Why you should stop using Auto-Dm!
I have to confess as much as I dislike Auto Dm’s while using TrueTwit validation I was Auto Dm’ing all my new followers on the various twitter accounts I managed including my personal one. It supposedly helped out with automatically accepting new followers and filtering bots. After many complaints and finding out how much these actions annoyed my twitter followers I decided to stop automatically accepting followers and to sending automatic DM’s. The irony with Truetwit was that it ended up annoying the real followers and it obviously did not affect the spammers and bots.
What I do when I receive an Auto DM?
- I think of unfollowing the person. Although I did confess I use to Auto-Dm now that I am a converted Non-Auto Direct Messenger I get a quick impulse of wanting to unfollow the person. I quickly browse thru their profile and if the rest of the conversation seems to look like they are just self-promoting or spamming then hitting the un-follow button comes next.
- I ask myself why the person decided to take this approach. After analyzing their tweets I usually reach out and if I deem it appropriate I ask them why they use they sent me an auto-dm.
- I want them to stop as soon as I see one come in. Some services allow you to unsubscribe others don’t if it bothers you that much you might want to go ahead and put a stop to some of these services.
No matter how you want to justify your Auto Dm’s they are defined as Spam. They are not requested by your new followers and it is kind of going against the trust this person just gave you by following you.
Most people are too polite to notify you that Auto-DMs annoy them. I have seen how many people feel disgusted by Auto Dms and the same way they just followed you by hitting a button they will unfollow you by hitting the unfollow button. This is a consequence because you gave a bot the task to do your engagement on twitter.
No one likes Auto Dm’s On Twitter
Immediate sensation of disgust are felt by many when they receive an Auto-DM, most people are against using and receiving Auto Dm’s. I have never met someone who truly believes they are useful or serve a purpose. Ask your followers like I did and see the following tweets on how most of them felt when it comes to Auto DM’s.
Recommendations
If the reason you where using Auto Dm’s was to be polite and to thank those that followed you I would eliminate using auto Dm’s and do the following:
- Take 10 to 15 minutes every day and getting to know your new followers.
- Take a look at their blog and maybe comment on one of their posts.
- Read their tweets and answer them back genuinely on any tweet you can relate too.
- Create a list of your last 20 followers and monitor them for the next few days or weeks so you can make sure you are engaged with them.
- Re-tweet any of their content with a line expressing your point of view.
Personalizing virtual friendships is a key in making connections. Making auto-responses is taking a human part out of the equation needed to make a good human relationship. It’s the same thing that happened with answering machines and automated answering services a few years ago. Keeping human element in a relationship is a must. I don’t like automated services.
That is a good comparison i myself don’t leave messages in a recorder I usually hang up. The same way I don’t have voicemail set up. I think you just gave me an idea for another post thanks my friend.
Raul
Thank you for coming over to the autoDM free side. We missed you on the other side! In all seriousness, you had such a very valid point. The real users had issue where the spammers and bots do not; as they are generally the ones that are the autoDM’ers. While inviting, the autoDM is really spam and treated as such by followers.
This article is great as it is from your experience and why the autoDM should not be used. Thank you for writing and sharing. Love to Daniela.
Suzanne,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your opinion. I will be closer to you in a week. Will be in LA!
Raul, I am collecting these posts for one of own someday, probably soon. Still don’t get how others don’t get that autoDMs are just made of fail. That is all.
Davina,
Let me know when you have yours ready… As much awareness as we can make is of benefit to all of us.
Good analogy Thanks for stopping by!
Couldn’t help it.. ‘creativity’ came to me, so it’ll be tomorrow’s post. Hopefully you’ll like it. 🙂
Davina… Sounds great will go over and take a look.