Not everyone who does these things is a faker, some are just learning how things work.

Before Twitter got to be such a phenomenon, it seemed only the natural thing to say “hello” and follow back folks who followed me. Every person was an opportunity to learn more about the dynamics of the blogosphere, who hangs out here, and how the conversation really works.

When business conversations came to Twitter it became even more. Client relationships are being formed and forged there. New products ideas are being born there. People are finding jobs and recruiting people fill job openings. Opportunities like that get people talking and that got more people Twittering. It’s almost an explosion of fast and furious growth. Fast growth always has it’s problems — on the people side of Twitter one of those problems for me is how to sort the fakers from the followers.

Who’s Following Me?

You may have bumped into them, the Extreme Twitter Personalities. I’ve seen my share. Some follow you so that you’ll follow them. Then they disappear hoping you won’t notice they’re gone. Some do more nefarious things.

Because we talk about who we are and sometimes say personal things, such as where were going or who we’re with, I like to know who’s following me. I follow almost everyone who follows me, but I check them one at time. I use these traits to watch for Extreme Twitter in my Twitter Stream.

The ones I notice first do of these things:

• The GAMER — sends an auto Direct Message that says “Thanks for following me! … ” It asks me a question or to click a link. When I try to Direct Message a reply, I find out that the person is not following me. The gamer never has an interest in learning about the other person.
• The CLUELESS — sends an auto Direct Message that says “Thanks for following me! Would you tell me, how did you find me?” I followed this person because he or she followed me.
• The MURDER MYSTERY WRITER — follows 2000 people without a tweet. I was feel like I’m in slasher novel where a group of people have been invited to a weekend at a mansion where there is no host. I suppose this could a silent listening account.
• The SEX SELLS SHILLER — has a sexy picture and a tweet or two about how I can make a six-figure income. Again this Twitter usually has a girl’s name with Candylim12 and is following thousands. She’s a friendly girl with lots of accounts.
• The TWITTER TROLLS — talk to people who don’t know them or jump on sentences out of context to criticize or pick fights. The controversy the cause, though entertaining at first, is a waste of time. They do it for followers and attention.
• The INFORMATION FONT — only passes on links to things people might want to read — the links come too quickly for the Twitter to have checked them out.
• The BROADCASTER — has a home page filled with tweets with his or her own url.
• The RETWEETER — reads links that others tweet and passes them on, hardly ever talks. This is a service.
• The INTERNET MARKETER — only tweets about why people need his or her product.
• The MAGPIE — puts ads in an already overly chatty twitter stream.
• The ROMANCER — quickly switches to IM to try to talk about personal romance ideas.
• The PARTY TWIT — Can’t spell on certain occasions and parties every night.
• The LIVE TWEETER — wants you at the conference too and seems to be at a conference every day.
• The CAT TWEETER — tweets as if channeling animal he or she has bonded with.
• The STALKER — is this square box avatar is following 1, 2, 3 people only.

The NOOBIE — Could be doing almost any of these things by accident.

Keep in mind that Twitter does have its glitches and beginners don’t always get everything right from the start.

What makes Twitter so fun and useful is that connects people to converse about almost anything … my guess is most of us have been a few of the above on a given day. And we’re all extreme to someone who thinks far differently from the way we do. Twitter seems to have room for all except those who cause danger or harm.

Some I hope I’ll never be. Some I block right out of the box. Some I wait to see if they’re just getting started. I’m grateful when noobies say so in a tweet so that it’s obvious what’s going on.

If I’m not sure about someone, I usually

1. look at who’s already following them
2. ask someone who might know
3. or do what @KurtScholle told me he does.

When something looks just a little off @KurtScholle told me his solution is to keep a file called Twitter to Consider when he’s not sure whether he wants to follow back. Great Idea.

What other Twitter Extreme personalities have you found? What’s your response to each?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Image: ADOdesign