What is wrong about AUTO-DMS (and you’re afraid to ask)
Posted under: Auto-DMs are something that always leave me a bit mad, mostly at myself. Every Auto-DM I receive means that I probably wasn’t careful enough to check a user’s timeline and see what was going on with it and, instead, I just clicked on that “Follow” button like there was no tomorrow. AUTO-DMs also have an immediate effect on me: I stop following the user that sends me one and the reason I do it it’s because I think they are abusive.
After receiving around 15 Auto-DMs today (slow day, don’t know why) I have decided to explain why, I personally think, AUTO-DMs are a wrong practice and why they do more harm than good to those who send them.
- AUTO-DMs are abusive: Twitter is (should be) about building relationships. You don’t start a relationship by trying to push something into someone you just met. If you don’t do with in real life you shouldn’t do it on Twitter.
- I know how to look for information, thank you very much: If you have setup your twitter profile properly, including the URL to your blog/website/youtube channel/facebook and I am interested in knowing more about you I will click on it. Yes! I will willingly and freely click on that link to discover more about you. I probably did before I started following you. No need to push that same link into my DM box. (Having said that if you put a tiny url in your Twitter profile I will not click it because those present security risks
- If I want help, I will ask for it: “Hey I am so happy we connected. Let me help you being happy forever“. Unless you are the woman of my dreams this won’t work, sooooorrry! These kind of AUTO-DMs make those who send them look ridiculous and the only thing they achieve is a good laugh followed by a block. And if you send them to Shelly Kramer you will also be outed to more than 20,000 people. (Shelly rocks!).
- Not personal: I live in Europe. If I receive a AUTO-DM telling me “Come and taste our apple pie at the “Blurb Coffee House” in Reno for free” I’ll know immediately that you didn’t take the time to get to know me via my timeline. Unless you are willing to pay for the plane ticket I’ll have to decline on your offer and block you.
- Do you really think I believe that?: Auto-DMs with promises to get me more followers, money without having to work, “exclusive” access to a website are an insult to everyone’s intelligence. When you send such a AUTO-DM you are actually calling those people, that decided to follow you, “stupid”. Imagine what happens next? They stop following and will probably block you!
The latest trend I have observed in AUTO-DMs is even more fantastic: You get the AUTO-DM, send a tweet to that user saying something along the lines “That is not cool!…” and they reply back offering a service that will stop you from getting AUTO-DMs. I think these people have too much time on their hands.
To receive one Auto-DM as soon as you start following someone on Twitter is like going on a first date and having that person ask you for a key to your house, at the end of the night. It’s too much, too soon. And, in my opinion, in very bad taste: The only good AUTO-DMs are no AUTO-DMs at all. #imho
What do you think? What is your experience? What was the most ridiculous AUTO-DM you got? Are you using AUTO-DMs? Do explain! This is a place for everyone no matter on what side you are!
Picture Credits: Domib34 under a CC License