Is the world populated by Twit-bots

[ChrisGreaves]

For those of you more experienced in Tweeting than I (i.e. everyone who tweets), a few questions:
I started a twitter thingo about 3 weeks ago, supposed to be a business-twit thing, not one of those "I'm now walking past a tree" things.
I now find that I am being followed by so-called people with 6,000+ followers.
If I was being followed by Jack Nicholson, Gina Lollabridgida(sp?) or any President, CEO or CFO of a large financial institution in Toronto, I'd be over the moon, but Joe Bloggs, Jack Smith, Tom, Dick and Harry all look like not really following my pearls of wisdom.

(1) Have I been hacked?
(2) Spoofed?
(3) Or is the world populated by Twit-bots that somehow feed off my feeble efforts?

(4) Should I be worried?
(5) Can I inhibit literally mindless followers?
(6) Will this affect my Google rankings (if I seem to attract plebs)

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[jscher2000]

When you figure out what Twitter is for, let the rest of us know.

[viking33]

When you figure out what Twitter is for, let the rest of us know.

No one will ever know that, Jefferson. Along with Facebook and the Mystery of the Pyramids, etal, it shall be forever a question.

[PaulB]

So true, so sad.

[ChrisGreaves]

Here's a better example from this morning:-

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Our friends here have issued ZERO tweets and yet have 57 followers!
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!

[Leif]

Can't you tweet about it and see what tweet-backs you get?

[Argus]

When you figure out what Twitter is for, let the rest of us know.

The closest I have come in trying to decipher that, obviously I'm not using it, nor reading it (or should that be following someone? Surely it can't be being friend to someone, that's the face-thingy, correct? ), is that it is an attempt to change the laws of nature, so that Universe revolves around you.

[stuckling1]

I use Twitter, have done for years.

There are a lot of 'twit-bots' (as you aptly name them) that follow anyone and everything, but don't say anything of note themselves out there. Usually they're just following you in the hope that you'll follow back, and boost their feeble follow count.
Still others are hoping that you'll look at their profile, and then maybe visit whatever site they're desperately promo-ing.
Also, if you make a comments with #hashtags or related to trending topics, you can expect a spike in the rate of following - of this perhaps 1 in 10 is genuinely interested in what you say, the rest are just "twit-bots".

You can, of course set your tweets to be hidden - but if you want your thoughts shared, what's the point in hiding them?
You can regularly go through your followers and block tweeps... But then you might alienate the one person in one hundred who was actually interested.

My solution is three-pronged - clearly I only tweet it if I don't care who reads it, I try to ensure a good mix of (semi)inteligent comment, interesting links, recomendations etc in the aim that new followers actually want to read my tweets,
thirdly and finally I only follow back after checking their tweets, to see if they're trying as hard as I do to be (semi)inteligent interesting and relevant.
Often the twitbots will unfollow you if you don't follow back in a few days, as all they're interested in is improving their follow/follower ratio.

It's a shame that many tweeps are like that, but for every ton of muck you might get one nugget of gold...

Happy Tweeting!

PS it's @mrmathieson if you fancy following... sorry, I couldn't let you get away without a tiny bit of #shamelessselfpromotion ;)

[stuckling1]

a few questions:

(1) Have I been hacked?
(2) Spoofed?
(3) Or is the world populated by Twit-bots that somehow feed off my feeble efforts?

(4) Should I be worried?
(5) Can I inhibit literally mindless followers?
(6) Will this affect my Google rankings (if I seem to attract plebs)

My thoughts:

(1) No, this is ordinary twitter behaviour... It's a jungle out there!
(2) Nope again.
(3) Yes, sadly yes!
(4) Nope
(5) Yes, you could block them by going to your list of followers, clicking the more options button, blocking them. Or just don't follow back unless they're not mindless!

(6) The most interesting question-

Well maybe, but most likely only in a good way. Popular tweeps show up better in searchs for sure - Google can't tell if someone's a 'pleb' or not, so more followers is always a good thing from that point of view! And who knows, one day you might get a CEO or CFO.

[stuckling1]

is it an attempt to change the laws of nature, so that Universe revolves around you.

Basicly yes, but we don't like to acknowledge that in reality