• by Susan Kuchinskas , August 21, 2008

All the little birdies sing ... spam, spam, spam. If only the creativity of spammers could be harnessed for good. The latest plague, Twitter spam (Twam? Spwitt?), shows no signs of abating. As marketers and brand managers mull how to listen in on consumer tweets about them, the truly scummy spammers, the affiliates and purveyors of drugs and bargains, prey on our vanity.

Politeness and inattention drive some people to automatically reciprocate when someone begins following them. Then, when the spammer has enough followers, he sends out the message of dreck. Even non-reciprocators can't always resist the thrill of seeing who's following them, clicking on Ginger 545's profile only to find - spam attack.

Twitter will quickly shut down accounts reported as belonging to spammers, and it says it's working hard on the problem. Meanwhile, devotees have taken to proactively warning their contacts to block the spamsters. A little bird tells us Twitter might be tweaked out before its ad opportunities take wing.