Big hat tip to Geoff White on this.
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You’ve likely received these kinds of direct messages if you use Twitter:
Thanks for the follow yo! Now you can get a free online subscription! Sign up @
Thanks for the follow! Look forward to getting to know you, sharing tweets and connecting on FB
Howdy. Thanks for the Follow. I enjoy meeting cool people here. Let me know how I can Help YOU. My biz is Smoking, hope Yours is too!’
The above are actual examples of auto-thank you’s used by some of the more shining intellects inhabiting the Twitterverse. They believe that if you follow them they have a right to pitch you (and that this approach is a sound idea). Newsflash: if I need your awesome products/service in my life I will come to you. Based on a Twitter follow, you certainly don’t know if your offering fits my needs. So, while it makes my day to hear that your biz is smoking, don’t pitch me via a DM. It’s a douche move, you effing Douche!
The auto-thank you’ers are engaged in a social media version of the classic “big dick contest” whereby he with the most friends/followers wins. These are the assholes who actually say “I have 10 000 followers on Twitter” on their CV’s. Have fun if you hire them.
Beyond what these people are trying to accomplish with their auto-thank you’s, what do they think of me? Perhaps that I will actually be duped into thinking that theirs is a genuine statement of gratitude and not a standardized message. More broadly, what they seem to be missing relates to Twitter’s power. If it indeed lies in the ability to be human via real-time dialogue why send a standardized thank you from a bot?
Finally, just because I decide to follow you on Twitter does not mean I need an invite to connect on Facebook or some other site. It’s the internet. Most sites have search functions. If I need to find you on another social network because it means so much to be your “friend” I can handle it.
Your standardized thank you DM means that I will unfollow you. Got it?
ha ha totally agree. I got a follow request from something like @tampadeals or something like that recently. What is the point of trying to connect with me at all if you are a Tampa based business other than to try and pump your follow count?
Twitter is great and all but it didn’t take long for it to become a playground for idiots and spammers. Seems like that cycle is shortening these days…