Thanks For Following, Now Click On My Junk

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As my Twitter stream has grown, I’ve noticed that about 1 in every 5 new followers sends me a message like this after I follow back:

“Hi, thanks for following my tweets! Here’s a link to my website, please click it!”

Ok, I’m paraphrasing. But if you’re on Twitter, you’ve undoubtedly had a few of these. (If you’re not, go there! And then follow me here.)

This turns me off, almost instantly. Here’s why it bugs me.

1) When I decide to follow someone back, it’s usually because they’ve got interesting conversation going on in their stream or a fun bio, or both. If you hit me with a spammy sounding DM right when we get connected, I instantly think your community participation is a sham. Or at the very least, that you’re looking at this endeavor bass ackwards.

2) You don’t know a thing about me yet, except what you read on my profile. How on earth do you know that what you offer is of value to me in the least?

4) Your website is in your profile. Before I follow you, I’ll be going there to check you out. And I’m pretty smart (most days). If I want to click to your site and see what you’re about, I will.

5) I’m a very social person, and dig meeting new people. Truly. So I’m excited that you’re following me. But I’d much rather learn about who you are on a personal level. I guarantee you that’s more interesting than what you do for a living. You’re not letting me see the best of you.

6) If your business proposition is more important than saying hello and getting acquainted, then it’s clear to me that you don’t feel the same way about people as I do, which means we’ll probably have little in common anyway.

7) Like many, many other people, I do business with people I like and trust. But like and trust are not instant affinities. Hitting me with your junk right off the bat tells me that you’re impatient and not willing to invest in like and trust.

8) I participate in social networks for business, yes. But I’m also there to connect with people I just enjoy interacting with. Usually the second part comes first.

9) I’m going to be a much more loyal reader of your blog or patron of your business if I feel like your reached out to me to do more than build your subscriber base. I’m human too, and I’d really like to think you find something interesting about me besides the click I make on your site. Call me sensitive.

10) Introducing yourself by using my name at least lets me know that I wasn’t part of a mass message.

So let’s find the positive in this, shall we? For as many of you as have slipped me a link, hundreds and hundreds of you are doing the right thing.  Here are a few intro DM’s I’ve gotten lately that made me glad I’d followed back:

“Hey Amber, thanks for the add! Looking forward to having some fun conversation.”

“Hi Amber, thanks for the follow! Can’t wait to chat more about beer. Cosmos suck.”

“Hi Amber, thanks for the follow.  I like your blog and content.  I’m getting mine rolling, hope to share cool content soon! ”

“thanks for the reciprocated follow, Amber. Looking forward to sharing tweets.”

“Hey Amber, hope you had a great weekend! Thanks for the follow back.”

“Amber, thx for the follow. I hope we can learn, communicate, and collaborate here on twitter–enjoy a beer for me too!”

So there are lots like this. I guess what they all have in common is that they feel personal, they feel real, and they make me want to start a conversation with these people. Linky spamlicious crud (yes, that’s a very official term) makes me afraid to start talking to you lest you start pushing your wares on me. And that’s not exactly what you want, is it?

No, I’m not that darned important. I’m just one person, and this is just my opinion. But there are so many things that I can pick out from the list above that apply to just about any communications endeavor that I couldn’t resist talking about it.

So tell me then. Do you plunk links into your welcome tweets? Why or why not? And if you do, tell me why you think it’s a smart move. If it bugs you too, tell me what I’m missing.

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  • http://www.jcompare.com Ulises Orozco

    Couldnt say it any better myself!

  • http://hooversbiz.com Tim (@Twalk) Walker

    Brian and Michael–

    I’m in Amber’s camp on this topic in general, but especially in her comment when she says “For me, the larger issue is the auto-reply.” It’s the machine-generated nature of it that turns me off.

    If you want to DM me a link to your blog or another project you’re doing, that’s fine as long as I know where you’re pointing me. (My two cents, Michael: I would include just one link; this would make it more likely that I would click on it, plus you’d have a few more characters to describe what you’re giving me.) But that DM will be a LOT better, in my view, if it’s addressed to me by name, not To Whom It May Concern.

    In other words: “What Amber said.” ; )

    Oh, and Michael, you say a couple of things in comment #54 that I wonder about, and one with which I completely agree:

    1. “that most users employ for business purposes” — Is there data to indicate that this is true for most users? I’ve seen (and made) a ton of business use, a ton of social use, and lots of mixing, but I don’t know what sort of data has been compiled on trends of use.

    2. “Do you think it depends on the project as well?” — For me, not much. An auto-reply is, by its nature, off-putting for me.

    3. I completely agree when you say “perhaps debate is self defeating?” It’s not about what you (or I!) think, but what your followers think. And by the way, this gets back to something that Brian said in his comment: “therefore I don’t feel it’s ‘spammy’ of me to do.” Brian may or may not be right, and I have no reason to doubt his good intentions, but at some level it doesn’t matter what *he* feels is spammy. Spam is always defined in the eye of the recipient, not the sender.

    One more way of thinking about this whole issue: my business card has my blog address printed on it. When I hand the card to someone who I think might be interested in reading the blog, I point out the URL and say something low-key like, “If you’re interested, that’s my blog address. I’d love for you to check it out sometime.” And then we go on to talk about other things. To me, an intro DM should be that low-key, and that conversational.

    Tim (@Twalk) Walkers last blog post..Algorithms, not tips.

  • http://hooversbiz.com Tim (@Twalk) Walker

    Brian and Michael–

    I’m in Amber’s camp on this topic in general, but especially in her comment when she says “For me, the larger issue is the auto-reply.” It’s the machine-generated nature of it that turns me off.

    If you want to DM me a link to your blog or another project you’re doing, that’s fine as long as I know where you’re pointing me. (My two cents, Michael: I would include just one link; this would make it more likely that I would click on it, plus you’d have a few more characters to describe what you’re giving me.) But that DM will be a LOT better, in my view, if it’s addressed to me by name, not To Whom It May Concern.

    In other words: “What Amber said.” ; )

    Oh, and Michael, you say a couple of things in comment #54 that I wonder about, and one with which I completely agree:

    1. “that most users employ for business purposes” — Is there data to indicate that this is true for most users? I’ve seen (and made) a ton of business use, a ton of social use, and lots of mixing, but I don’t know what sort of data has been compiled on trends of use.

    2. “Do you think it depends on the project as well?” — For me, not much. An auto-reply is, by its nature, off-putting for me.

    3. I completely agree when you say “perhaps debate is self defeating?” It’s not about what you (or I!) think, but what your followers think. And by the way, this gets back to something that Brian said in his comment: “therefore I don’t feel it’s ‘spammy’ of me to do.” Brian may or may not be right, and I have no reason to doubt his good intentions, but at some level it doesn’t matter what *he* feels is spammy. Spam is always defined in the eye of the recipient, not the sender.

    One more way of thinking about this whole issue: my business card has my blog address printed on it. When I hand the card to someone who I think might be interested in reading the blog, I point out the URL and say something low-key like, “If you’re interested, that’s my blog address. I’d love for you to check it out sometime.” And then we go on to talk about other things. To me, an intro DM should be that low-key, and that conversational.

    Tim (@Twalk) Walkers last blog post..Algorithms, not tips.

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  • http://clintonskakun.wordpress.com Clinton Skakun

    Lot’s of twits should read this. I used to have a ‘click my junk’ link also. After reading this post it changed my mind.

    Regards
    Clinton Skakun

    Clinton Skakuns last blog post..PART 2: Successfully Selling Your Self On Twitter!

  • http://clintonskakun.wordpress.com Clinton Skakun

    Lot’s of twits should read this. I used to have a ‘click my junk’ link also. After reading this post it changed my mind.

    Regards
    Clinton Skakun

    Clinton Skakuns last blog post..PART 2: Successfully Selling Your Self On Twitter!

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  • http://commonground.edrnet.com Mark Wallace

    This is a great post. I have never used these as automatic replies annoying. I have received a handful of them that truly seemed genuine. The others are simply mass marketing.

  • http://commonground.edrnet.com Mark Wallace

    This is a great post. I have never used these as automatic replies annoying. I have received a handful of them that truly seemed genuine. The others are simply mass marketing.

  • http://hummingbird604.com Raul

    Dear Amber,

    I came here through John Berringer’s Twitter stream, and i am glad i did. Awesome. You use Twitter more on the business side than the personal side but you follow a lot of the mantras I follow. E.G. we think alike :) That’s fantastic.

    the one thing I’ve recommended to business twitter account holders is “be personal” (same point that you made up).

    Thanks for a fun and awesome read!

    Rauls last blog post..Petition to Twitter – change the tagline!

  • http://hummingbird604.com Raul

    Dear Amber,

    I came here through John Berringer’s Twitter stream, and i am glad i did. Awesome. You use Twitter more on the business side than the personal side but you follow a lot of the mantras I follow. E.G. we think alike :) That’s fantastic.

    the one thing I’ve recommended to business twitter account holders is “be personal” (same point that you made up).

    Thanks for a fun and awesome read!

    Rauls last blog post..Petition to Twitter – change the tagline!

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  • http://profiles.google.com/witt.cassie Cassie Witt

    I stumbled on this blog post today and all I can say is…Wow! Three years later and this is still happening!

  • Samra Bufkins, MJ, APR

    A new firm in town just included me in a list of tweets that begin “Thanks for following” and then lists @names of people the firm follows–it gives the impression those people are following them. My name was listed on one tweet–I clicked on their link and they’re following me, but I’m not following them back. It’s presumptuous and rude to send tweets like that, IMHO.

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