Prevent Twitter Noise

Just like any other free medium, you will have to deal with your share of annoyances. I've had people come to me often surprised that when they signed up for Twitter, all of a sudden they had those following them that were pitching pornography or spam. It happens! Like others, I wish it didn't but it does!

How can you keep down the noise?  Follow these steps:

Step 1: Never Autofollow
Don't autofollow and keep an eye on those that are following you. When you come across those that are spamming or representing sexual material simply block them. This means not only will you not be following them, but they will also be unable to follow you.

Step 2: Report Spam to Twitter
You can also report those that are only representing noise like spam and pornography to Twitter's Spam Watch account. Just follow @spam on Twitter and when you get one of those spammy or pornographic messages, make an update that sends a direct message to Twitter's Spam Watch account. It's easy it looks like this: D spam username. If for some reason you can not send a direct message then just tweet the following
.@spam usernameofspammer  There is no reason to include the @ sign in front of the  username that you are reporting.

Step 3: Don't Be Afraid to Block
If you find that an individual is sending you spammy messages or inappropriate material, this includes inappropriate avatars, just block them. Not only does this disable them from seeing your updates and clear them from your Twitter stream, but if enough people block a user Twitter can suspend their account.