I have been using Twitter for a small while – can’t quite remember when I opened my account, I think Autumn 2010. So far, so good. I have a very small number of followers but they all seem to be interested in some of the stuff I have to say. Having recently opened two other accounts for two new projects, I am fascinated by the different followers they have attracted.
I opened a completely different kind of account, one to add value to my e-book idea/blog “The A to Z of Spanish Culture”. Through this Twitter account, I aim to drive people to the blog and also to give them a dose of “Spanish culture” in 140 characters. I have a very small number of followers, but half of them are a completely different type of follower to that I have encountered before – i.e. either people who know me personally or who think I have something interesting to say.
These new followers are people who just want to sell me stuff – so in their profile, instead of having something like “Property in Spain, we are a friendly stage agent” they will have “2 bedroom wonderful villa in Malaga, available NOW!”. Or even “Google Adwords, get your discount voucher now” Hmmmm….
I’m happy for them to spam me, if it means at some point my name appears on the homepages of other potential followers (in the “People who follow you also follow.” vein) and it’s pretty harmless (so far). But it did lead me to think, this is the new way of directly targeting potential customers. Some of those who follow @aspanishculture are bound to be interested in renting property in Spain, so let’s follow them in the hope of appearing in other people’s homepages. (And you never know, maybe the people behind this account will one day rent from us too…)
The other account I recently opened, Changeleadership @unusualconnect, for some reason has attracted some very interesting “ladies” in very “interesting” positions – I’ve blocked the two that were obviously not remotely interested in what I had to say (they had the same photo on their profile) but left the others, just in case they were “real people” who wanted to show themselves to the world in the sexiest way possible.
So, no life-changing thoughts today, just some ramblings. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter – choose the account that most suit your needs!
Think Write Draw 
I've had my twitter account since december '10, and my first tweet read something like “ok, I now have twitter, what do I do with it?”
It hasn't been until last month I've actually started using it… or looking into “to who follow”…
I think it's kind of disturbing to get tweets from people I don't know, offering flats or replying to something I can't remember reading… I kind of mind less if conected through the computer, but when you have to go through all tweets on the phone, kind of annoying.
I'm still working on understanding and considering if twitter is worth the trouble, but for now can't really find it's real value, to many people connected through others, and unfortunately too many spammers.
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Hey Anonymous,
Welcome again!
To be honest, if you can't find the value, ditch it! (Although I have a feeling you found out about this post through it.) It's just another tool, albeit one that has been given plenty of publicity.
You should only really receive tweets from those you follow, so if you don't like what they're sending, unfollow them. You can also block followers, if you don't like spammers.
It is a bit weird to receive messages from people you don't know – but it really is making the world a smaller handkerchief (see post in http://www.atozofspanishculture.com).
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