Tweet Scan: A tool for marketers to spam you? Let's hope not.
Marketing Pilgrim's Andy Beal recently talked about using a new Twitter-related app, Tweet Scan, as a tool for managing your online reputation. (Tweet Scan is a real-time search engine for Twitter posts.) I've got another spin on the use of the app, one that's not very pleasant.
Lately, I've received notifications that I'm being followed by those who've set up Twitter accounts strictly for marketing purposes. For example, I've tweeted that I was about to go on a diet. Within a day or two of mentioning that, I received notices that , and were following me. It could be merely coincidental, but, then again, given Tweet Scan's ability to search by keyword, perhaps not.
Are we facing a trend where marketers/advertisers will use apps like Tweet Scan to search for prospects (suspects)? I'm thinking so. And I'm concerned about the consequences.
Let me take a second to expound on these three diet-related followers.
First, none of them appear to be engaging anyone in conversation, just sharing links. Second, there is no real person attached to any of the accounts. Unlike @richardatdell, there is no human I can interact with even if I was interested in learning more.
@flatbellydietin's bio links to a Squidoo page on the Flat Belly Diet. @weightlossdie's bio links to a similar page, also on Squidoo, while @trxworkout has a link to a blog for a piece of exercise equipment.
So, yes, I realize this is Twitter spam (). Further, I realize Twitter has a problem that's got to be solved and I'm hardly the only person talking about this. (More in a later post.)
The question I'm asking now is, how did these culprits find me and could they have used Tweet Scan to do it? While I want to make it clear I have no axe to grind with the app or its makers whatsoever, I am concerned there are those who would use it for spurious purposes.
I'd like to hear their thoughts on the matter and yours as well. What do you think? Is there reason for concern?
