UPDATE: OK, worked great. All posts are perfect. If you want the Twitter Updater Go Here

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.

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.

After several months using Twitter I have concluded it is a great way to connect with customes and clients, so long as you can filter out the junk mail and tire-kickers. Like e-mail and junk mail, I sift through accounts that interest me. I find that a quick note from time to time from followers makes the start of my day interesting. Yet, like fish, some begin to stink in a few days, inundating me with a barrage of 10 or more tweets in a row.

While I remain patient, I start to feel pressured to read or buy from these twitter salepeople. Anxiety starts to rise. I am annoyed because my tweet from Kevin Spacey has moved off the main view scope.  I decide to pull my favorite twitters in to my RSS reader – ahhh, I can now read them at my liesure.

Now, when I go to Twitter it is to search for new interests, to deal with new and potential clients and unfollow those who clog up my twitter home.