Quite right – just because a Twitter account is a person’s name, that doesn’t mean it won’t be abused as a one-way spam channel. Likewise, a company Twitter ID might be the work of a genuine, authentic, attentive individual.

So the name used is irrelevant really. The important thing is the intention of the Twitterer. But, the simple genius of Twitter is the ease with which you can unfollow people. So whenever any Twitter account becomes overloaded with marketing, simply stop following.

As long as that continues to be the case, then everybody does win. But just because an account is given a person’s name rather than a company’s, doesn’t mean we won’t see more cynical Twitter-based marketing in the future.

I think the following example is the ‘turd’ you foresee ’slipping out’: http://www.davidhenderson.com/2009/01/21/key-online-influencer/

Maybe I’m taking that metaphor a bit too far (never metaphor I didn’t like, though).

Twitter is slowly being ruined by celebrity accounts that give people an easy way to communicate with them… with the unfortunate side-effect of me having to read their pseudo-casual wank-fests. The corporate side is just as offensive, if a little less noticeable, and another example of just how easily these things get destroyed the moment they gather any fame. I’m not too sure how much longer I’ll keep my account, even though I’m sure I am as awful as the people I mention above… in fact, that’s probably another reason to close it soon.