Archive for July, 2009
Twitter Can Forge Friendships and Build Business
Posted by admin in Starting an Online Business, Twitter Marketing on July 19th, 2009
When I first talked with my friend about Twitter, I was extremely skeptical. She emphatically tried to convince me it was this fantastic new marketing medium, when all I could see was another way for spam, false opinions and junk. Well, fortunately, and unfortunately, we were both right.
While Twitter has grown exponentially over the past several months, so has the onslaught of spam, objectionable material and rumors. However, I have also found a great many helpful, warm and friendly people. Like in your real life, you enjoy a handful of close friends that you like to hang with – ones you trust and whom trust you.
And once in awhile, among these select few, come a smattering of quality business projects that fit you like a glove. I have been fortunate to not only have established great friendships, but forged business relationships.
If you are thinking Twitter is simply another frenzied forum of opinionated, rude and confrontational people – you are right. But it is also a place to connect with like-minded individuals. And unlike the real world – you can block whom you don’t wish to associate with.
New Tool to Stop Twitter Spam – TrueTwit.com
Posted by admin in Business Tools, General, Twitter Marketing on July 19th, 2009
Every day, reports highlight the growing problem of Twitter spam. If you’ve been on Twitter for more than a day, you know it too – separating spammers from true followers can be almost unmanageable.
TrueTwit is a Twitter validation service that verifies the humanity of those who follow you. Here’s how it works:
- You sign up for a free account a TrueTwit.com
- Any new followers receive a Direct Message (DM) requesting validatin through a unique link
- The follower then must fillout a CAPTCHA form showing they are human, not a bot
- When they validate, you receive an email that a human has followed you
Any new follower that is already registered with TrueTwit.com is authoirzed immediately. This may cause some problems as the spammer may just sign up and then spam.
The only failing the site is still in BETA and some features are not available, like removing the automatic follow other TrueTwits. If you plan to sign up at TrueTwit.com – don’t choose automatic approval [a checkmark in your signup]. There may be followers you just don’t want to follow back.
UPDATE: just DM’d with Chad Brandt, A consultant and software engineer working for Kettle River Consulting as Developer on TrueTwit.com, and he informed me that the feature for changing the auto follows “will be in the admin area today or tomorrow.” [as of July 18, 2009]. You can follow Chad on Twitter or visit their blog at http://www.truetwit.com/blog/.
If you are looking for a great way to stop Twitter Spammers, then I suggest you check out this free and powerful tool. TrueTwit.com
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UPDATE: I personally stopped using TrueTwit as it seemed to hinder more than help – at least for my account. My account seemed to stall – getting only 3 new followers in a month, so I have decided to manually monitor my account. I believe TruTwit is still a good choice for many, and highly recommend it as a deterrant from spam follows.