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….on twitter!

The only thing worst than following a phony Twitter user is trying to talk to them. Sending off a DM to a bot is almost as gratifying as sending a Birthday card to your mother in-law. Its happened to everyone.

You follow someone without realizing that they’re actually just a mannequin sent to promote their brand and a viral teeth whitener. Or someone sends you off an automated DM and you respond thinking they were sincere.

Here are 5 Painless Ways to Tell if the Peeps You’re Following are Real!

List : Follower Ratio

People who communicate with their followers, establish an online presence and are actually interesting – Find themselves listed by a good chunk of people.

As your number of followers increases, the number of lists you can find yourself in should also increase. The only reason why your lists wouldn’t increase would be if you were a bot or an extremely boring person.

People who are listed under different groups have reasons to be there – Either they’re conversationalists, Marketing addicts, Foodies, Trekkies or maybe just a Local tweep. One way or the other you don’t get put on lists if you’re boring and not communicating with your followers. If you’re following 2000 people and are only listed 37 times; Somethings fishy.

No RT’s & No @’s

It seems that a lot of people are realizing the new shift in how people are using twitter. Some people are simply hooking their accounts up to RSS feeds and automated following services and letting the beast do its work.Not only is this defeating the purpose of social media its increasing the chances that you get stuck with an irreversible damaged brand (personal or corporate).

Freaky Deeky Avatar

While I’m sure that you would find some very, very interesting tweets when following this faker. You probably won’t find yourself getting any exhilarating conversation out of them. Typically, the profiles that are filled with sex and nude profiles pics aren’t actually 10/10′s who think you’re hot – They’re usually bots trying to make their porn site money. Sorry to burst your bubble – You’ll find that bombshell some day.

You Are What You Tweet

If you scan the most people who followed you and take a quick peak at their most recent tweet you can learn a lot. If their most recent tweet is something like “@TheCoolestCool Well played, I think I’m going to be subscribing soon” – You know they’re real. However, if you’re looking at someone and their most recent tweet says something like “Reading:  Tables are Turned The Web Tortures Jack Bauer www.tinyurl.com/Bauer” – There are two tings that could have happened here.

Either, A: They took the authentic approach and are telling the truth…

or

B: They are using a twitterfeed that plugs the word “Reading:” at the beginning of a whole bunch of posts using a Feed Burner. These are the ones you look out for – These are the ones who just might be a fake account or simply a social media douchebag.

You Find a Direct Message Like This

“Thanks for the Follow! How are you doing today?! – Tell me about what you do!”

If worst comes to worst the best solution is to reach out and get a fist full. If they’re perky and respond the right way you know they’re real. If they simply stay in the same place and don’t do anything – You’re in the presence of a phony rack.

Tagged as: Automation, Fake Twitter Accounts, How to tell whose a bot, Online Communities, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter