Contact me:
Telephone: 01952 289682
Mobile: 07984 400151
My Blog
Latest Videos
To Block or not to Block, that is the question…on Twitter
Ever wondered when it’s ‘right’ to block a follower on Twitter?
Is someone annoying you or hassling you on Twitter?
Not sure how to block someone?
I’ll take you through the basics of what blocking someone means, when you might want to do it and how you can do it. We’d all rather live in a world where we never had to do it, however….
1. How do I block someone?
As with all Twitter things it depends which tool you are using – I’ll just cover twitter.com and Tweetdeck here:
Twitter.com – click on a followers user name and then click on the silhouette icon on the right-hand side of the screen. You can now either block (click on ‘Block JanMinihane’) or block and report the user for spam (click on ‘Report JanMinihane for spam’)
Tweetdeck – click on a users picture, highlight the cog (other actions), click user, then click either ‘block’ or ‘block & report spam’.
2. What are the consequences of blocking someone?
I’m all for not reinventing the wheel, so this Twitter help section gives you the low down on the impact – the headline is that really, a block is not a total block (and Twitter really should find a way to make it more categoric). There is also a handy section on blocking & reporting spam.
3. Why would I block someone?
The main reason is usually because they are pestering you: personally I’ve not had this problem (I obviously live a sheltered life!) but I know others who have, unwanted admirers, ex-partners etc. Either they keep tweeting you incessantly or for reasons unknown to you become abusive and rude.
There is a great article here on 10 Reasons NOT to block someone.
4. Why would I block someone and report them for spam?
They are Spambots – and I block a lot of them – you know the ones who as soon as you put out a tweet with a certain word in, e.g. iPad, you get autofollowed and a tweet offering a competition to win, guess what, an iPad. These usually have very random usernames and rarely a picture.
There is more here on the Twitter support pages about what classifies as spam.
5. What about if someone’s tweets annoy me but I’m worried about their reaction if I unfollow them or block?
If you use Tweetdeck (and a host of other twitter tools), there is a handy ‘Global Filter’ tool via ‘Settings’ (the spanner in the top right of the screen), where you can filter out tweets from a person, a source (eg. autoposts from Facebook, Foursquare) or that contain certain keywords or hashtags. This is such a handy little tool sometimes.
Otherwise my advice would be to just unfollow them as unfollowing seems a lot less drastic and final. If they don’t like it, ultimately that is there problem, not yours!
Either way, don’t let the odd user on twitter detract from your enjoyment of it, as we all know it’s a wonderful place to be 
Have you had to block anyone, and why?
TTFN
Jan 
Image via Squidoocool
Nice blog post – twitter is such a lovely place (overall) that mentioning the ‘block’ word is a bit like ‘don’t mention the war’…. but it’s great to bring it to the table….
“Have you had to block anyone, and why?”
Every now and again I get a random ‘lady of the night’ looking follower i.e. the only messages on their feed are identical to the message they sent me (dodgy links) or, no tweets and no followers!
)
They get blocked and reported as spam as you detailed above – so quick to do & pretty easy to spot!
As for more ‘real’ people, I, like you, haven’t really had any negative experience.
There is 1 follower that I’m wondering whether to unfollow or filter out – they used to tweet nice enough content, they messaged me for advice, all ok, but for the last few months it seems that they are only tweeting out 1 scheduled tweet about a product I’m not interested in – it’s not a massive issue, I can ignore it quite easily but not sure it’s worth my follow?!
Not that my follows are particularly precious, but if the person isn’t really there I kind of wonder what the point is
Hi Frances, thanks for your comments.
I’m amazed you only have 1 follower who’s sending out stuff that’s automated and you’re not interested in, I had plenty of those and finally got round to unfollowing them – whether you filter or unfollow, as a well known sports brand would say – just do it!
I have in the past blocked people for several reasons. My main reason would be that, when checking out a new follower, I find they are just using Twitter to broadcast rather than engage in conversation (which I believe is at the heart of social media). If they are, then I’m sorry; I don’t want you as a follower.
Oooh – harsh but fair approach, you’re a tougher person than me but I like how definite you are – good for you!
Thanks for commenting
Jan – this blog was so timely. After a summer of not checking Twitter, there were all sorts of odd organisations following me – I decided to block a few that were generally from the States that had zero tweets, or no descriptions, or sounded rather inappropriate!
Thanks for clarifying the options.
Good for you Kay – it’s always quite satisfying to block those kind of followers!
Thanks for your comments, much appreciated