The Twitter AutoDM: Useful or Hurting Your Cause?
Have you ever had something that was well intentioned, and was of good use until a bunch of rapscallions took it over and ruined it for everyone? That’s how I feel about Twitter Direct Messages. Basically, Direct Messages (or DMs) allows one Twitter user to send a short private message to another. It’s like a combo of text and email. Like I said, it’s something that’s useful and good intentioned. Well, those who are “marking gurus” or are obsessed with looking to increase their follower counts, have used 3rd party applications such as TwitterDMer to automatically send followers custom DMs as soon as they follow them.
A few months ago I took the Twitter strategy of following those who follow me. I figure it’s a good practice in life, and I should be interested in those who take the time to be interest in me. I now have over 300 unread DMs (I would have more, but I originally was deleting them all and gave up soon after) and 99% of them are from AutoDMs. Here’s an example of what I mean:
@TwitterUser: Hi, thanks for the follow. Click on this link to know more on how to save on your home mortgage.
It’s not bad, but I’ve gotten so many, that I stopped reading them. The other day I remarked (on Twitter), “I’m sorry, but canned DMs are like saying, ‘Hey, thanks for the follow. Let’s never interact again.’
I really felt that way because I was frustrated that the minority of DM abusers were ruining a good thing. I was pretty much all anti-AutoDM until the other day I got an AutoDM from Terrace Crawford (@terracecrawford) of TerraceCrawford.blogspot.com. Here’s what he wrote:
I thought this was funny and inviting, and actually got me interested to check out his site (Which is hilarious) and engage him as a Twitter user (Where he is also hilarious).
Now, I don’t know where I stand on AutoDMs. So I figured I’d open it up for discussion. As a Twitter user, what are your thoughts on AutoDMs? Pure evil? Or if used well, worth implementing? How can you make an AutoDM useful?
Ps. You can also follow the Sheep on Twitter @GodlySheep
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I wanted to send autoDM's after I got one from someone pretty much saying thanks for following, here is what you can find out about me (blog url here) where can I find out more about yourself.
I like the idea of autoDM because when i follow someone or they follow me I want to be able to say, thank you for the follow, what are you about. I am actually truly interested, but you are right, it has been ruined by all the marketing companies out there.
I still do not know where I stand, as for now I do not do it, but I could start.
I completely understand what you mean. I like how the autoDM is set up to acknowledge new followers. I keep tossing the idea around of using a autoDM back and forth too.
I still have mixed feelings about it. Even auto DMs that aren't a hard sell tend to come off as not very genuine.
I qualify that by saying that I keep my twitter pretty tidy and I block about 50 followers a week.
Yes, autoDMs quickly lose that personal touch because they're well, automated. lol
Nice, I try to keep on top of stuff like that, but all it takes is a few missed scheduled cleanings and you're buried under the work load. Good thoughts!
Personally, I'm not a fan.
If you wanna do it, then go for it, but it feels so in-genuine to me. When I follow someone, I don't really expect a @reply let alone a DM. I'm subscribing to 'em because I think they've got something interesting to offer.
If we end up interacting later on, then that's cool; otherwise, no big deal.
Hey Tom, thanks for stopping by!
Great thoughts. My favorite AutoDMs are the ones that say, "Thanks for the follow. This is an AutoDM, please do not reply". Really makes me want to interact.
Oh I <3 those so much too!!!
I reply back with I nice 140 description of why I'm now unfollowing them…
This is an autocomment, please do not reply.
I've been on twitter for a while now (since Aug 2007) – and I've allowed my use of twitter change over time – for a while I was extreme active and over time I've kind of let it slip so that I could focus on some things of greater importance.
I really don't like canned conversation – just like Kyle I thought about sending a welcome autoDM – and in fact was doing this by hand on each of my followers (sometime nearly 250 a day). So that I would make it personal and relevant to something that they just said – when I was getting close to 300 followers per day I could no longer keep up – and stopped.
What's the point of sending communication if it's not personal and is only noise…
Also note – I also once took the stance that I'll follow anyone who followed me, then I realized that I had no connection with anyone that I was following, and when I unfollowed them – a was hit with an auto-unfollow as well.. Now I only follow people that I've had conversation or I have a connection with… I've not gone in to see who's following me in quite a while — at one time my follow count was an obsession of mine.
Twitter is a communication tool, not a broadcasting tool. </soapbox> (( Sorry for the long comment – thanks for the great post!))
Wow, 2007, you were there before the West turned wild and they "found gold in dem dere hills". lol
I think that's a good strategy too, to follow those who you've had conversations or connection with. I can completely understand. I think that Twitter can be a communication and a broadcasting tool. We've seen how the real time based news can travel outrageously fast (ie. Jackson death, Balloon Boy, etc.), but I agree that Twitter is first a communication tool. Thanks for the great comment!
Yup – 8-15-2007 ( http://twittercounter.com/brad_parler/ ) can't completely say that I was there before it was cool – but very close… for more geeky cred – I started watching diggnation at episode 2
I agree that there are parts that are both communication and broadcast in nature, and in everything there's a balance, I do however wish that people that balance…
Hey, Thanks for the shoutout Brett! I feel the same way about auto-dms… but if someone is funny, or engaging I'm totally down. =) Looks like you have a great site here… and, of course, I'm a fan of anyone who is interested in teaching, resourcing and equipping others.
–Terrace Crawford
http://www.terracecrawford.com
http://www.twitter.com/terracecrawford
Hey thanks for stopping by Terrace! I think your AutoDM is one of the rare good ones, thanks for putting in your thoughts, and it was great connecting today!