Skip to content

Twitter Autofollow and Auto DM Etiquette

Mumma duck and kids Ah, to follow or not to follow – that is the question. But to AUTO follow or not to auto follow – that is a whole other question! And to AUTO DM?! Eek.

I received this DM recently from a Twitter bud:

“Please post me a link to something that answers the etiquette of the autofollow? Plus the rationale. I do without  knowing why.”

First, regards following, my policy from day one is to follow everyone back. Here are my two primary reasons why:

  1. Following those peeps back on Twitter who follow you says “hey, thanks for caring about what I have to say… I also care about what you have to say.”
  2. When both parties follow each other, you now have the ability to Direct Message (DM) – which is a private exchange between you and the other person and does not go out in the public Twitter stream.

I always like to say, “You never know when your next $100k client wants to DM you.” Granted there are other ways of reaching you – but Twitter is just SO darn efficient. And why create barriers for contact? I’ve made a LOT of lucrative deals as a direct result of having my DM feature decidedly ON! 😉

Autofollow?

Regards automatically following those folks back who follow you: I first got started on Twitter in summer of 2007 and I was merrily building my following to about 7,000 a year later. I always manually followed back and didn’t auto DM. Then my velocity cranked up and I simply couldn’t keep up with following back.

So, I now automatically follow back using @jesse‘s platform http://socialtoo.com. I enjoy the extra features Jesse has, including the anti-spam setting – where the system unfollows anyone who unfollows you within x days. (One hallmark of a spammer is to follow 2000 people then when you follow them back, they unfollow you so they can go follow more peeps!)

Auto DM?

At first, I also chose to auto-DM all peeps I followed. I experimented with a simple invitation to access my 7 Day Facebook Marketing Tips with a link to my blog. Then I nixed that as I grew weary of receiving links myself.

Next, I used a message that encouraged my followers to let me know if they had any questions about Facebook and Twitter – oops, opened the floodgates on that one and couldn’t keep up.

image Then I just included a friendly message that merges in the first name field, e.g. “Greetings Roberta! It’s great to meet you in Twitterland.” But even that was starting to feel mechanical and inauthentic as I, again, received similar auto messages myself.

Not only that, it’s hard to strip out the bona fide DMs from all the auto-junk. I have my DM’s coming into my email and one of my VA’s filters them to identify important/urgent messages.

I’ve now opted out of of incoming and outgoing AUTO DMs via http://tweetlater.com and http://socialtoo.com. [However, I gotta share – check out http://tweetlater.com‘s suite of features on their paid version, including ability to send DMs to all followers.]

I’m not here to tell you what to do – it’s all a personal choice. I’m just sharing my experience!

What do you think? Do you autofollow everyone? If not, why not? Do you include an auto DM? I’d love to know what results you’ve achieved with the auto DMs – I’m willing to be persuaded otherwise on this one! lol.

Mari Smith

Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook,” Mari Smith is widely known as the Premier Facebook Marketing Expert and a top Social Media Thought Leader. Forbes describes Mari as, “… the preeminent Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks for her help.” IBM named Mari as one of seven women that are shaping digital marketing. Mari is an in-demand keynote speaker, corporate social media strategist, dynamic live webcast host, and popular brand ambassador. She is coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day, and author of The New Relationship Marketing.

More Posts - Twitter - Facebook - LinkedIn

39 Comments

  1. Jesse Stay on March 5, 2009 at 2:38 am

    Mari, in order to be a good corporate citizen, we actually removed Auto-follow completely on SocialToo. We’re taking the lead here, and in fact leading the charge to compete in the exact opposite space of helping you stop the spam. If you join us we’ll be adding as many services as we can to allow you to block auto-dm. Thanks for the great mention, Mari!

    Jesse Stay
    CEO, SocialToo.com



  2. Sam Adkins on March 5, 2009 at 8:33 am

    I agree about following back. It seesm kind of arrogant to me that I might have people follow me but not be prepared to DM them when invited. I have a tweetlater auto Dm with definitely NO links. It just thanks the person for following and looks forward to getting to know them. Thanks for the tips on jesse’s aoftware. Will check it out!
    Sam



  3. ian david chapman on March 5, 2009 at 8:32 am

    Hi Mari,
    great post, I have followed a similar route that you took. I follow back everyone who follows me. Regarding DM’s the climate is definitely changing, @alexkaris did a survey recently and 70% of people disliked auto DM’s, that was when I finally turned mine off.
    Etiquette is so difficult to pin down because its often so personal and in social media its constantly changing. What was cool and new one month becomes lame and spammy the next.

    ian david chapman’s last blog post.. How To Manage Your Personal Friends And Business Contacts On Facebook



  4. Megan on March 4, 2009 at 11:49 pm

    Great article! Does anyone know how much tweetlater pro costs, and how do you all feel about free v. pro?



  5. Nancy Marmolejo, Viva Visibility on March 4, 2009 at 11:10 pm

    Thanks for the post Mari, I often wonder how others are thinking on this subject.

    I go back and forth in my mind about auto-follow and auto-dm.

    I love the time it saves me, and I’m all about saving time. (My life is not spent plugged in, I have a family to look after and a business to run).

    What I dislike is the way people abuse these features and start spamming. I am adamantly opposed to people auto-following/auto-dm’ing me with links, I think that’s tacky. If you really want me to read something, why not put it in the public stream and gift it to everyone?

    For now, I will continue using it as it saves me time. But I’m going to keep a close watch on things and weigh out whether stopping this practice is worth it.

    🙂
    Nancy



  6. Kathy Colaiacovo on March 4, 2009 at 9:20 pm

    Mari, You are always so full of information! It’s always appreciated!

    Thanks!



  7. Dr Wright on March 4, 2009 at 8:40 pm

    I unfollow if you start magpies and using ads. I want to hear about what YOU are doing however, I do not want an ad

    Dr Letitia Wright
    The Wright Place TV Show
    http://www.wrightplacetv.com
    http://www.twitter.com/drwright1



  8. Ian Stone on March 4, 2009 at 8:24 pm

    Hi Mari,
    Thank you for this information. As someone new to both Facebook and Twitter it is wonderful to get some commonsense advice.

    With Love for I Love You
    Ian Stone – Metaphysician & Founder of HEART Energy Healing System,
    Human Energy Assessment Release Treatments
    Simple ways to Heal Your Human Life Energy Fields
    Metaphysical Institute
    Metaphysical Institute Blog



  9. Yvette on March 4, 2009 at 7:51 pm

    Mari,

    Great question, and I like that you have shared your experiences with us.

    I’m a fairly new user of Twitter and still kind of learning the ropes.

    Currently, I do Auto DM, and have to be honest it does not feel authentic, but its a quick way for me to reach out to people who decide to follow me.

    Just like when you are introduced to someone, a quick hello and then you start building the relationship.

    In the beginning I did have a link to my website, but it just did not feel right, and frankly they can easily just click on my link from my bio.

    Then I changed it to a simple message similar to yours, but could not keep up.

    Then when I started following “carrie wilkerson” I really liked her Auto DM and somewhat changed mine modeling hers, becuase it did not feel so robotic, if you know what i mean.

    And that’s how I’ve left it for now.

    I don’t auto follow everyone, but I do try to check out everyone who follows me and select to follow people who are actively participating & providing value. Not just self-promoting.

    However, your points on Auto Follow are very valid and its food for thought for me.

    I think you just have to experiment and see what works best for you and it also depends on your biz strategy too. I guess just be active & provide value its all about networking – right?

    Anyhoo, for me the jury is still out.
    For now, a quick hello (no self-promotion) and then making sure you interact with your new followers (if time permits) works for me.

    Bravo, on this post, Mari!



  10. Lorrette on March 4, 2009 at 5:22 pm

    Hey Mari

    Seems the subject of auto DM’s is one that sparks real passion. I personally don’t warm to the obviously automated ones but unless you go with the paid version, which many may not be in a position to do, perhaps a good rule of thumb would be to at least offer a useful gift or, as Andrea suggests, offer something of value.

    I absolutely agree with your comments on following everyone who follows you. Everyone is a potential client. I did not know about @jesse’s platform http://socialtoo.com so I shall be looking into that and thanks for the tip.



Scroll To Top