AutoDM is a method of sending a new twitter follower a direct message as soon as they follow you, usually along the lines of “hi, thanks for following me. check out my site/product/ebook/software” (delete as appropriate). You usually have to give your username and password to a 3rd party site so they can monitor your follower list and send out your message when a new one gets added.
As you can probably guess, I am not a fan! To me, using a bot to send a direct message is the height (or low) of insincerity. If someone wants to pitch me their product (and yes, giving away something you wrote is a pitch) then wouldn’t it be polite to actually message me first? Why get a bot to do it for you, sure it’s easy and it never forgets but would you send a robot with a card about your gift shop to every new person that sends you a Christmas card? I wouldn’t but, I don’t get Christmas cards (…long story!)
Now, most people get an email when they receive a DM. If I got an email from someone I don’t really know asking me to visit their site or download their ebook or buy their home made fluffy balls (really!) then I would consider it spam. It’s unsolicited, it’s sent to mass numbers of people, it benefits the sender and the receiver didn’t ask or qualify themselves to read/use/buy/play with it!
Here are some examples of what I consider to be an autoDM spam..
I used to do a straight unfollow for these but recently I have been replying with my own DM asking why they think an autoDM is a good idea when so many people say it isn’t. I have yet to receive a reply, except, from @CoachDeb.
She (her bot) sent this..
I may have been a teensy weensy bit annoyed or perhaps feeling too big for my boots because I had just pipped over 1000 followers a little earlier so I replied with ..
.. in the public timeline (for shame!) and gawd bless her, she responded less violently than I think I would have if someone had ‘forshame’d me on their public timeline…
Suffice to say, no-one thanked me 
Fair play to her though, she’s got over 11,000 followers and she coulda moidered me with her army of loyal fans!
I think I can see that those that use autoDM think it’s a great feature and tool to use but those that don’t use them, think they’re spam and not needed. Horses for courses!
I don’t hate ALL dm’s, just those that, before even a “hello, how are you”, are sent by a robot without the knowledge of the person being followed. Look at this one from @lorelleonwp, it’s the kind of DM I can receive all day long! it makes me want to visit their profile and see their bio description and what their site is like..
Isn’t that a MUCH nicer DM to receive? I got it part way through writing this post and it restored my faith in twitter and the people that use it again.
The problem for me though is, there are so many people that have a massive following that are using these tools and all their new followers think it’s perfectly acceptable to do it themselves and so the fad continues. It reminds me of MLM marketers who say, “the LIST is EVERYTHING”. They send a gazillion emails out multiple times a week (sometimes multiple times a day) and any network marketer that’s just starting in the biz, thinks that’s what they should do too.
It becomes more about building a list for how much they can make and nought about how much they can help. I think the worth of a follower reduces to zero if all you want is more of them. What for? is it a secret way to riches? does having a gazillion followers make you right?
What do you think? is giving something away for free a pitch? (like CoachDeb’s twitterhandbook) or do you need a bit of gentle tweetplay (like foreplay but with a blue bird watching) before you’ll follow any links or download any software?
I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on using bots to build your twitter following or send messages that you can’t/don’t want to make yourself..I could be completely wrong and alone in my opinion. Let me know!
Couldn’t agree more. AutoDM’s should be only used to pique interest, rather than sell to people. Of course people will constantly use them to sell to people, and then you’ll find the DM deleted, and you unfollowed and blocked.
It’d be great to have a “Blocked” feature (or differential between max followers and current followers), see how many times people have been blocked, give some rough idea on how spammy said person is.
Rhys | Retro Garden´s last blog post..The Simpsons – Bart vs The Juggernauts
that’s a good idea about showing the amount of blocks someone has. I bet that would make people think twice about using bots to do their tweeting!
I am loving your retro games site. takes me back to the good old ’80′s when glasses were big and colourful and hair was hairsprayed for men too
Andy Bailey´s last blog post..Blogger CommentLuv gets updated with new features
I do not twitter, so it is academic any way. But, if I did, I would not use bots.
Nicole Price´s last blog post..The President’s Biggest Challenge: It’s All about the Money!
Thanks for the heads up Andy. I’m currently following 3-4 so I know what to look for.
Dennis Edell´s last blog post..New Comment Policy – You Want To Read This
If you can of course you want to send all your own direct messages. It is the first impression that counts the most.
If you have to leave a auto-answer due to time make sure not to leave a sales pitch. That will just turn off your new follower. Say something welcoming and let them get to know you first.
Great blog BTW!
Dawn Abraham Business Coach´s last blog post..Do one thing that scares you today
nicole: thanks for the feedback
Dennis: only 3 or 4?? OMG any particular reason for the difference in followers to following?
Andy Bailey´s last blog post..When Blogging Gets Ugly
Dawn: thanks for the feedback! I agree totally.
Andy Bailey´s last blog post..The Unwritten Rules of Commenting
Having the link above the fold works quite well lol.
I however am very picky and haven’t had a chance to really sift through my followers to see who I wish to follow back.
I’m actually about to dump 2 of the 4
I also haven’t had the time to tweet much, so at least I’m not filling my followers with crap and still not following anyone.
Dennis Edell´s last blog post..New Comment Policy – You Want To Read This
As someone who’s used Twitter over a year now, I’ve seen this occur more and more over the past few months, and I agree with you Andy, it’s highly impersonal and the antithesis of what Twitter is expected to be.
And yes, any offer of product or service is a pitch, free or not.
What you said about making money vs. actually helping strongly resonates with me. Steve Pavlina articulated this really well in his article: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/12/how-to-make-lots-of-money-during-a-recession/
Byteful Traveller´s last blog post..Find Nemo at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium
I hate every automated connect, if you don’t have time to say HI you don’t need to socialize
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Hi Andy,
I actually wrote a very similar post a few days ago. As a marketer, I have mixed emotions about these automated tools. Part of me suspects that they probably “work” … depending on how we define that term. But at the same time, I’ve seen too many social sites ruined by overzealous and inexperienced marketers who will surely misuse tools such as this.
On a related topic … I’m still not sure why someone would even want to try to follow/be followed by thousands of people … I have a hard time having any meaningful interaction with just the couple of hundred in my “group”.
Todd
Success with Todd´s last blog post..Making Money With Adsense
I just turned on an auto DMer, cause I couldn’t keep up with my followers. But you have a good point. I think I’ll turn mine off now.
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I don’t think an automatic message to greet some is a good idea, it’s just a spam. If you want to greet some one do it personally he would happier. I actually take all these bots as a spam into the system, some of them might be use full.
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