Friday, July 13, 2018

Twitter purges thousands of followers from user accounts

Your follower count might be getting slimmer.

Twitter announced it was purging follower counts in attempts to crack down on fake users and inappropriate behavior on the platform.

Twitter chief Jack Dorsey shared:

The organization also wrote about the move in a blog post, which read in part:

Over the years, we’ve locked accounts when we detected sudden changes in account behavior. In these situations, we reach out to the owners of the accounts and unless they validate the account and reset their passwords, we keep them locked with no ability to log in. This week, we’ll be removing these locked accounts from follower counts across profiles globally. As a result, the number of followers displayed on many profiles may go down.

Most people will see a change of four followers or fewer; others with larger follower counts will experience a more significant drop. We understand this may be hard for some, but we believe accuracy and transparency make Twitter a more trusted service for public conversation.

The move is part of Twitter’s efforts to respond to revelations about fake followers—businesses that sell followings to users attempting to expand their presence on social media.

[WEBCAST: Join us virtually for our sold out Social Media & Digital Communications Conference at Amazon.]

Some are praising the steps as good for the internet and the digital ecosystem:

However, some are concerned about Twitter’s future and what the removals mean for user growth:

CNN reported:

It's long been an open secret that numerous Twitter users rely on bogus accounts and bots to inflate their follower count, said Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. But mounting attention to the issue may have forced the company to address the problem and "boost their credibility." […]

Trimming follower counts carries a risk, however. Conservative Twitter users lashed out at the company earlier this year after a previous purge cost them large numbers of followers. The culling also could lead to a decrease in user engagement. "The more followers you have on Twitter, the more likely you are to use Twitter," Berger says.

Wall Street also was skittish of the steps Twitter was taking to crack down on fake accounts. The stock price dropped when the organization released data showing it had suspended 70 million accounts while going after fake users.

Some noted that follower counts were already dropping:

Twitter users began sleuthing to discover who had potentially paid for followers and posted their findings:

Some applauded Twitter’s move even as they lost followers:

The news might be good for marketers and PR pros trying to evaluate the impact of influencer marketing campaigns. Companies like Unilever have been calling for a cleanup of social media influencers who pay for followers.

As Twitter continues to remove phony accounts, trust might increase and the platform could grow in importance for influencer marketing campaigns.

Have you lost followers in the purge, PR Daily readers? Share your experience in the comments.

(Image via)



from PR Daily News Feed https://ift.tt/2mgyyQk
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)