Report: Nearly 10% Of Twitter Is Spam & Brands Have It The Worst

We’ve all seen the heaps of of spammy accounts and spam Tweets strewn across Twitter. But just how bad is this problem? Likely more than you think. According to a new study by Networked Insights and Fast Company, 9.3% of Twitter is comprised of spam.

Unfortunately, the biggest culprit smacked by the spam are brand messages. According to the report, posts that include coupon-related content make up 5.8% of all discussion. Simply put, many brands have conversation around their names, terms and hashtags that aren’t real.

While coupons drive the majority of the spam, adult content isn’t that far behind accounting for 2.2% of all brand discussions. General (non adult or coupon spam) falls in at 1.3% of all brand discussion. Some brands have it worse than others. Rite Aid saw an astounding 95% of mentions coming from spam with Visa (81%) and MasterCard (76%) right on their heels. Other brands with mass spam include Ulta(75%) American Eagle Outfitters (73%) and Fisher-Price (70%).

All-in-all the 9.3% of discussion around brands that isn’t real isn’t out of the ordinary either. Web forums typically see 28.8% of spammy posts and blog content sees 19.6% of content coming from spam according to Fast Company.

One of the real culprits of the spam (especially on those brands with 75%+ rate) is the inability to accurately track sentiment levels. When all of the conversation is spam, finding the real customer voice can be difficult.

For more information, see Fast Company.