Don’t Let Spammers and Pranksters Ruin Your Twitter Experience

There has been some rogue Twitter users floating around trying to send us to websites that can install viruses and worms on our computers. The easy step to take is to be careful who you follow, and avoid those websites that promise to get you thousands of followers.

The latest trend seems to be “If you follow me, I will follow you”. Always look at the previous tweets before you follow anybody.

The majority of Twitter users utilize a link shortener call Bit.ly. This is a great tool and it has some great features. I will show you how to quickly investigate any link you see on Twitter before you click it.

First I will assume you are using Firefox as a browser. If you are one of the majority still using Internet Explorer, I will assume you still have an 80’s hairdo, and your probably adjusting your leg warmers as we speak.

1. Go to bit.ly and sign up for your free account.
2. Install the bit.ly toolbar into your firefox (you will se it on the right of the bit.ly homepage.
3. Now go to your Twitter and this is what you can do:

Cool Things You Can See With The Firefox Bit.ly Extension

Now that you have everything in place simply go to your recent tweets and hover over each shortened url. You can see where the link goes before you click it. If you click more information, you can see statistics on which clicked it, and what Twitter accounts each click came from.

This is also a great tool to find out who are you powerful Twitter Followers.