Frustrations have arisen as of late- yet again- with some notable bloggers on Twitter with autoDMs. I used to autoDM that I autofollowed them but since Twitter exploded with spammers I had to stop that. In a compromised network it’s not about the tactics they use but who you allow in your personal network.

The private Direct Message (or DM) is an extremely valuable tool for having timely sensitive conversations without exchanging emails. The conversation ecosystem breaks down when you allow anyone at all to connect with you. Allowing someone into your life is a privilege that shouldn’t be given out lightly.

Selective selection

My good friend & guest blogger Anaiis Flox once said to me that she’d rather give the keys to her house to someone than give them her website password. In an online world of ambient intimacy and unabashed public living in social media, your network reflects your value & worth. In other words, you are who you tweet.

There’s an old saying that goes, show me your closest 4 friends and I can tell you all about yourself. Of course I’m paraphrasing but the sentiment is still the same. Your personal brand is comprised of how you look, what you say, how you hold yourself, what you do and who you choose to associate with.

Connecting to everyone

Connecting with anyone online regardless of who they are is the offline equivalent to talking to anyone and everyone that comes into your view. With billions of people in this world (many unsavory) we can’t possibly speak to everyone we encounter everywhere. This is why we set up guidelines to who and in what capacity we’ll engage someone. Online is no different.

Today even spammers, multi-level marketers (MLM) and robots have accounts that have tens of thousands of followers. This is due to autofollowing and pump & dump tactics. You may have quantity but do you have quality? Numbers play a factor in how many people you are able to reach but they are not the only factor nor are they the most important factor to your intrinsic value.

Auto-caring

If you’ve connected with thousands upon thousands of people who all want to broadcast to you then who’s really listening to your message? Casting a wide net will net you some fish but are they the right type of fish or even up to your standards?

In Twitter you have no one to blame but yourself for the autoDM. I admit some spammy people get through every now and then on my account but when they do I immediately unfollow them. I’m not so concerned about autoDMs as I am about mentionspam. While I choose who to allow to private message me I have no control over who mentions my @ name.

Mention Spam

For more prominent higher-profile twitterers this can potentially be a huge problem. The more valuable you are to larger amounts of people that follow you the more likely they are to talk to you. Raise your profile and value enough then you are more likely to attract spammers who openly broadcast to you by attaching your Twitter name to their spammy message. A messy situation indeed.

What can you do to combat the spam?

Be selective about who you connect with. Remember it’s the depth of each relationship that will raise your value much farther than the breadth of your entire network alone.

Be proactive when curating your community. If someone is spamming your public stream then do something about it. Block them, let @spam know & ask your network to do the same.

Your network is only as good as you allow it to be. If someone is going against general accepted standards of the network you’ve curated then let them know. Be a part of the solution not the problem.