Do you send out an automatic Twitter welcome message?

[igorhelpsyousucceed]

Hey Warrior,

Twitter is attracting more users
every signle day and there are new
strategies to use this fact to
grow you business.

Now my question is:

Do you send out an automatic Twitter Welcome message to
your followers? If you do: what does it say, if not: why not?

Igor

[Jill Carpenter]

Yes, mine encourages users to join me on facebook. I have gained a lot of new friends this way.

Should Twitter be "down" I will have some friends in another social networking site to converse with.

[Michael Mayhew]

I had to quit auto adding/dm'ing.

Too many porn, gambling, & forex started following.

[Traffic-Bug]

I receive lot of personal DM's from new people I follow, they are usally visit my site, view my blog, I have free ebook, and so on... Sometimes its kind of interesting and sometimes I just delete them off.

[Bev Clement]

Yes, I have one it says "Thank you for following me, tweet @ and tell me do you like chocolate"

[Peter Bestel]

I've stopped sending auto welcome DMs. Not sending one might not be the best strategy but I felt somewhat hypocritical as I never take a blind bit of notice of the ones I receive.

I've replied to some after they've asked, "Hey, what do you do and how can we help each other?" I've yet to get a response which obviously makes me think that very few people read DMs from people they don't already know.

Peter

[igorhelpsyousucceed]

Thank you all for your feedback,guys.

Much appriciated.

Igor

[findtips]

I don't care for them. They seem too spammy and most Twitter users (my research has shown) don't like them. So unless you're in there to piss people off, I would stay away from DMs.

[trishworks4u]

yes but I delete all the ones that I receive without reading them so I'm a big hypocrite.

[Peter Bestel]

Saw a tweet today from Dr Mani. He pointed us to this page:

Twuck You - Reply to AUTOMATED DM on Twitter

Maybe include this link in replies to DMs if you don't care for them.

Peter

[nicholasb]

I say hello and thank you tell them a little about me then leave them with an open ended question for a response to start building a relationship,,, I have only had a few responses but I don't put a link, because I am truly trying to develop a long term relationship

[MemberWing]

I got DM "Thank you for following me ...and what are you working on?"

This is kinda neat message inviting to talk but I still wonder if person sent it out automatically or she/he really bothered to sit and type it?

Gleb

[tomsinfield]

If you are using an Auto DM. What are you using to send it?

[Trent Brownrigg]

No, I don't send one. And, on that note, I can't stand when people do send them! They are annoying to delete and can build up very quickly.

[Peter Bestel]

Originally Posted by Trent Brownrigg

They are annoying to delete and can build up very quickly.

I discovered a bulk delete bookmarklet that might ease your annoyance:

Delete Direct Messages in Bulk

Peter

[WebVideoDesigner]

I do not send auto DMs and I generally don't reply to the ones that do unless I already know the person outside of Twitter.

If I'm following a company, I half-expect an auto DM if I follow them but I also don't reply. This type does not bother me.

But if I follow a person because I happen to think what they're posting is halfway interesting/useful then I do not want to see a message from them saying "thanks for following! check out my site at crappysite.com!".

That may just get them immediately unfollowed.

[Ron Killian]

I have not sent auto welcomes, but always wondered if I should, if I was missing out. And wondered if it helped at all, such as traffic.

Great to see some feed back here.

[michellegreen]

I do, but I don't link to my website. Mine is more like "thanks for following me. I'll follow you back!"

I also have auto follow and unfollow set up so if they following me, then I'll follow them and vice versa for unfollows.

As for posting my links, I sometimes (not always) post a link in my tweets.

I do get a bit of traffic from Twitter, so it is definitely worth posting links at times.

[findtips]

Originally Posted by michellegreen

I do, but I don't link to my website. Mine is more like "thanks for following me. I'll follow you back!"

That's much more palatable Michelle and it wouldn't bother me as much. On the contrary, someone that DM's "What are you working on right now?" ... I feel like saying, "It's none of your damn business what I'm working on now please go away!" LOL

[michellegreen]

To tell you the truth I started off with links to my website initially but then realised that a lot of people don't like that so I decided to stop doing it and tweet them manually.

It works for me and I'm still getting plenty of traffic!

[ExtraB]

Personally I ignore most auto thanks for following messages. Sometimes I will skim them over... and on the rare occasion will click on a link.

Truthfully, I don't care much for them and tend to think they are annoying but thats because most people use them in a spammy or cheesey way. At the moment I am working on a Twitter report and plan to investigate this toping a little more and uncover when its ok to use this method and when its not.. how to do it so its effective or useful etc. I tend to think that using it all depends on your situation and if you can do it with grace and class... otherwise it could just be a credibility crusher for you.

I hope to give everyone my conclusions after I have done my research and had time to ponder the issue further.

Great thread and thanks for starting it.

Eric Bonnici

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by MemberWing

I got DM "Thank you for following me ...and what are you working on?"

This is kinda neat message inviting to talk but I still wonder if person sent it out automatically or she/he really bothered to sit and type it?

Seeing that I've lost track of how many times I've seen that particular DM, I'd say it was an automated one.

[Takuya Hikichi]

I don't send those. It costs people time to read my DM and automated ones aren't my cup of tea.

[Lama]

I have a message and it says: "Thank you so much for following me. I really really appreciate it. How Can I Help You?"
and it works really well

I do check my DM's as well. Here are SOME of the comments I received from my new followers about my message:

"tis my pleasure.....any help is positive from where i am sitting....you have a nice karma...cool"

"Before I ask for help please tell me what **I** can do for **you**. I love your website!"

"OMG! i like u already! ;-) Facebook me: + check out my video blog too"

"No problem! Thanks for following us. Honestly, we're sort of new to Twitter, so can I get back to you on that? Very kind of you!"

"It's so kind of you to connect with me, Lama. If I can help you, please ask any time. Until then, be well my new Twitter friend ~ Lizz"

"I am crazy about your view on how important poetry is. It's a pleasure to have you following. Thank you!"

"Thank you.. I was going to ask you the same thing.. If you ever want to tweet and say hello feel free. Have a fantastically warm day".

"pleasure's mine ...and its so nice of you ...i'll let you know, once i'm in need of help!have a gr8 day!"

You dont have to link to your site in your welcoming message because if you send a nice message new followers will check your site because they like your message

Just my 2 cents. and one more thing, whatever you do dont send them a DM with a link to a product to sell. it really really puts them off.

Warmest Regards,
Lama Kalla

[monopuff]

I'm actually split testing this..

The most effective strategy for CTR I've found is to softly encourage them to check out your bio link if they are interested in <niche/solution/whatever>

The trick at being effective and not spammy is to slowly trickle your affiliate links in between the meat of your tweets (that sounds strange).. You're on 24/7, if you want a long term strategy with twitter you can't be aggressive.

[Michael Lee]

I have an automatic DM that says:

"Cool, thanks a lot for the follow. I'll be posting a lot of useful persuasion and self-help tips to help improve your life, so hang on tight..."

It's automatic, so even if only a few people see it, it sets them up with the expectation that they'll be getting great info from me.

[Dana_W]

I started a thread about this the other day which apparently REALLY got under people's skin - basically the point of my thread was that I HATE auto DMs and I think they are bad marketing. They take up people's time and they are the equivalent of a form letter. How excited are you to receive a form letter? Now, how much better is it to receive a personally hand written letter?

[WinsonYeung]

I don't send automatic tweets, because I don't want to contribute to the spam in twitter. Whenever I login to twiter, I saw people posting lots of url which look like spam -.-

[TVS TELEVISIONS]

Yes I do. I liked it when I joined and got an immediate acknowledgement. Makes it easy to learn more about the person who just took the time to decide to follow you and start a relationship if you choose.

[Jack Bastide]

I didn't used to Send Automatic Twitter Welcome Messages
but a Well Known Twitter Guru named Dana Wilhoit told me
it was a good idea so I started doing it


Jack