But I agree that it cannot be spam if the person being spammed signed up for it. The definition of spam definitely includes an unsolicited factor, and if you hit the follow button on somebody then you solicited whatever they want to send you.

On the other hand Follow notifications from obvious brands is blatant spam. I can’t help but wonder how effective that is. Of course once the spammer has a bot it doesn’t cost them anything so they may as well blast away 24/7.

However, I think you have to take current usage into account. I could make a case that people who add everyone who add them are being spammed. The point of the “follow everyone” crowd is to get those people to add back, not because the advertisers are reading all those streams. So from the advertisers point of view, they are trying to spam. What you are offering is explanation as to how to use twitter so that it is ineffective – thus no longer spam. By that logic, however, it used to be…

:)

@akasylvia

I don’t like it when brands follow me. Too often they just want me to look at their new product or service. When someone follows me, I like to look at their profile and see what they’re about. It’s not an ego thing, I am genuinely interested to see if I can learn anything new by looking at a person’s profile. With a brand, I don’t want to waste time looking at their profile. If I’m interested in their product or service, I’ll find them.

It is important for companies to engage in social media. I am one of those people who recommend that they become involved, however, I would not recommend that a company follow someone on Twitter under their company name. If Lucia had come onboard as a person, @lucia, or even @lucia_from_pandora, I probably wouldn’t have an issue. As a person, I would expect her to share more than just the latest company news. If a company is just using this as a way to monitor conversations, then they don’t need to follow at all. Just read the public timeline and use the search engines. You cannot have a conversation with me if your identity is “Company X.” I want to talk to people, not companies. If you’re using Twitter for customer service, just post the link to your feedback page on your profile.

It sounds like Pandora has its head in the right place, and I do like their service. I’m sorry if Lucia is being penalized because there are so many companies who are doing the wrong thing, but my advice would be to get the word out there about @pandora_radio without using the Follow feature.

Lucia here, from Pandora.
I’d like to chime in, as I was mentioned in the post.

Pandora decided to join the conversation on Twitter because we saw a lot of people twittering questions and suggestions for Pandora. We thought it would be helpful to bring our customer service to listeners using Twitter, in case they hadn’t bothered to email us with those questions/suggestions. Also, any reports of Pandora bugs or strangeness twittered by listeners are reported immediately to our team.

I’ve found people really like getting their Pandora questions answered so quickly and easily, right in their twitterstream.
I answer all questions, either with a public tweet or a private message. I’ve also posted my personal email address in the stream, for any questions longer than 140 characters. Several followers have taken me up on that.

Our intention does occasionally get misunderstood on Twitter, and as there is no way to DM someone who isn’t following you, it can be tricky to address potential misunderstandings.

I hand pick who @pandora_radio follows.
We usually only follow twitterers who post positively about Pandora, and those who have more than 50 or 75 followers/followees. Those users seem to be using Twitter as a public communication venue, and it’s often a safe assumption that they don’t mind one more follower. And in most cases, they’re pleased with such an easy way to get in touch with a company they’re interested in engaging with, and they follow us back. (You’ll notice that @pandora_radio has almost a 1 to 1 follower relationship.)

There are small and large businesses on Twitter benefiting users; I have seen many positive and impressive customer service uses of Twitter. There are potentially nefarious and annoying uses of Twitter, yes. And I understand concerns for privacy, absolutely.
Whether Twitter Spam exists: it’s an important dialog.

Thanks for reading, and for the ongoing conversation!

- Lucia, from Pandora
[Lucia at pandora dot com]