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Rudd admits spam Twitter followers

August 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has never paid to boost his social media profiles.

But his office acknowledges some of his 1.4 million Twitter followers aren’t genuine.

‘Neither he (Mr Rudd), nor his office, has ever paid to boost the Prime Minister’s Twitter followers, Facebook friends or Facebook likes,’ a spokesman for Mr Rudd told AAP.

‘What spambots choose to do in their own time is a matter for them.’

Spambots are automated programs that create fake social and email accounts to flood users with spam and a number appear to follow Mr Rudd, who is easily one of the most popular Australians on the social media site.

Telltale signs of spambot Twitter accounts include those with little or no personal profile information combined with zero or few tweets and very few followers.

An analysis of Mr Rudd’s followers list shows a number of accounts fitting that description – though it remains unclear what proportion are genuine.

Most famous people on Twitter have spambot followers – and there’s little they can do about it apart from the report the accounts and hope they’re removed.

It comes after Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was bombarded by about 80,000 fake, paid-for followers over the weekend.

‘We are working with Twitter now to remove the fake accounts and investigate who was behind this,’ the Liberal Party wrote on Facebook.

‘The Liberal Party has not purchased or artificially sought to inflate any social media numbers.’

By Monday morning Mr Abbott reached 208,357 followers – up from just over 120,000 two months ago, with most of that increase occurring on Saturday and Sunday.

Shortly after 8.20am (AEST) on Monday, the opposition leader’s numbers plunged to just over 165,000 as the paid-for accounts were removed.

His numbers reached 168,725 by early afternoon.

It’s unclear who paid to boost Mr Abbott’s account.

One hundred thousand Twitter followers can easily be bought anonymously online, with marketing companies offering to supply 100,000 new followers for as little as $274.

Followers can be added at a pre-prescribed rate, such as five per day or one per hour.

Facebook likes’ can also be bought online for similar prices.

Queensland University of Technology’s Associate Professor Axel Bruns said Mr Rudd’s numbers were also boosted by about half a million in 2009 and 2010 when Twitter suggested new users follow him.

‘We actually looked at the follower growth over time and there are periods from mid-2009 to the start of 2010 when Twitter recommended Rudd to people who were signing up in Australia,’ Prof Bruns told AAP.

‘To the point where you almost had to follow him to complete the account set-up process.’

Prof Bruns said it’s unclear if a big, genuine Twitter following translates into increased popularity at the ballot box.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

Filed Under: News, Social Media Tagged With: election, krudd, news, Social Media, Twitter

Twitter unimpressed with leaders’ debate

August 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The television networks’ worms were split on who won the leaders’ debate, but the verdict from the blue birds of Twitter was unanimous: they were not impressed.

The commentary on social media was that the debate was boring, the leaders were evasive and the rhetoric was more of the same.

John Collins tweeted that the handshake was the most interesting bit.

Jeff Neale tweeted he didn’t think the leaders moved anybody from entrenched positions.

‘Only item to excite ppl was Rudd’s SSM commitment,’ he said of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s announcement Labor would move to legalise same-sex marriage with a conscience vote.

Twitter traffic peaked at 1,952 tweets per minute during the same-sex marriage discussion.

The announcement was largely greeted positively on social media.

Rauri Jayne wrote ‘KRudd, You just got my vote with that statement.’

But others questioned why Labor was waiting until after the election to move on the issue.

‘I just don’t think I can trust Labor on delivering marriage equality; you just played politics with it for too long,’ Stephen B Sander wrote.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott came under criticism for ducking the issue.

Many were unimpressed by his reference to his sister Christine Forster, including actress Magda Szubanski, who came out as gay last year.

She wrote she wished he would ‘stop trotting out his gay sister every time he is asked a direct question’ on marriage equality.

When it was over, Mr Abbott took to Twitter to say he was pleased with the debate.

‘If you want a new way, you’ve got to choose a new government,’ he wrote.

Mr Rudd also tweeted post-debate, but he did not comment on the outcome, preferring to reiterate there would be legislation for marriage equality with a full conscience vote.

‘I believe this is the right thing to do,’ he wrote.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

Filed Under: News, Research, Social Media Tagged With: debate, election, news, Social Media, Twitter

Twitter tightens security after breaches

May 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Twitter says it is stepping up security measures for the popular messaging service, following a series of high-profile breaches by hackers hitting media organisations and others.

Twitter said it would implement a new login verification system, ‘a form of two-factor authentication’ which is ‘a second check to make sure it’s really you’ when a user signs in.

‘Of course, even with this new security option turned on, it’s still important for you to use a strong password and follow the rest of our advice for keeping your account secure,’ said Jim O’Leary of Twitter Product Security.

Some recent attacks took over Twitter feeds and delivered fake tweets using the accounts of Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, Financial Times and other news organisations.

Last month, hackers spooked markets after breaking into AP Twitter account and falsely reporting President Barack Obama had been injured after two blasts at the White House.

Twitter said the new system would be an option for users, allowing them to require a verification code for each sign-in.

‘You’ll need a confirmed email address and a verified phone number. After a quick test to confirm that your phone can receive messages from Twitter, you’re ready to go,’ O’Leary said.

The security system will send a text message to the user’s mobile phone with a verification code that would be entered for the login.

The Syrian Electronic Army, which appears to be aligned with the government of President Bashar al-Assad, has claimed credit for hacking AFP, AP and other news organisations.

Earlier this month, the Twitter feed of satirical US news website The Onion was also taken over by the Syrian group aiming to inject its own sardonic spin on the deadly conflict.

The Onion posted details of how its feed was hijacked, describing how emails were sent to some employees in a phishing spoof to gain access to passwords.

Twitter said in February it was hit by a ‘sophisticated’ cyber attack and that the passwords of about 250,000 users were stolen.

Filed Under: Research, Social Media Tagged With: news, Security, Social Media, Twitter

PM puts the hard word on Twitter

January 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is putting pressure on Twitter to sign up to new social networking guidelines to prevent people from being harassed or bullied online.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! have already signed up to the co-operative agreement which aims to tackle cyber bullying and trolling.

It comes after a string of well-publicised trolling incidents.

‘We need to see Twitter agree to use these protocols and guidelines,’ Ms Gillard told reporters in western Sydney.

‘I think this is a step forward by these social media giants … but it is on Twitter that so much of the damage has been done.

‘I call on Twitter … to embrace these guidelines.’

The Co-operative Arrangement for Complaints Handling on Social Networking Sites commits companies to set out clear information about their acceptable use.

They must also undertake education and awareness-raising about what behaviour is acceptable online.

Under the scheme, announced on Wednesday, there will also be a single point of contact for government and processes in place for reviewing and acting on complaints.

‘It happens to children and it happens to adults,’ Ms Gillard said of online harassment.

‘People will say things that are sharper and harder under the cover of anonymity than they would say to someone’s face.

‘This had caused a lot of problems for people as they have felt the pressures of being bullied.

‘Many people are living with the feeling of humiliation in front of thousands, indeed hundreds of thousands, because of the way these social media environments work.’

The protocol was developed in response to recommendations of the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety’s June 2011 Interim Report.

Ms Gillard also launched a new program that will teach kids across Australia about cyber safety at school with the help of a talking giraffe.

‘Generation after generation we have taught our kids about the dangers that they might encounter in the world we live in,’ she said.

‘Now we’ve got to teach our kids about new dangers in a new environment – the cyber world.’

Andrew Littleproud, president of McAfee Asia Pacific – which developed bCyberwise in partnership with Life Education – said online risks were growing everyday.

‘Our research found out over two-thirds of children admitted their parents did not have any idea what they were getting up to in the online world,’ he said.

Almost six per cent had gone to meet strangers in the real world after interacting with them online, he said.

Filed Under: News, Research, Social Media Tagged With: cyber bullying, news, Social Media, Twitter

Most Active Tweeters Also Boast Most Followers

October 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It seems logical, yes. But a new study from Beevolve released in October finds a strong correlation between a Twitter user’s tweet volume and follower count. According to the global study of 36 million Twitter user profiles, users with between 100,001 and 1 million followers boasted the highest average number of tweets, at almost 15,300. The group with the next-largest follower base (10,001 – 100,000) averaged almost 13,000 tweets, while those with the smallest follower count (0-50) averaged 66 tweets.

Of course, correlation does not equal causation, and this is not to suggest that increased tweeting volume necessarily leads to more followers (the Beevolve analysis doesn’t factor in frequency, for example). Still, similar correlations have been found before: in February, a HubSpot analysis showed that increased frequency of blogging correlates with increased customer acquisition.

1 in 4 Twitter Account Holders Do Not Tweet

Some Twitter users might be bringing down the tweet volume average. According to the Beevolve study, 1 in 4 Twitter users are only interested in consuming content, having never actually tweeted anything themselves. [Tweet this]

Overall, women appear to be more active than men, with an average of 610 tweets by female account holders, compared to the 567 average for men.

In terms of follower count, the study finds that more than 4 in 5 account holders have up to 50 followers. In fact, more Twitter users have no followers than have more than 500 followers (6% vs. 3.4%). Those with a large follower count appear to skew the average, though, with the average user having 208 followers.

There is a similar distribution for the number of Twitter users followed, too. Almost three-quarters follow a maximum of 50 users. Twitter users are more likely to follow upwards of 500 users than to follow none at all, though (3.7% vs. 1%).

Other Findings:

The study finds that on a global basis, 53% of Twitter users are female. Recent analysis from Pingdom revealed more of a female skew within the US, with women accounting for 60% of the US Twitter user base.
In terms of self-disclosed age distribution, the Beevolve study shows that almost three-quarters of Twitter users around the world say they’re 15-25 years old. This appears to be a huge number – in the US, Pingdom found the average age of a Twitter user to be about 37. The Beevolve results might be skewed by the finding that only 0.45% of Twitter users disclose their age.
1 in 2 Twitter users are from the US. The UK sports the next-highest share of users, at 17%.

Filed Under: News, Research, Social Media Tagged With: news, Research, Social Media, Twitter

Coke’s social media ‘story’ fizzles out

March 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Coca-Cola is the latest company to have a social media marketing attempt go wrong.

The company invited fans to post one-word comments in addition to previous posts on the company’s Facebook page, but it ended in customers attacking each other.

‘Here is a little social experiment Add a word to the person above you to create a happy story!’

However the story written wasn’t so ‘happy’ with some of the responses including insults and obscenities, sometimes aimed at other company ‘fans’.

The campaign attracted over 700 responses and the company confirmed that it was forced to delete many of them.

‘Earlier this week, we posted a status update that attracted 781 responses,’ Coca-Cola said. ‘Around 70 responses were removed as they were not in keeping with our ‘house rules’.’

It follows a recent string of botched social experiments in the Australian media.

In October, Qantas launched a Twitter marketing campaign that ended badly, with customers using the hashtag #qantasluxury to insult the company’s customer service.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

Filed Under: News, Research, Social Media Tagged With: business, Facebook, news, Research, Social Media, Twitter

1 in 4 Twitter Account Holders Do Not Tweet

Other Findings:

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