If you are new to Twitter, I have some bad news for you:  Not everyone on it is real.  There are what are known as bots, which are accounts run by computers.  Think robot.  Some of these are programmed to give basic replies, so they appear to chat.  When I started on Twitter, I thought all my followers were real people because I didn’t spot some tell-tale signs.  Here are 5 types of bots that I have spotted:  You are welcome to add to the list.

1. Benevolent Bot – These are mostly harmless bots that basically retweet your tweets if you mention key phrases.  Quite often they will tell you they are a bot in their name or bio.  Sometimes they are used by company’s to spread tweets with their brand.  Sometimes they will just retweet a phrase like “cuppa tea” or “don’t despair” or “sausages”  @AndyBritnell spotted @BadRobinBunny which responds to ”I bet you can’t” by saying “I bet I can.”  I think it is quite fun to see if you can get retweeted by one of these bots.
2. Unsolicited Bot – These bots will @mention you and give you a link.  Be wary if someone that you have never had an interaction before, talks about something completely unrelated to any conversation you might be having.  Check their last few tweets if it is filled with @mentions directing people to a link.  Don’t click on the link and report them as spam.
3. Collecting Followers Bot – If you have an automated follow-back set up on your account, switch it off now.  Bots love this they will follow you and two days later when you might have followed them back, they will unfollow you.  Twitter has a rule that you can follow up to 2000 accounts without anyone following you back.  Once you hit 2000, a ratio applies that you may only follow 10% more accounts than you have followers.  Automated programmes will follow people randomly.  When someone follows you; look at the number of tweets, how many people they are following and how many followers they have.  At the early stages of collecting, they will have a high number of people they are following versus the number of people following them back.  If someone has 10 000 followers, but hasn’t tweeted or only tweeted a few times, you know they are a bot too.   Bots are getting clever so, look at the tweets, if the tweets are just random words put together, you have a bot.  Just remember that some people who are new to Twitter might look like a bot, by following people before they have tweeted and not having a photograph or bio filled in.
4. Spam Bot – These are bots purely to spam you with products that they are selling.  They will tweet regularly with high frequency.  All their tweets will be sales pitches with links.  These are companies who have been given bad advice about Twitter, they believe that all you need to do is set up an automated process and if you say it enough times, someone will buy.  Social Media is SOCIAL.  If there is no interaction, they are just creating noise.  Some of these are people who believe they are going to make thousands with their affiliate links.
5. Real people acting as Bot - Sometimes real people act like bots by treating twitter as a broadcast medium.  They automate their tweets to broadcast the blog articles they have written or worse still, inspirational quotes.  I know real people who use Twitter this way.

I am assuming that you are a real person and that you don’t want to be mistaken for a bot.

• Have a good head and shoulders photograph of you.  Personally, I follow people, not businesses, so I prefer to see what you look like rather than your business logo.
• Have your bio filled in properly
• Add a location, your business might not be localised, but it doesn’t stop you with networking with local businesses, does it?
• If you are new to Twitter, add a tweet, even it says, that you are brand new to Twitter, before following people
• Engage with people, it’s not all about you

Do you think I have covered all the bots or tell-tale signs?  I would love you to add to the article by leaving a comment.

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