers back, it is usually an indicator that they have built massive follows as mentioned above but don’t take the time to follow back.  It’s all about targeting the masses.

3.  Then I check their tweets – if they repeat the same tweets over and over or have no tweets, I don’t follow back.  I want to see that they are participating on a regular basis with a balance between personal and business comments and sharing and Retweeting.

I get alot and dont tend to follow back – http://thetwitcleaner.com and http://manageflitter.com/ is good for cleaning them out as you can choose by inactivity, no profile picture etc.

I am also getting friend requests here in SME which look dubious and also on LinkedIn so it seems the spammers invade everywhere!

I tend to think if they haven’t got a profile pic or on Linkedin it list companies that look dubious with no website then I see as Spam but it may well be they just dont know how to use it? Any advice on ways to find out if they are legit or not?

@kc_kreative I admire people who can keep up with Twitter in their second (or third or fourth) language. On my Twitter landing page I let people know I tweet in English but understand Spanish and French so they are making an informed decision when they decide to follow me.

@joanmuschampfagnani

I am also getting the same problem.  It’s things like this that ruin the good name of social media.  I work tirelessly trying to build my following only to see some random account with 2 tweets and 1,000+ followers come by. It’s odd.  Hopefully, my presence on here has helped associate me with a more specific market.

@debbielynnava I understand a bit for French (4 years in high school, way back when) and I’m dabbling with Spanish now. I have German followers of all things and a few from South America (they tweet in mostly English).

Of course for the work account, it’s a mixture of English and Spanish given we represent the U.S. Hispanic market

@kc_kreative it is a shame you see bit.ly links as posible spam as it is a great tool used by many and recommended by many as a way to shorten links and track them.  Many of the top pros out there use it so interesting to know that some see it as spam… will do @nelsonta

@kc_creative ok no worries I agree you can usually spot the dodgy ones!