No Auto DM’s – Part 2
Yesterday I decided to add some new blood to my twitter stream. I wasn’t planning to bulk follow but I got a bit carried away. I started looking at who the people I respect are following. Then I realized how neglectful I’ve been in following back the people who follow me. So I checked them out and followed the ones who looked interesting. I must have gotten put on some sort of list because I started getting a flood of new followers. I evaluated and followed most of them back. All in all I think I followed about 100 people.
I wasn’t trying to do a case study on auto DMs but I should have known following that many people all at once would lead to another blog post on auto DM Spam.
In my last post I talked about how a DM is like a personal hand written note. I open it before I open other pieces of mail because someone has taken the time to put in some personal thought into it and deserves a personal response. I get very annoyed when I think I’m opening a personal note and instead I find a mass mailer.
In the past 24 hours I’ve gotten about 150 emails. A typical day for me. 22 of then are auto DMs. That is 15% of my email inbox. After clearing out the legitimate mail this is what my inbox looks like.
As you can see, the majority of them start with “thanks for the follow…” Followed by please check out my Facebook page, website, white paper, etc. Those things may be important to you but they are not important to every single person who follows you.
The one at the very top included my name, it is the only one that did. It’s still followed by “Please visit us at…” but at least I can see it’s not by a bot and technically it is not an auto DM. Props to @helpmyresume for that at least.
I’m not the only one complaining about auto DMs. Tee Morris covers auto DM’s in his book All a Twitter. On page 233 Tee writes:
“From Social Media authority Chris Brogan to ReadWriteWeb.com, the backlash against automated Direct Messaging reached such a pitch that SocialToo, an organizer for your various social networks, proclaimed “Time to take a stand – Yes, We’re Ending the DM’s” and eliminated direct messages from it’s options. Perhaps it’s the impersonal nature of the tweet (“I’m far to busy to welcome you so I’ll have a bot do it for you, and while I’m at it go on and visit my facebook page and subscribe to my blog.”) or perhaps it is suddenly being told , “you have a DM!” which usually meas “priority, for your eyes only!” and you find a message “Got a question on how to increase traffic to your website? I’ll show you how!”, but auto DMs are so detested that people are unfollowing and blocking people they just met.”
Clearly I am not alone in my battle over auto DMs
Leslie Cardinal Said,
April 26, 2010 @ 10:54 pm
Hi Megan,
I see what you mean about the auto DMs you are receiving when you follow someone on Twitter. And I saw your DM to me on Twitter about this too. Thanks for raising my awareness about this. Could I ask for your help with the next step in the process, please:
I haven’t been able to find where to change that automatic DM message, or how turn it off altogether, to enable more personalized responses to people who start following me.
I have clicked on all of the settings within my Twitter account and I don’t see a place to change those settings. The closest thing I see is the page where I can opt to receive email notification when someone follows me or when someone sends me a DM.
Megan, I would be grateful for your help with this (and perhaps other people would benefit from your answer too).
Thanks, Megan!
Leslie
Peter Liu Said,
April 28, 2010 @ 8:35 am
I’m glad I’m not the only one trying to eliminate auto-DMs. I preach and preach and preach, but it’s hard to combat years of traditional marketing practices. I’d love to be able to receive my DMs on my phone, but this prevents it.
Megan Said,
April 28, 2010 @ 9:04 am
You’re definitely not the only one. Try adding a “auto DM” search column on your favorite desktop twitter client. You will see a stream of people venting their auto DM frustrations.
KennedyPittman Said,
May 1, 2010 @ 5:16 am
Everyone hates those dumb auto DMs. I posted last week how they are Twitters version of junk mail.
Megan Said,
May 1, 2010 @ 7:24 am
Hi Leslie,
It would have been a third party that you signed up with that is sending out your DM’s. Click on “Settings” and then on “connections” to see all the third party companies you have approved to have access to your twitter account. You can revoke their access from there. If that doesn’t work try changing your password.
Good Luck,
Megan
Danielle Said,
May 5, 2010 @ 3:29 am
Good on you Megan! I recently went on a bit of a twitter rampage myself over a mass of #DADM (Dumb Auto DM)
DM’s to me are personal and a way to communicate out of the main stream of public conversation . . . auto DM’s are just push advertising.
I will unfollow those who have *very spammy auto DM’s with suspicious links.
You are not alone on this!
Michael Benidt Said,
May 17, 2010 @ 12:19 pm
Look at it this way – would you go to a networking event, a church meeting or a Kiwanis club get-together and say exactly the same thing to each person you meet? Auto-anything is the antithesis of “social” networking. There are tons of ways to start and foster real relationships on the social web, and it has nothing to do with the number of followers you have.
The other thing to consider? Almost all the DM-Spam that has had viruses attached has come from folks who auto-find and auto-follow.
Blakeley Kilcoyne Said,
May 29, 2010 @ 2:03 pm
Look at it this way – would you go to a networking event, a church meeting or a Kiwanis club get-together and say exactly the same thing to each person you meet? Auto-anything is the antithesis of “social” networking. There are tons of ways to start and foster real relationships on the social web, and it has nothing to do with the number of followers you have.
+1
Leslie Cardinal Said,
May 31, 2010 @ 9:50 am
Hi Megan,
I finally found the place where the auto-DM was set up and was able to remove it. Thanks for your help.
Leslie