If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time, you know I’m a big fan of scalable automation in social media, that doesn’t comprise the relationship you’re forming with someone. One such case includes auto-following and auto-unfollowing all those who do the same. Some things you just can’t keep up with and it doesn’t pay not to automate them.
I’m official changing that stance due to some recent changes on Twitter’s part — that indirectly pose a problem for those who to any automation regarding their following and unfollowing.
According to TwitTown, Twitter is cracking down on re-follow spammers — as a result of increasing complaints from Tweeple like Louis Gray.
When blogger Louis Gray realized he was getting slammed with Twitter spam, he didn’t take it sitting down. He started snapping screenshots, analyzing logs and eventually put together a package large enough to bring to Twitter’s attention. His complaint? Automated refollows, a technique where spammers join a popular Twitter’s follower list, then unfollow and refollow at particular times every day.
Twittip also reported on this issue and has shared some insight into how to address the problem on Twitter,
Now you wait a couple of days. Collect the evidence of these robotic re-follows and bring it to Twitter’s attention. You can take a screenshot as easily as pressing the Print Screen (PrtScn) key on your keyboard (usually above the Home / End / Delete keys) and opening up Microsoft Paint and choosing Edit > Paste to add the screenshot. Then save it as a JPEG and you’ve got some proof to hand over to the Twitter authorities. You can submit the information in a support ticket by contacting Twitter here.
How Does Re-Follow Spam Hurt You?
If you are automatically following and unfollowing people on Twitter — everytime a re-follow spammer follows and unfollows, then follows you again — you also do the same as part of your automation process.
There’s no indication that Twitter can see you simply auto-following and recognize the spammers from the automated users. At this point, it seems to me not worth the risk, it’s wiser to AT LEAST stop auto-following others, until Twitter has figured out a way to resolve the re-follow spam issue.
I’m still unfollowing all those that unfollow me, so even if they re-follow I’m still out of the spam loop and able to maintain part of my Twitter automation. (I do this for the lame social media experts and others who follow a ton of people, only to unfollow them to make their follower/following ratio skewed — you know who you are!).
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… looking forward to connecting with you!
Maria 
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter if you aren’t already!
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