How to spot a Twitter bot

Now contrast “Pamella” with the one non-bot in that lineup:

True, this account has some things in common with the bots: a babalicious picture, a high ratio of follows to followers, and judging by the small number of tweets it appears to be a brand new account.

But the name and Twitter handle make sense, and the Web site listed below them isn’t spammy. There is also actual content in the tweets – even conversations with other Twitter account holders. Spambots aren’t typically very chatty.

Conclusion: Carol P. is a living, breathing human tweeting on behalf of her employer. (And a good sport for letting me use her Twitter profile in this post.)

There are three key differences between how Twitter deals with fake accounts versus how Facebook does it, and in each case Twitter handles them much better.

One is that Facebook routinely recommends bots as “People I might know.” To this day Twitter has never recommended a bot for me to follow.

Twitter is also much much better than Facebook at policing these things. When you spot a bot, you can report it via a single click on the drop down menu next to the Follow button. That click both blocks the account and reports it to Twitter.

Facebook makes it much harder to report bots. The reporting link is buried below the bot’s friends list, and you have to click through five (count em, five) screens to complete a report.

Finally, in my experience, Twitter bots have a very short shelf life. At least a third of the time when I go to report a bot, Twitter has already nuked it. Contrast that to Facebook bots, where fake accounts I reported weeks ago are still active.

And there you have it. If you are still plagued by Twitter zombies after this, you have only yourself to blame. Unless you simply enjoy deluding yourself into thinking you are being followed by a bevy of beauties, fake or otherwise.

Got a question about social media? TY4NS blogger Dan Tynan may have the answer (and if not, he’ll make something up). Visit his snarky, occasionally NSFW blog eSarcasm or follow him on Twitter: @tynanwrites. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-to’s, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook.

Now read this:

Facebook botnets have gone wild