StockTwits and Spam

• StockTwits
• January 26th, 2009

As StockTwits continues to grow followers quickly, we are finding that our stream is getting hit with what we view as spam.

We realize that thousands of people are watching our feed daily and that the benefit to organizations hitting us with links to their sites is increasing so we are confronting unsolicited promotion head on.

Here is a brief synopsis on our policy towards spam.

1.  We want everyone who is real and has something to add or something to learn to be members of our community regardless of whether they also have some type of motive to promote.  So if you represent a financial enterprise but join our community and tweet valuable stuff that others appreciate, we love you. This includes, by the way, linking back to your blog or to your site on occasion to share something of value that you have written in a longer form.

We truly believe that if you share value over time without explicitly promoting, your brand will benefit in a huge way. In addition, if you are flat out good, people will click to your Twitter page and follow.  Indeed, this is a meritocracy.

However,

2.  If you link to your site or blog repeatedly throughout the day, in an effort to get subs, hits or sell google ads we will block you.

3.  If you link to a sign up page we will block you.

4. If you link to your product without adding value, we will block you.

Sorry to be so harsh but our first concern is setting a quality standard and tone where the members of our community know they can come and find real people sharing actionable ideas in real time with transparency and accountability.

If you have any questions about this policy please leave a comment on this blog or email me directly at phil@stocktwits.com.  If we’ve blocked you, still feel free to reach out as perhaps together we can find an acceptable
common ground.

@ppearlman

Tickers: policy