Well it took awhile, but the porno industry has cast their shadow over Twitter.
Oh come on, you noticed, didn’t you? Perhaps you have been gaining an unusual amount of followers recently whom you have never met? I know I and others have. While my ego got a boost initially (hey, who doesn’t want followers?), further analysis showed that these potential followers were nothing more than linkers to porno sites. Fortunately, I was able to block these “business” people before they got on my list.
You see, the pornography industry is one of the most technologically advanced industries in the world. They have driven new advancements from the printing press to live streaming video on the Internet. The question isn’t why are they on Twitter — the real question is what in Ron Jeremy’s name took them so long? You see, if one porno site follows 100,000 Tweeters, they might in turn be followed by about half of those people — all for virtually no cost. If only 1% of the followers turn into customers, then that’s 500 more customers earned with very little investment. Not bad, eh? The good new is that this same thinking applies to virtually all businesses — even if they’re not the oldest in the world.
Today, many businesses’ best asset is their digital content. Twitter is a powerful medium for attracting potential customers. But there’s a problem with the porn industry trying to exploit social media. Social media is transparent and is based on your real identity. There’s no hiding. No late-night anonymous surfing. If a porn site starts following you and you follow them back you’re, well, exposing your interests to the world. Even if they’re not really your interests.
Many people set their accounts to automatically follow anyone who follows them, or they simply accept all followers without question simply to build their lists. But now you cannot just set it and forget it or accept it and forget it. Take some time and clean up your follower list. There are several tools to do this including TwitterKarma.
The point to you? Be selective and check out who your followers are. This one move could save you from having a rather difficult conversation with your spouse or your boss.
I have noticed a lot of these followers on Twitter lately. They are pretty annoying, but it’s nice that you can block them so easily.