Okay so my post title might sound a bit negative but don’t get me wrong Twitter is great! For anyone who hasn’t joined or for anyone who is in the ‘I don’t get it phase’ well Twitter can be a great web tool, it’s not all about telling the world you’ve just had a cup of tea or something daft like that. A former work colleague used to tell me it was ‘gay’ which always used to make me laugh as I could tell they didn’t understand it, nor did they have any followers, therefore not really grasping the whole Tweeting thing.

Since I have been on Twitter for a while now I thought it was right to post something about two minor things that I see on Twitter almost daily and two minor things which I think everyone should think about before doing. Please note these are only my opinions but two that I feel strongly about :)

Automatic Direct Messaging

First up is the automatic direct messaging new followers! They really bug me! Mainly because more often then not they are really cheesy/tacky. The majority of the time I will actually go back to the profile page of the sender and consider unfollowing them.

I think if your going to send auto DM’s then you should take a bit of consideration into what exactly your trying to get out of it. Sending me a cheesy message telling me how grateful you are because I followed you doesn’t really do anything for me and I think you lose that personal touch of actually taking the time to link that person into a Tweet saying simply thank you for the follow.

Just last week I got the following auto DM from a fellow Web Designer telling me this….

Now being a Web Designer myself why would I need one at my beck and call? Maybe I misread the DM but I thought for me this was irrelevant, I think a message saying hello I hope we can maybe help each other one day would have been better. Here’s another example of the type of DM’s I often get sent…

You might think i’m just been damn right picky here but come on “I’ll try to make it exciting” lol, how cheesy! This message has blatantly been sent to everyone not just me again losing the personal touch! How long does it take to add in my name? Just a thought!

Anyways before I start to rant on, I do actually think that Businesses can use auto DM’s in a good way to promote their products/services. Lets take Shutterstock as an example, the stock photography website sends its new Twitter followers the following DM…

This is a clever from Shutterstock because any new followers who maybe haven’t used or heard of Shutterstock before might now be tempted into signing up and giving the stock site a go, resulting in more sales! New followers might also spread the word amongst friends who might also then start following Shutterstock receiving their voucher code too.

I think companies can use this to their advantage plus everyone likes introdutory voucher discounts don’t they!

Following / Unfollowing Just To Gain Numbers

This is my ultimate Twitter no no! The amount of times I’ve had someone follow me then a couple of day’s later I’ve finally got round to checking out their profile page to see if I am going to follow them back only to find once I have returned the follow they then follow me again.

That might not make sense but all they are trying to do is gain a large number of followers without having to follow back. Twitter is all participating and trying to gain as many followers as possible might help more people see your Tweets but does it really make you a participant? I’d say no.

For certain people, such as celebrities I can understand that they would have lots of followers and maybe not following as many themselves, but for your average joe, I can’t. When I get a new follower, I take a brief look at their profile, decide wether or not they are at all interesting and wether or not they will be of any benefit to me having their tweets display in my feed. I would never follow someone then instantly unfollow them just to gain numbers!

My followers have always increased at a steady rate since I first joined Twitter and although its a nice feeling breaking 1k followers, it’s not something I was in a huge rush to do and the followers I have often contribute to my Tweets whether or not they are helping me or just replying to something I have said or even just RT’ing my links!

Here is the last 3 months stats on my followers (courtesy of Twittercounter)…

I personally think it’s better to gradually build up your followers instead of just adding thousands of people using some software because when it helps you understand Twitter better and will help you gain a better connection with your followers.

Conclusion

Right that is my rant over! :) I think Twitter (used right) is such an invaluable tool and for a Web Designer like myself, it’s a daily tool that I have come to depend on for resources / connections, etc. It annoys me that there are soo many ‘spamtastic’ users on Twitter clogging up the site with useless crap. Like I said, auto DM’s are handy, if used in a way that will benefit you! Does sending someone a useless cheesy welcome message make you feel good? Do you really need to add as many people as you could possible add? The answer is probably no for both!

As I said at the beginning these opinions are just mine but I would love to know what you think? Do you Auto DM? If you are currently sending out auto DM’s then I would love to know what your reasons are and what you actually send using the comments form below!