Twitter Etiquette: Auto-DMing on Follow

by Alan Belniak on January 11, 2011 · 5 comments

in Social Media

Twitter Auto-DM chat between @abelniak and @HightalkA few days ago, someone started following me on Twitter.  I go through my steps of determining whether or not I want to follow back this person.  This person seemed like they’d offer up something of interest to me.  So I followed back.  And then I got an auto-direct message (DM).  It was something like, “Thanks for the follow.  Read my stuff over at ____.”

I instantly went back and unfollowed that person.  I didn’t want to be spammed, and that’s what it felt like to me.  An automatic, impersonal message to go read your stuff?  No thanks.  I also tweeted that out, and a little debate ensued.  Take a look at the image (image created using Chirpstory).  If you’re reading this in a feed reader, you might want to pop out to read the full story to see the image.

@ThatGuySteve08 offered up a point that generally agreed with mine.  @HighTalk (hi, George!) offered up the dissenting opinion, and this is where the dialogue unfolded.  My main point was that I didn’t like the impersonal, spam-like nature of auto-DMs-on-follow, specifically when a link to go read someone’s stuff or other general pimping is promoted.  To be fair, perhaps this part of my disdain for auto-follow-DMs didn’t come through.

@HighTalk took the approach of something along the lines of it not being that big of a deal, and made a comparison to other automated messages (I don’t happen to agree with the analogy, but it’s an analogy nonetheless).  We traded a few more messages, and I explained why I didn’t like the whole auto-DM-on-follow – I felt that it cheapens the “thank you’”.  I’d prefer, and in this order: [1] a genuine thank-you DM (written each time); [2] nothing; and [3] an auto-DM that says thanks, but doesn’t pimp or promote.

We left the conversation at that, because our opinions diverged.  But it got me thinking, so I put together this post.  I respect George and George’s opinion, though I don’t agree with it.  How about you?  Where do you fall on this issue?

About

I work at a Massachusetts-based technology company focused on connectivity and mobility (LogMeIn), where I am employed as a content strategist. In this role, I drive development of overall content strategy, develop that strategy to scale content across all business units and products, and finally champion the use of most effective content selection (type, vehicles, length, format, etc.) and development throughout the organization. I have a bachelor's of Science degree in engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA, and a master's degree in Business Administration, focusing on Technology Entrepreneurship, from Babson College in Wellesley, MA. You can find me at my SubjectivelySpeaking blog , @abelniak on Twitter, and on Google+.

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  • Gfsnell3

    Hi Alan:
    Thanking people for following you and suggesting they read additional material hardly seems like an offensive practice. The person probably assumed you followed them because you found their tweets interesting – and was directing you to more material. I think it is odd you would unfollow someone for this practice. Why? Does it change why you are following them in the first place?

    Twitter isn’t a cocktail party. It’s a broadcast network for content. Yes, conversations do occur there, but more often than not – they don’t. For brands – and even for many people – scale gets in the way of personally thanking everyone who follows them with a hand-crafted message. But some people and brands appreciate being followed and want to acknowledge it.

    All this said I do not use automated DMs because they don’t fit with what I’m trying to accomplish on Twitter. But I don’t thank followers either. I do nothing- although I do occasionally follow back.

    There are no hard and fast rules here. Twitter offers an automated DM – and some people and brands use it. Why get upset about that?

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for posting a comment. I’m not so much offended as I am annoyed. Offended would be more like disgust. This, to me, is more like an eye roll. Like hearing a sales person use the same bad joke, or same exact line, over and over and over again, as you peruse the sales floor at a car dealership. You kinda feel like “hey wait – he just said that to me… he says that to everyone?”

    I tend to follow people based on a few steps/reasons, outlined here: http://www.subjectivelyspeaking.net/2010/08/20/why-your-twitter-follower-count-matters-why-your-twitter-follower-count-doesnt-matter/. If/when I get a message that is along the lines of “your following me is an easy reason for me to ping you with a link to read my stuff: {link}”, I get turned off.

    Like I mentioned, I’d prefer no thank you over an automated one that tells me I should go read their stuff.

    You and I share, at least ostensibly, some similar views on what we hope to get out of Twitter. I don’t thank people for following, either. Much like I don’t typically thank people for RTs (and don’t expect a thanks in return, though every now and again I run counter to that stance). In the end, it’s a tool to use. Some use it, some don’t. I don’t. And I’m not a fan of it.

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