How TrueTwit Helps You Help It Make Money – And Waste A Ton Of Time
By Mary C. Long (@MaryCLong)
If you’ve spent any amount of time on Twitter, you’ve likely received a TrueTwit validation direct message. It says something like “Nelly Nameless uses TrueTwit validation service. Please validate your account.”
If you think this practice is okay, you need a Twitter direct message refresher. And when you’re done reading THAT, we’ll tell you why this “harmless annoyance” (aka TrueTwit) is anything but. In case you’re never clicked one of these links (and you’d be smart NOT to as most spammy DM links do little more than compromise your account), here’s what happens when you try to “validate” your account: |
The Tragedy of TrueTwit
By Sean Munger (@Sean_Munger)
Dear Fellow Author on Twitter:
I’m writing this open letter to you because I just received a direct message from you saying, “[your name] uses TrueTwit Validation Service. Please click here to validate.”
Now, I know there are a lot of people out there giving social media advice these days to authors trying to gain visibility for their books. They’re a dime a dozen. In fact, there are so many of them, I don’t want to be one of them. I would rather spend my time writing zombie books. Yet here I am, writing a blog giving advice on how to use social media. I’m doing this letter to you as a blog, and thus not calling out your name(s), because I’m too polite–and I don’t want to harm my own brand–to send it to you directly. But you forced me into it. So here goes. Although it’s not solicited, I’m going to give you a piece of advice on how to use Twitter. Ready?
Don’t use TrueTwit Validation Service.
Let me repeat that.
DON’T USE TRUETWIT VALIDATION SERVICE. EVER.
I’m writing this open letter to you because I just received a direct message from you saying, “[your name] uses TrueTwit Validation Service. Please click here to validate.”
Now, I know there are a lot of people out there giving social media advice these days to authors trying to gain visibility for their books. They’re a dime a dozen. In fact, there are so many of them, I don’t want to be one of them. I would rather spend my time writing zombie books. Yet here I am, writing a blog giving advice on how to use social media. I’m doing this letter to you as a blog, and thus not calling out your name(s), because I’m too polite–and I don’t want to harm my own brand–to send it to you directly. But you forced me into it. So here goes. Although it’s not solicited, I’m going to give you a piece of advice on how to use Twitter. Ready?
Don’t use TrueTwit Validation Service.
Let me repeat that.
DON’T USE TRUETWIT VALIDATION SERVICE. EVER.
How to Harm Your Twitter Marketing by Using TrueTwit
By Adrian Jock (@IMTipsNews)
TrueTwit is a service that “attempts to validate your new followers to see if they are human as opposed to automated bots.” (TrueTwit, the About page)
Their verification is done by sending an automatic direct message (DM) to any new follower who isn’t a TrueTwit user or isn’t already followed by you. If a follower gets that DM, reads it, clicks a link and successfully completes the CAPTCHA, then TrueTwit considers that follower a “validated human.” Now let’s see whether this process helps your Twitter marketing or harms it. |
TrueTwit Validation Service: Drag Queen Of Twitter Spam
By Torsten Mueller (@torsten64)
TrueTwit? True what? TrueTwat!
If you are around Twitter for a bit more than a day and appreciate the use of this social networking tool, than chances are high that you came across at least one automated direct message saying something like ‘xyz uses TrueTwit Validation Service. To validate click here: truetwit.com/vy873998746‘. |
TrueTwit Sucks – Let Me Tell You WhyBy Kelly Cannon (@TakeActionWAHM)
I love Twitter.
I love meeting people on Twitter, taking part in tweet chats, tweet parties, being able to share really valuable information about blogging, marketing and SEO… and I even love the occasional live tweet during #ScandalThursday! The one thing I really hate on Twitter is to get spam in my message box. It’s why I really dislike 99% of automated DMs, although if it’s just a “Hey thanks for following me”, that’s ok. DO NOT say “Hey, thanks for following me, now go like me on FB!” though, that’s just asking me to unfollow you immediately! But the thing I hate the MOST on Twitter? TrueTwit. |
Why I Started @StopTrueTwit
By @spacefem
TrueTwit is an extortion machine. Here’s why we’re campaigning for Twitter to shut it off.
If you’re on Twitter, and like following new people, maybe you’ve gotten one of these direct messages sent back to you: (username) uses TrueTwit validation. To validate click here: http://… If you clicked, you were sent to an external website and asked to type in a word (captcha) to prove you’re not a robot. The website is TrueTwit. It claims to be an application for Twitter that fights spam. According to TrueTwit, Twitter accounts are constantly at risk to have lots of “spambots” following them, so people should send all their followers to the TrueTwit website so they can fill out forms and prove they’re real humans. But when you fill in the captcha, nothing really happens. Whether or not you type in the captcha you’re still following the person. Whether or not you type in the captcha they can still decide you’re cool (or not) and follow you back (or not). Twitter has its own good protection against spambots nowdays. Even if they didn’t, bots are certainly capable of typing in captchas. And spammers are certainly capable of joining the TrueTwit network so they can escape the captchas all together. So what’s it all about? |
Why using TrueTwit makes you look like a True Twit
By Stephanie Darkes (@StephanieDarkes)
If you are a TrueTwit user, please don’t take this post personally. You might be new to Twitter and you might think that you need some kind of validation service for your account to protect you from unwanted followers but you really don’t.
TrueTwit promises three things to its users; spam avoidance, follower management and follower verification. If you use a Twitter validation service, like TrueTwit, ALL of your new followers will be sent a validation request by direct message. They then have to complete a CAPTCHA form and you are sent an email confirming they are a TrueTwit-validated human!
Here’s what TrueTwit aims to do and why we don’t think it is a great idea:
TrueTwit promises three things to its users; spam avoidance, follower management and follower verification. If you use a Twitter validation service, like TrueTwit, ALL of your new followers will be sent a validation request by direct message. They then have to complete a CAPTCHA form and you are sent an email confirming they are a TrueTwit-validated human!
Here’s what TrueTwit aims to do and why we don’t think it is a great idea:
Stop using TrueTwit to stop being used by TrueTwit to make money for TrueTwit
By Faydra Deon (@faydra_deon)
TrueTwit has been around since 2009, and it's business model is ingenious for getting Twitter users to generate hundreds of thousands of spam messages and to make TrueTwit hundreds of thousands of dollars without giving any referral credit to the tweeters who use it.
Here's how it really works... You create a Twitter account and start following people. You eventually start receiving direct messages (DMs) that look similar to the following: johndoe uses TrueTwit validation. To validate click here: truetwit.com/aiq9y1 |
TrueTwit marketing is evil genius
By David Leonhard (@amabaie)
Why does every story have to have an evil genius? TrueTwit has done something visionary, but you’ll have to get past my rant first.
I am impressed by something TrueTwit is doing these days, and has been for the past month, in the field of marketing. For those who know what I think of TrueTwit, this might come as a surprise. For those who have never had the pleasure to hear me rant on this topic, now’s your chance. TrueTwit is a service the forces people fill in a captcha field before they can follow you. Here is how TrueTwit works:
Honestly, this is a make-work project that only the government could have come up with. Here is what TrueTwit does in its own words: |
WHAT IS TRUETWIT VALIDATION?
By Hayley Constantine (@hayles)
If you’ve followed someone recently and received a DM like this…
[username] uses TrueTwit validation service. To validate, click here: [TrueTwit URL]
…you might be wondering what that’s all about.
TrueTwit is an external to Twitter service which sends new followers a link to prove that they are real. Users must either enter a Captcha each time they follow a TrueTwit user, or sign up to TrueTwit themselves to stop seeing the requests (but then they will start sending the DM’s out)
Honestly though? TrueTwit is pointless
[username] uses TrueTwit validation service. To validate, click here: [TrueTwit URL]
…you might be wondering what that’s all about.
TrueTwit is an external to Twitter service which sends new followers a link to prove that they are real. Users must either enter a Captcha each time they follow a TrueTwit user, or sign up to TrueTwit themselves to stop seeing the requests (but then they will start sending the DM’s out)
Honestly though? TrueTwit is pointless
Be sure to also check out these blog articles...
Why I Won’t Follow You Back
By Mandy Edwards (@memktgservices)
9. You use True Twit Validation.
OMG this drives me crazy. I can understand wanting to prevent spambots, but I shouldn’t have to prove I’m a real person to follow you. If I get a Twitter DM asking for True Twit validation, you’re getting unfollowed or blocked.
20 Best Twitter Marketing Tips from Around the World11. Stop wasting my time (and yours!) with TrueTwit. Read my tweets. You’ll see whether I’m a bot or not.
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16 Embarrassing Twitter Mistakes Businesses Must AvoidBy Melonie Dodaro (@MelonieDodaro)
15. Any Form of Automated Direct Messaging
Do you use services like True Twit Validation? Stop it. They annoy your followers and nobody wants to play along when you use them. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Good. You’re on the right track. |
Tweeting Success: Party Fouls
By Meredith Stoddard (@M_R_Stoddard)
TrueTwit Validation
As weird as whispering in the ear of someone you just met sounds, there is something even more socially inept that people do on Twitter. Imagine that you see someone admiring the artwork at the party. You like the painting too, so you think to strike up a conversation. You walk up and introduce yourself, but before this new person will talk to you, he asks you prove you are in fact a human and not an android. That’s right. It’s like asking every person you meet to show you their driver’s license. But a shocking amount of people (certainly not you) on Twitter do this through a service called TrueTwit. You’ve probably gotten their auto-DMs, “So-and-so uses TrueTwit validation. To validate click here:”. Now, if you’re trying to build your audience and reach new readers, is it very welcoming to ask them to prove that they’re people? |