While I can’t find anything about this on the Twitter blog, rumor around the blogosphere is that they have a new spam policy to prevent you from tweeting a bunch of @ names and a link.

We’ve all received those tweets. The ones from an egg like the one below. The ones that are completely out of left field and you know, immediately, they are spam. The ones that tell you, and six other people, that you can make $1,000 by clicking on a link. You click “block and report spam” instead and continue through your stream. They’re annoying, but it sounds like Twitter is taking action against them. Finally.

But what isn’t clear is what they’re going to do about the #FollowFriday tweets that are full of #FF @your @name @goes @here @and @so @does @yours @this @is @freaking @annoying @who @started @this @anyway.

Is that spam?

According to the blogosphere, even though it doesn’t include a link, it soon will be banned from Twitter.

So what to do?!

Stop doing #FollowFriday that way! Duh.

If you visit Spin Sucks often, you know we’ve been doing #FF differently for more than year. Other bloggers, such as Tony Hastings, do #FF on their blogs, but highlight people with explanations on why you should follow each. And yet others do it straight on Twitter with a “#FF @johnfalchetto because he’s living the dream in France that we all wish we had (and he’s smart, too)!”

Think about it. Would you rather follow someone because they had nice things to say about the person? Or do you really like the tweets every Friday full of handles that clog your streams?

Like I said, I can’t find anything about this directly from the mouths of Twitter, but wouldn’t you rather be safe, and not annoy your followers, than have your account shut down?

Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is the founder, CEO, and author of Spin Sucks, host of the Spin Sucks podcast, and author of Spin Sucks (the book). She is the creator of the PESO Model and has crafted a certification for it in partnership with Syracuse University. She has run and grown an agency for the past 15 years. She is co-author of Marketing in the Round, co-host of Inside PR, and co-host of The Agency Leadership podcast.

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