Is Twitter dead already?

[shortbus]

I get email updates whenever I get a new follower on twitter.

My most recent follower is "order viagra". The sad thing is, that doesn't even phase me. "Order Viagra" has become pretty much the commonplace type username for my twitter following.

I get about 20 to 30 new followers a day. I don't know where they come from, or how they find me, but they do. My twitter account is my personal account, however I hooked it up to my main website, which is in the "nursing jobs" niche. I added an RSS feed to it, thinking it would benefit my followers who wanted to keep up with the latest "nursing jobs".

I started getting followers on a pretty regular basis after that so I thought, "hey, that was a good idea!" But then, the more followers I got, the more random the names became. You know, "shipping boxes" is now following you...but for every one of those it appeared I'd get a legitimate follower. That was months ago...

Now, it seems like every time I open my email I've got 10 new followers and every single one of them are obviously completely worthless, illegitimate users.

So I ask you, has Twitter already become completely worthless?

I mean, facebook provides you with the same short text type updates and you can at least monitor and cut down on the nonsense. I'm just not sure Twitter can keep up.

I'm not going to shut down my account by any means. It's not hurting me any. But can Twitter legitimately continue down the path they are on and still be considered a legitimate resource?

I'm not so sure...

[bobchrist]

Actually twitter is to build relationship not fairly good for promotion, I think you should eliminate spammer followers and follow people of relevant niche or similar interest.

[Fiveonline]

Hi

To me if you want help Twitter to help you in SEO it is just waste of time.

[weblover50]

twitter has become the best place for spam promotion with followers and following....

[zeruel]

Originally Posted by weblover50

twitter has become the best place for spam promotion with followers and following....

And that best place that you are talking about I think is being taken care of by the Twitter team...

Welll I don't think that Twitter will be dead in a few years. And I believe it is getting bigger and better...

[innominds]

If any marketing technique is going to be EFFECTIVE then spammers will follow it within no time.

[usearchme]

Hi there

It should be interesting to see how Twitter changes over the years, as like most websites there is a drop off as people get bored of it and move onto something else, as far as marketing any of my sites, it comes in handy but you need lots of followers to be able to have any influance on there.

Woc

[AxionGroup]

Despite the spam I think it is still worthwhile to be able to share information with other people in your market.

[on-SEO]

I think twitter. for business, is still viable. But, it also depends on the type of business. I do web design and SEO, and I don't think anyone would care enough about my daily goings on to follow me on twitter. I mean "Wrote some sweet code!" would be quite boring.

Now, if I ran a pizza shop and could tweet to my customers about my Friday, "Buy One, Get One" deals or other special promotions, then I think it can be quite valuable.

[weblover50]

Originally Posted by on-SEO

I think twitter. for business, is still viable. But, it also depends on the type of business. I do web design and SEO, and I don't think anyone would care enough about my daily goings on to follow me on twitter. I mean "Wrote some sweet code!" would be quite boring.

Now, if I ran a pizza shop and could tweet to my customers about my Friday, "Buy One, Get One" deals or other special promotions, then I think it can be quite valuable.

yeah.. If you have daily updates, then you can go for twitter.. The pizza shop mentioned is a good example.

[Nobby]

I've never thought of Twitter as particularly good, in fact its a bit annoying and i suspect along with being spammed to death it will probably simply go out of fashion in the not too distant future.

[NextDayFlyers]

Twitter is not dead. Twitter works best when your website is large or is a big brand name and then people will naturally follow you. Just keep focusing on your main website and the bigger and better it gets hopefully more real people will start following you.

[kirsky]

No, twitter is still on business. Actually they added more applications to it to make it more interesting for the users.

[mjtaylor]

Twitter is being used very effectively by people who do web design and SEO. They are blogging and/or tweeting about their blogs or about other news of blogs. And I find it very effective to tweet about new websites .. it's definitely driving traffic because I use it in combination with a significant Facebook presence.

[nickoran]

I think twitter can be used very well with sites that promote clubs or sites that update regularly. yeah there is a lot of spam, but its also a bit self regulating, people soon learn to just dont follow the spammers and I agree with above that it definitly drives traffic to my site

[thepromoshop]

My though: If there is a lot of spam in using that marketing technique then it must be working or they would not be spamming there. So I do think Twitter marketing can work - just has to be done right. And yes I wish there was a way to block those spammers from following us. I guess you could change the setting for who follows you in your account thought.

[cw1865]

I have to be honest, not quite sure what I'm supposed to be doing with twitter. Have an account, did a couple of tweets, apparently even have 7 followers. Not quite sure who they are or why they would be interested in my tweets......I'd like to figure this one out.....

[weblover50]

Originally Posted by cw1865

I have to be honest, not quite sure what I'm supposed to be doing with twitter. Have an account, did a couple of tweets, apparently even have 7 followers. Not quite sure who they are or why they would be interested in my tweets......I'd like to figure this one out.....

well, check out and let us know.... hope they are not followers with tags like 'meet me' or 'meet me in your city'. I have followers with these tags.. btw what is correct method of using twitter for promotion?

[nickoran]

Originally Posted by cw1865

I have to be honest, not quite sure what I'm supposed to be doing with twitter. Have an account, did a couple of tweets, apparently even have 7 followers. Not quite sure who they are or why they would be interested in my tweets......I'd like to figure this one out.....

Sweet! your on 666 posts! lol

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by cw1865

I have to be honest, not quite sure what I'm supposed to be doing with twitter. Have an account, did a couple of tweets, apparently even have 7 followers. Not quite sure who they are or why they would be interested in my tweets......I'd like to figure this one out.....

Well, *I* use it mostly to post links to my Facebook status ... but if I were blogging, I would be using it to drive traffic to my posts.

And WPW has some more answers for you:
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/20...noring-twitter

[simplybookit]

Originally Posted by shortbus

I get email updates whenever I get a new follower on twitter.

My most recent follower is "order viagra". The sad thing is, that doesn't even phase me. "Order Viagra" has become pretty much the commonplace type username for my twitter following.

I get about 20 to 30 new followers a day. I don't know where they come from, or how they find me, but they do. My twitter account is my personal account, however I hooked it up to my main website, which is in the "nursing jobs" niche. I added an RSS feed to it, thinking it would benefit my followers who wanted to keep up with the latest "nursing jobs".

I started getting followers on a pretty regular basis after that so I thought, "hey, that was a good idea!" But then, the more followers I got, the more random the names became. You know, "shipping boxes" is now following you...but for every one of those it appeared I'd get a legitimate follower. That was months ago...

Now, it seems like every time I open my email I've got 10 new followers and every single one of them are obviously completely worthless, illegitimate users.

So I ask you, has Twitter already become completely worthless?

I mean, facebook provides you with the same short text type updates and you can at least monitor and cut down on the nonsense. I'm just not sure Twitter can keep up.

I'm not going to shut down my account by any means. It's not hurting me any. But can Twitter legitimately continue down the path they are on and still be considered a legitimate resource?

I'm not so sure...

I have just commented on twitter in another post. People are not using twitter as it was meant to be used. Very soon a lot of people will lose interest in tweeting and that would be the beginning of the end

[nickoran]

Originally Posted by simplybookit

I have just commented on twitter in another post. People are not using twitter as it was meant to be used. Very soon a lot of people will lose interest in tweeting and that would be the beginning of the end

Oh why dont you just give up now then?
twitter has hardly started could be another way of looking at it, and who cares how people use it as long as your getting your message across?

[JBullet]

Twitter's SEO benefit is in informing people of link bait material you have, imo.

[simplybookit]

I read three days ago that you can get paid by twitting. I think we have to accept the spamming is inevitable. Just like spamming in email has become inevitable.

[JBullet]

There will always be spamming but I don't get too affected by it. I think its pretty good at not letting it in at the moment. You can always make your feed private which helps with spam.

[simplybookit]

How do people get a lot of followers on twitter when even they are not celeberties?

[JBullet]

Celebs probably get the most but it depends on what you define as "a lot". It's all about relevancy when you're trying to market on there anyway. Quality wins over quantity.

[simplybookit]

Jbulet, thanks for your answer. I also would like to know if one can get banned if he send too much tweets about his web site and products. Let say In the travel section, can I advertise hotels and deals without being banned from the network. Is there a limit?

[JBullet]

I've not pushed Twitter in this way but I don't think you would get banned but no one would follow your account as it would be too annoying. Linking to sites with viruses, etc, would obviously get you banned. I suggest you research their terms and conditions.

[Oshine]

I rather think twitting has just began now that you can twitt and get money. A lot of people will be twitting.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by simplybookit

I have just commented on twitter in another post. People are not using twitter as it was meant to be used. Very soon a lot of people will lose interest in tweeting and that would be the beginning of the end

How do you think Twitter "was meant" to be used?

I don't agree that people will lose interest; I find more and more links and information of interest ... it's a useful tool; especially good for driving traffic and attracting links.

[nickoran]

Twitter is trying to cobat the spammers and has put regulations in to this effect. There's now a follow rule where you can only follow 2000 people untill 1800 people follow you, after which you may only follow 10% more people than those that follow you.

I know this doesnt stop spam, merely slows it down a little bit and any serious spammer im sure will get past this with the greatest of ease, but at least its an effort to reduce spam

[scarcius121]

Your going to have spam on every site that gets a large amount of traffic that is just a reality. I usually get 30-50 followers a day. Most are related to my subject matter(finance) and are interested in what I am tweeting about, however I do get 3-4 people a day contacting me with a direct message about how to make $$$ on twitter or something like that or how I need to check out their site about fish.

Twitter isn't dead, it just needs to as "nickoran" said have some filters in place. Maybe a blacklist filter for direct messages if a direct message included these words you wouldn't receive the message, that would work for awhile.

[haridasz]

twitter is great place to source for potential customers. the trick is to get them in to your regular list so that you can market to them from there.

[sydneylife]

Twitter is most certainly not dead, and indeed as google keeps on tuning its real time component of the algo, one would argue that real time microblogging platforms will be even more important.

There will always be spammers, however, as time goes on, it would be very easy to use different aspects of evolving twitter functionality as signals of trust....ie..how many lists, some one is on, how often their material is retweeted and by whom (previously marked trust authorities)..etc...

[Andy Edwards]

Spammers will always figure out a way to get attention for their site. Maybe you can block them from following you. I think it's a waste of time if you couldn't care less about what they're going to update their twitter account with.