If you have not already seen a bunch of direct messages that claim to have found you in a video somewhere or other useless direct messages that we all call “spam”, perhaps you have not used Twitter very much. However, for those of you who get frustrated by this, I have two solutions for you as follows:

First: Change your password and tell everybody you know to do the same. Do not wait! Do it now, while it is still fresh in your mind. Many of those direct messages are coming from people whose accounts were compromised and they do not even know they are sending them. You may be sending them and not know. After all, have you told each of those people you receive these messages from that they sent you some junk? No, and they may not have told you either. Changing your Twitter password will clear this up in most cases. Do not get frustrated, unfollow them, or be mean. Simply remind them to change their password, and that will clear up a lot of the problem.

Second: Use this Twitter direct message opt-out list to remove yourself from the many companies sending direct messages on behalf of others. This will alleviate so much junk in your direct messages you may be shocked.

I hope you will steer from the crowd who think it could not possibly happen to them and be inspired to update your Twitter password. There has been a huge rash of security matters to show why this is important, but yet, so many people assume that it has not happened to them. Let me break this to you easy … if you think it cannot happen to you, it probably already has. Whether this is at Twitter or elsewhere, if you take that attitude, you are at the highest risk to be compromised. All it often takes is to click on a link and all of the sudden you are sending junk messages to everybody following your feed.

Please pass this along to help yourself and others!

If you found this information useful, you may also find much more information about Twitter in my recent book, Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends. You may order Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends in any of the following ways:

I have opted out of each of these, and I presently enjoy a nice and peaceful life without all of the spam direct messages. I hope you will find this very useful.

Social Oomph / Tweet Later DM Opt Out Instructions

This one simply requires that you follow @OptMeOut on Twitter and then when the account returns your follow, send a DM to OptMeOut to be excluded. Opt out instructions are available on the Social Oomph Website.

Fun140 DM Opt Out Instructions

What is so fun about giving somebody a troll doll or a cookie that they cannot eat? It is a way to annoy your friends and strangers, too! This will require you to authenticate your identity using Twitter Oauth, so you will want to go back to yourTwitter Account Settings (here) to revoke access right afterward. If you get these, click here to opt out.

Spymaster DM Opt Out Instructions

Has anybody asked you to join their spy ring? I am asked repeatedly each day and I am tired of it. This will require you to authenticate your identity using Twitter Oauth, so you will want to go back to your Twitter Account Settings (here) to revoke access right afterward. Here are the Spymaster Opt Out instructions. This should eliminate most or all of the requests to join your friends’ Mafia.

Twables and FB140 DM Opt Out Instructions

This step will block a lot of messages. For me, this is one of the very worst offenders. If you are tired of all the direct messages suggesting that you use this tool to connect all of your Facebook friends with your Twitter account, here is a way to stop it. This will require you to authenticate your identity using Twitter Oauth, so you will want to go back to your Twitter Account Settings (here) to revoke access right afterward. Here are the Twables Opt Out instructions.

Get Back to Your Happy Direct Messaging

I hope that this information will help you return to happy DM’ing. Direct messages account for the majority of my Twitter messages, so this is a very important matter for me. Please note that although I have used each of the links included here, these are not a part of my service, so use at your own risk. I strongly suggest that if you authenticate using Oauth, that you promptly go to revoke access to these applications in your Twitter Account Settings (here).

If you found this information useful, you may also find much more information about Twitter in my recent book, Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends. You may order Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends in any of the following ways: