Thank You For Being a “Twitter” Friend

Twitter autoresponders.  I love this topic because it is such a polarizing one.   Some people love them, some people hate them…and let’s just say those that hate them REALLY hate them.

What I am talking about here are what appears to be ‘stock’ messages that show up in your Twitter Direct Messages folder from the new Twitter users you just followed.

I’m sure you are familiar with these.  The better messages will say something like: “Thanks for following.  I tweet about sports medicine and have more information on my blog www.sportsmed.co.uk”.

The worst ones will say something like this: “Someone is saying something bad about you.  Click here to find out:www.whocares.com”.

Obviously the second one is straight spam, with the user probably involved in some affiliate program where they get paid for click-thrus.  But many would argue that both of these are spam, as they are auto-generated.

My thoughts?  Different strokes for different folks.  Personally I believe if you do not have the time to personally say hello to each new person who follows you, these auto-direct messages can be very helpful.  They allow you to get in front of the person and share exclusive information about yourself or your business.

My two rules?

1.  Make it Juicy. When I read a good auto message on Twitter, I will click the link, reply and all the rest.  It will drive me to action.  So if you choose to go down this route, be sure to make it count!

2.  No Bait and Switch. Don’t lure the person with a message that doesn’t mirror what they will see on the other side.  Be 100% transparent…this approach always works beautifully online.

Now, how do you do it?  There are loads of services out there (free and paid) that will enable you to generate these auto-direct messages.  I’ve tried many of them and there are two services I would suggest.  The first is a paid service called SocialOomph.

SocialOomph (https://www.socialoomph.com/) is a pretty robust third-party agent that helps you handle many aspects of your social media campaign.  I’ll let you go through the site and check out all of the bells and whistles.  Right now I want to focus on how to quickly set-up an auto-direct message for Twitter.

Here are the quick steps:

1.  Register and/or login to SocialOomph.  When you register, you want to choose the service where you are able to send “Welcome DMs” to your new followers.

2.  Once you are registered and paid, go to the left hand side menu there is a button for “Social Networks”.  Click on that and follow the directions for adding your Twitter account.

3.  Now that you are registered, go to the left hand menu again, this time choosing “Direct Messages”.  Then click “Edit Welcome DM” and choose your Twitter account.

4.  On this page, first click the box next to “Auto Welcome”.  Then, in the “Send This Message” write your 140 welcome message (remember to follow my two rules above).

5.  Underneath this you have the option to “Auto Follow” which means that anyone who follows you, you will immediately follow back.  This can be tricky, so I would use this with caution.

6.  Last, I would click the box next to “@Replies Digest” to receive the email updates as it is a great way to track your engagement on Twitter.

The other site is called Tweet Manager.  It is a wonderful service, just visit them online and follow the very easy to follow steps that they provide.  It is much easier to use than SocialOomph and currently doesn’t cost a penny to use.

And there you go!  From then on in, your new followers will receive a welcome message.  Again, this method is not for everyone, so try it and track its effectiveness for your campaign.  Twitter marketing, like other social media marketing, is organic and can be tweaked when needed.