Clean up the Twitter Fake Bots

New attention has be drawn to the numerous fake or spam twitter accounts that follow us. Yes they boost numbers but but they provide no value. Isn't it better to know everyone is listening or potentially listening? It was back in June 2011 that I wrote "Twitter Fly Swatter - TwitBlock" after I was looking in to ridding my followers of spam bots. It was TwitBlock by @TimWhitlock that identified and enabled me to block the culprits. This week Status people came on the scene, a tool to identify fakers with the headlines

• Facebook Has 44% Fake Followers; Twitter Has 33% - Mashable
• Obama Has Millions of Fake Twitter Followers [UPDATED] - Mashable
• Find Out How Many Fake Twitter Followers You Have With StatusPeople - Tech Crunch
• How many Twitter followers do they really have? - Guardian
• How many Twitter followers does Lady Gaga REALLY have? British firm promises to root out the 'spambots' that don't exist - Daily Mail

Quite some press coverage but lets get a little perspective. Bots boost your follow count, this is true. The relationships on Twitter of most importance are those with 'friends'. The ones you follow back. They read your Tweets and you read thier's. We don't control who follows us the only option if you want these bots to disappear is to block them. A twitter count inflated by fake, purchased followers and bots kids no one but your self. Running @pcmcreative through StatusPeople reveals I have 90% Good, 9% Inactive, 1% Fake. StatusPeople only analyses 1000 accounts, just a sample of your total following. Information is all well and good but what about the clean up. This is why I write this post. Social Media evolves all the time with new platforms, tools and services emerging suite of complimentary apps come together. Three apps I now have to verify the effectiveness of the Twitter accounts I own, run and maintain.

• TwitBlock - Finds Bots in fiends and followers - @pcmcreative 14 of 2543
• SocialBro - Excellent Twitter management tool including providing statistics about inactive followers - @pcmcreative has 112 inactive friends and 526 inactive followers.
• StatusPeople - New analytic tool to identify fake or bot accounts in your followers

The greater issue for me is my inactive friends. Many of them are Tweeters with the greatest of intentions but with no twitter passion. Some do ignite some just wait and watch. But I do know who many of them are. The other peeve is accounts with no custom avatar. What about your account? For more Twitter thoughts take a look at Twitterati, FibreCamp.tv's new twitter show with me and Phil Campbell.

I use QR Codes - event lanyards & name badges

A conference I attended at Leeds Open Space last year set this challenge to its delegates. "Make your own badge, make it unique and be creative."

What should a conference badge be? This was a great opportunity for self expression and the creation of visual elevator pitch to wear around your neck or pin to your lapel. Conversation objects are so valuable when you need to stand out from the crowd.

I was in information sharing mode so on reflection my badge is lacking creative flare.

Connecting identities online and offline is important to me so my name, my Twitter name and my Twitter avatar were vital components. Job title is a defacto but I loath it. The simplicity of my previous job, stagemanager was a role title. Within that role depending on the company, venue, director and production manager I worked under defined my actual duties.

Over the years these were wide ranging and diverse from lighting design to production relights, props and furniture acquisitions, prompt 'book' development and show calling to production running and Stagemanagement.

Now my preferred role title is Internet Adventurer and Explorer. It acts as a conversation starter and at its core is what I do. Advising and assisting business get the most from social media is what I do to generate an income to support my exploration of social technologies.

The nice thing about creating your own event badge is being able include shareable information, reports, eBooks or contact information.

A more recent TEDx event (TEDxNottingham) the organisers created every delegates badge by hand giving a welcoming attention to detail as they completed each badge with your name. Nice touch.

What innovative event badges have you encountered?

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