Avoid Most Auto-DMs on Twitter
Categories: Social Media, Social Media Tips and Tricks, Twitter
The more people you follow on Twitter, the more you will find your Direct Message (DM) box filling up. If you have set your notifications to send you emails, like I suggested in this little video: “How to set your Twitter Notifications,” your email box will fill up as well. Many of my friends will not even look at their DMs anymore unless you let them know that you sent them something in private. But there is a magic bullet to get rid of auto-DMs.
Auto-DMs are SPAM! They are unsolicited messages like any other Spam email. Auto DMs exploit the trust I placed in you by following you on Twitter. If I decide to follow your Twitter updates, why should I follow you on Facebook or download your eBook? I’ll be happy to go to those links if you tell me about them in your tweets.
Good News: There is a way to avoid most of these Auto – DMs!
It is tempting to let a tool take over some of your Social Media tasks and I do use and promote some of them. But whenever you have a chance to use your human side you should make use of that opportunity.
It is much nicer to go through your new followers, read through their bio, scan their last couple of tweets and find something that triggers your interest. Then, send them a @mention tweet
Thanks for following @AsianKelowna Looking forward to your event – when are the Taiko drummers playing?
— Tweet4Ok (@Tweet4OK) May 2, 2012
Don’s sign up to so called “verification services” like TrueTwit these just add automatic DMs and are not effective in reducing Twitter SPAM. In one of my next blog posts I will show you how to tell who is a real person on Twitter and who is not.
Here is the magic bullet: 
Most Auto-DMs are sent through a service called “Socialoomph.com“ so turning off Socialoomph DMs is the best way to get rid of most of these pesky messages.
- Follow @optmeout with Twitter
- @Optmeout will follow you back
- Send a DM to @Optmeout
- Enjoy using your DM inbox for private messages from real people
Now you can use your DM box for what it is intended for – use it to send private information to followers after you connected to them. Email addresses, phone numbers and other private information don’t belong in the open Twitter feed.
Have fun with Twitter!
Kill auto-DM!
Don’t SPAM!
Do you have a Auto-DM story? Please share!
I would like to thank Kim from “Just Ask Kim” for teaching me this trick a long time ago
Image: PhotoDune, edited by me
Over the last couple of years I have enjoyed Frithjof’s helpful hints about the effective use of Social Media tools and was constantly impressed with his ability to create effective and engaging communication content.
For this year’s re-election campaign I asked him to help with my digital media strategy and execution. With short notice he designed and implemented an effective strategy, integrating several social media platforms and creating a brand new website.
Frithjof successfully dealt with the particular branding rules of our party and Elections BC as well as creating content that was designed to appeal to a wide ranging audience. Frithjof and his team tirelessly created engaging content including text updates and video features and also did real time reporting of events.
Frithjof is very responsive and able to communicate in a variety of ways so I could always rely on the timely publication of important content during a busy campaign.
I am looking forward to continuing to work with Frithjof as a digital media strategy advisor on my communications team.
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