I read an interesting blog post today titled, “Auto-DMs on Twitter: Demon Spawn or Fluffy Fawn?” The post was about auto-DMs, but really ended up being about how many people you follow. Is following thousands of people just because they follow you first a form of deception because you’re not able to read everyone’s Tweets? Is following someone a commitment to read all their Tweets, or even any of their Tweets?
It’s a conundrum I’ve written about in the past, and have struggled with myself. Here is my current position, if anyone is paying attention enough to read my Tweets!
I “follow” over 7,000 Twitterers. It is literally impossible to read everyone’s Tweets, even if I spent 24 hours a day trying. But I still follow back almost everyone who follows me for these reasons:
1. Many automated systems auto-unfollow anyone who doesn’t follow them back within a certain time period. Or, they go through with friendorfollow.com-type tools and unfollow those not following them. If I did not follow these people back, I’d get unfollowed even though they had shown interest in my Tweets by following me in the first place. Right or wrong, it’s the real world, and we must live in it.
2. Many times I’ve tried to respond to someone’s Tweet with a DM because I wanted to put in an email address or phone number, or some other private info, only to find they’re not following me back, which blocks the conversation. I’m not alone. Check out this Twitter search for others announcing the same issue. I want my followers to be able to respond via DM, which many of them do, even if I don’t know who they are in advance. A good example of this was one time I Tweeted that I had a friend looking for a job in a particular niche industry. I got three auto-DMs with contact info and passed those on to my friend, who got a job with one of them. That could not have happened if I hadn’t been following those three people.
3. I use TweetDeck and Seesmic to filter the Tweets of those I’m following — not to blacklist, but to have groupings. I have a friends group made up of people I know outside of Twitter. I have an info group for people who Tweet good information and links. And I have a group for people I’ve begun interacting with in some form or other on Twitter. I then spend most of my time on Twitter reading through those groups. (I also have some search groups for key phrases, like “chuck lasker” and “miva merchant.”)
So what of the thousands of others I follow who aren’t in one of these groups? Do I ignore their Tweets? No, my way of taking breaks from work is to read Tweets in my all-followers column. It’s fun, it’s completely random who’s Tweets I end up reading, I do this all hours of the day and night so I’m reading Tweets from all over the world, and it fits into my schedule. When I read interesting Tweets this way, I retweet and/or reply. I’ve built most of my solid Twitter relationships this way and have done serious business with many people I never would have met without following them back. And in most cases, I never would have followed them based on their Twitter bios if I was being minimal or exclusive in whom I follow.
I liken this activity to walking around a large conference room filled with thousands of people holding drinks, meeting people who’s conversations sound interesting. That’s called networking. If I didn’t follow back my followers, it would really just be me standing on a platform in the room, screaming out my messages, hoping someone will listen. Even if the people in the room had asked to follow my messages, it’s still basically one-way like an email blast and is not social networking.
On the other hand, there are those who auto-follow everyone who follows them with no intention of ever reading any of their Tweets (ahem, Guy Kawasaki). Most of these people either use ghost-Tweeters to make it seem like they’re Tweeting (ahem, Guy Kawasaki), or use automated Tweeting systems to blast out their spam. These people are not participating in social networking, they’re just spamming. At least Guy says that he reads all replies and DMs, although I have replied and DMed him at least a dozen times and never gotten a response.
So my commitment to those I follow is that I am interested in interacting, that I’m available for DMs, and that I might read their Tweets. And really, if I was only following 200 people, wouldn’t my commitment be the same? I seriously doubt that a person who follows even 100 people reads every single Tweet they send out. It’s the same commitment then, to 100 or 10,000 people, isn’t it?
With all that said, I am still against auto-DMs. I’ll create a new post tomorrow about why.