I don't follow VIVAnews on Twitter

If you’re using Twitter, you might get some new followers in the last few days. One of them might be VIVAnews. I had VIVAnews followed me, but I didn’t follow it back. Why?
I do follow some bots on Twitter to get updates as long as they don’t flood my timeline. Some media (portal) in Indonesia start using Twitter as a tool to gain readership — sometime they just want to do it. What makes it wrong is that they don’t do it nicely. Sometime, I think they don’t have any strategy.
The only news portal on Twitter I follow is @thejakartaglobe. Why, because it does not send tweets automatically using so called RSS to Twitter tool. And, they’re joining the conversation, not killing it. For example, few months ago they joined the discussion on Plumpang tragedy. I still remembered when someone on Twitter gave updates, @thejakartaglobe responded. Asking some questions for clarification. That’s a good example, I think. So, there’s someone behind — a real human.
I’m not sure wheter VIVAnews’ Twitter account is managed by VIVAnews or not. Because:

  • The profile does not mention the primary website URL.
  • Some tweets seemed ‘funny’ e.g.
    • Thanks udah Follow vivanews.com :) (link)
    • Bored, bored and bored to day,,, i need new PC Games (link)

OK, this account tried to get more followers by following other users. This is a usual strategy. Does it work? May be. May be not. What people — the followers — think about it? You can read their responds. :)
Update: To find out the conversation on VIVANews’ Twitter account:


Comments

14 responses to “I don't follow VIVAnews on Twitter”

  1. And yes, I don’t follow @vivanews either. For simple reason: I hate bots!

    1. Me too. I can tolerate bots, as long as they don’t spam me. In this Twitter case, as long as they don’t flood my timeline :D

  2. think I’ll unfollow detikinet after reading this article. nice post Kang

    1. Thank you. Well, I don’t follow detikinet either.

  3. a good catch about bots behavior :-)
    BTW, the last link (You can read their responds.) seems to be doesn’t work.

    1. Ooops. I’ve updated my post. Thank you!

  4. me too :)
    *plus i hate vivanews background >.<

    1. Aha! I forgot to mention about its background. Yes… I hate it to!

  5. bots = junk / spam :D

  6. Here in Europe, same thing with news and other spam-look-alikes. I dont follow them bacj, sometimes ask why they follow me, sometimes I block them

  7. Yes, bots can be a pain in the ass. I do follow detik, so far its still useful. I wrote about @vivanews_com in Maverick Network’s blog today, quoting your tweet too, I hope u don’t mind.
    Btw, someone claiming from Vivanews have responded, saying they’ll address this issue.

  8. Someone who seemed to come from somewhere in Vivanews commented:

    Ok guys. Kami telah komunikasikan hal ini ke divisi content …
    dan sedang dibahas bagaimana agar VivaNews.com bisa lebih berguna …
    Insiden yg sama pernah terjadi dengan Facebook Group. Dan we are learning …

    Hmm, they have made some mistakes in FB Group as well? What happened? Anyone?

  9. Waraney and hanny,
    Yes, I read the discussion on Maverick’s blog. I’m curious who he/she is. I hope he/she is really people from VIVAnews.
    This is interesting, they said that they made mistake in Facebook Group, and they do it again here on Twitter?

  10. I wonder what they’ll do in Plurk, or even worst, FriendFeed… :)