Anti-Social Twitter Marketing Practices & San Francisco Politicians
I live in Denver, and don’t mind saying so. A few weeks ago, though, I removed Denver from my personal Twitter account’s profile because I was tired of being followed by Denver newspapers I don’t read or TV stations I don’t watch. It’s pretty clear that they were following the bad advice of self-proclaimed Twitter marketing experts by following a lot of random people in hopes of being followed back.
I used to live in San Francisco, and might again, but I don’t now. My Twitter account profile has never mentioned San Francisco. So I was extremely surprised when a Twitter account which appears to belong to San Francisco’s City Attorney Dennis Herrera started following me earlier today.
“why the follow?” I asked. “I don’t live in San Francisco.”
The account replied briefly and obscurely: “value-added tweets”.
I replied “value for whom?” — but there’s been no answer, and @SFCityAttorney is still following me.
Like most people, I never buy anything from spammers (even if I reply occasionally). Dennis Herrera — or someone working for him — is engaging in behavior indistinguishable from spamming. I’ll move back to San Francisco some day, but I won’t be voting for Dennis Herrera — and I may actively work against his reelection unless he changes his anti-social, one-way Twitter strategy.
J.D. Falk, primary contributor to the Box of Meat
