Twitter purges bots, Elon Musk Flamethrowers Sell Out, Puppy Bowl Teams Up With Tinder

I can't take credit for today's weekly social blog, it's all written by our very own Jess Bashford, however, she's not here to post it as it's her birthday! Happy Birthday Jess!

Twitter Purges Bots

Twitter has been clearing out fake followers left, right and centre and the loss of followers hasn’t gone unnoticed. Influencers suspected a bot purge as some lost thousands of followers overnight.

It's difficult to tell why this has happened now, but the drop did come shorty after a New York Times investigation named several influential figures who had purchased fake Twitter followers, and exposed a service called Devumi which provides them.

Twitter responded to the New York Times story prior to its publication, noting that they’re aware of the problem and have a team working on addressing spam and bot accounts.

Cases over the weekend seem to point toward a so-called "purge" of bots. For influencers who have been affected, it's not necessarily a bad thing. A decrease in followers can be upsetting, but it shows authenticity and transparency rather than conflating high numbers with someone's genuine influence.

"Brands want to invest in social media without damage," said Bijoy Patel, founder of CompuBrain, a service for analyzing influence on Facebook and Twitter. "They want to know there's real engagement."

The comedian LaMorte was one of the people who had seen a dramatic loss of followers over the weekend and when asked if he’d ever lost followers in that quantity before he said, "I mean on the Instagram purge of 2014 I lost a lot. I remember a few occasions losing batches of Twitter followers. Aesthetically it looks frightening, but overall I like getting rid of the bad apples. I’m interested to see if it keeps going down."

LaMorte’s reference was from a December 2014 event when Facebook owned Instagram deleted inactive and spam accounts, causing influential users like Justin Bieber to lose 3.5 million followers.

It seems as if Twitter did the same, quietly, over the weekend.

Flame Throwers Sell Out

It’s been a hot topic of conversation this week especially in the office. The Elon Musk flamethrower officially selling out on Thursday 1^st Feb!

The practical joke turned million dollar income product sold out just after 100 hours of them being available to buy online for a $500 fee. 20,000 in fact were purchased.

Musk posted his accomplishment on Twitter Wednesday night. He then generously threw in a free fire extinguisher, suggesting the “World’s safest flamethrower!” may not be safe after all. Or maybe during the trials of the product he’s ended up with a warehouse full of extinguishers. Additionally, Musk announced that each flamethrower will come with a serial number as if they were pieces of art.

Fear not if you didn’t purchase one, buyers who did are already hitting Ebay and some flamethrowers have been listed as costing as much as $45,000!

Not everyone is seeing the light hearted nature of the product development. California Assemblyman Miguel Santiago wants to block Musk from shipping the devices.

“This subject matter, in the wake of the state’s deadliest wildfires in history, is incredibly insensitive, dangerous, and most definitely not funny,” Santiago wrote in an email to the Washington Post. “Absolutely no public good could come from the sale of this tool.

While there are no legal obligations or issue, meaning the product will have to be banned, if someone was to hurt themselves or even worse, someone else, the larger than life CEO will have serious questions to answer.

The only question we have is, what on earth is Elon Musk going to do next?!

And here is something a little bit positive and a lot of cute...

If the Super Bowl isn’t really your thing then you could turn your attentions to the Puppy Bowl over on Tinder to find and help a cute puppy!

For the fourteenth year in a row, the Puppy Bowl will air on Animal Planet on Super Bowl Sunday — this year, it falls on February 4. Beginning at 3pm ET/12pm PT, the most adorable puppies you’ve ever seen (except for last year’s puppies) will face off in a chaotic tumble for treats.

It gets better. This year thanks to a partnership between Tinder, Pledgeling (which connects brands and consumers to their favourite causes) and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Tinder users will not only see human matches in the app; they’ll also see cute puppies.

By swiping right on one of these adorable puppy profiles, you’ll be directed to the ASPCA. There, you can learn about how to help these animals find homes. You can also make a donation to help the real-life animals in need.

"We care about causes that our users care about," says Rosette Pambakian, Vice President, Marketing & Communications at Tinder. "Our partnership with The Puppy Bowl gave us the opportunity to raise awareness about a cause close to so many of our hearts — the need for loving homes for our furry friends. We are proud to work with Animal Planet and Pledgeling to do so on such a large scale."

Even if you can't commit to a football team — or a significant other — this cause is definitely one reason to keep swiping!