One of the biggest challenges for any company or individual using Twitter, to engage and market their products and services, is the ever present mountain of spam. Affiliate marketers, multi level marketing schemes, and hard sell scam artists flood Twitter with noise and interrupting messages based on separating you from your hard earned money.

The following is a short list of ideas that could greatly reduce the number of spam messages on Twitter.

7 Twitter Ideas To Eliminate DM Spam

• 7 days: require a 7 day waiting period before a DM (direct message) can be sent when a follow-follower relationship has been established
• Opt In-Out: create a opt in-out option where Twitterers can either choose to receive DMs or turn the DM channel off
• Penalties: automatically penalize Twitter spammers who violate “content regulations” created to stem the tide of unwanted hard sell sales pitches and phishing activities
• Crowdsourcing Court: Twitters to vote on the guideline of penalties awaiting a company or individual who is found guilty of spamming the Twitter network. Base it on Dell’s Ideastorm crowdsourcing site
• Eliminate Links: disallow the use of links in any DM messages with the hope that spammers will no longer see the benefit of using a DM
• Less than 140: cut the number of characters in half for a DM making it a 70 character messaging channel thus challenging a spammer’s ability to create spam
• DM Limit: create a limit for the number of DMs allowed each Twitterer per month. Once you reach your limit, you have to wait until the next month to send a direct message