Today I tweeted a ZDNET link about a new Automated Twitter spamming software that’s recently hit the market. Since then Mashable has covered the story also.
Now I know that there are many more than 3 reasons not to use Twitter to spam people, but website traffic can be hard to come by and the more someone is frustrated, the more tempted they are to use unscrupulous methods.
Hopefully the following 3 reasons will nudge those who may be tempted away from the dark side.
1. You Only Have One Reputation To Screw Up
Sure you may reap some short term rewards spamming Twitter, but you will be found out. Likely you will be found out by someone you pissed off when they found out they’ve been duped by a Twitter bot. News spreads like wildfire through social media and any chance you have of someday using the web for legitimate business purposes will be ruined.
2. SPAM Traffic Converts Horribly
I’ve read articles pegging SPAM’s conversion rate as low as 0.00001%. Granted these statistics are mostly for measuring email but I imagine that much of the reasoning behind email SPAM’s low conversion rate holds true for Twitter as well. Namely why would I give you my money, being that:
- I don’t have any relationship with you.
- I feel tricked into visiting your ‘offer’ page.
- Based upon your spammy tweets you must have the personality of a hole in the wall.
I’d rather give my money to a hole in the wall.
3. You Get Better Results Using Twitter The Right Way
The Spam Software in question, which I will not dignify with a link, claims that they recieved 589 visits to their website
“using just 5 twitter accounts and letting the software run for less than 4 hours total!”
I have no doubt that this claim is true but it pales in comparison to the results that can be achieved using Twitter the way it was intended.
By using Twitter to help others, forge new relationships and share information, I routinely push more traffic than that. Granted I almost always share links to websites other than my own, but the few times I’ve linked from Twitter to my blog has resulted in many people visiting to take a look at what I had to say.
On top of that because of the ‘relationship’ I’ve forged with my Twitter peeps, they are more likely to participate when they visit by commenting, retweeting, etc…
Here’s a screen capture of the traffic I recieved via only Twitter to one of the stories on my blog:
I know that at the present time I have a little over 10,000 people following me (all of whom I respect a great deal) but I was sending many people to good links via Twitter before I even had 2000 followers. I know this because I tracked traffic using link shortening/tracking services like twitclicks.com.
Twitter is a great service. Please don’t ruin Twitter by using it to spam people. As you can see it is far more effective when used the right way to build community and help others.
Besides a great fringe benefit of using Twitter the right way is that your reputation grows stronger instead of the other way around.