"Typically, if there is a difference of a few hundred people between your follower and following lists, it means you have quite of number of spammers following you and you'll need to clean them out."

1. I don't use any auto-follow technologies. This means that not only do I not automatically follow people who follow me, but I also don't use any technology that allows me to search for people who are talking about a particular topic and then automatically follow them. Let's be real; do you automatically befriend someone who wants to be your friend? Probably not. You probably have some sort of "friendship test" that you put people through--either knowingly or subconsciously. You might ask them to have lunch first. You might arrange a play date with your kids. Whatever the deal is, you check people out before you become friends with them.
   
   
2. I do the same thing with Twitter. I have gotten TONS of connection requests from spammers and people who block their feeds (so they can see what you write, but you can't see what they write unless you ask for specific permission--like what's the point of THAT??). I check out their Twitterstream, I look at their picture, I look at their description and I look at their website. If they seem "real," they don't get blocked. If they're promoting porn, MLM or using foul language in their Twitterstream, profile or website, they get blocked. It's that simple. And you might say that all this takes time. Yes, but once you know how to do it, it's a two-second process--AND you make sure that you only have REAL people following you, which is the whole point of Twitter. And if you think THIS process takes time, how much time does it take to "clean out followers" every so often? I don't even wanna know. Doesn't it make more sense to catch the spammers as soon as they start following you?