I am an avid participant in Twitter chats, whether it is the weekly #CMGRHangout, #custserv or #Tchat chats, random chats I find like #TravelSkills, hosted Twitter parties or just following along with conferences from afar, I am a hashtag stalker.

Depending on the size of the chat, it is only a matter of time before the Twitter spam arrives and starts clogging your feed with please of “GET MORE FOLLOWERS►” or “RT & VISIT 4 GAIN FOLLOWERS=>” just to name a few.

Currently I am tracking the Dreamforce #DF13 hashtag for work, and even though it is before 10 am PT out there at Moscone Center, there are already 2,000 tweets happening per hour! It is hard enough keeping up with this never ending stream of tweets without the spam, but nearly impossible once you add in all of the spammy tweets.

Luckily I discovered the ‘exclude’ feature on Tweetdeck. Most of these spammy tweets tend to be duplicates of each other and have similar phrases that are used over and over. Once I realized there was a pattern, I was able to hide them from my feed by simply adding these phrases to the ‘exclude’ portion of tweetdeck.

Spammy #DF13 tweets:

Where to enter the exclusions on Tweetdeck:

To add more than one phrase, simply use quotes and the ‘AND’ connector:

“GET MORE FOLLOWERS►” AND “GO=>” AND “RT & VISIT 4 GAIN FOLLOWERS=>”

For an event such as #DF13, I expect you will have to periodically add more and more phrases throughout the day, but trust me, this helps keep your stream a bit cleaner so you can follow along just like if you were there at Moscone!