Beginning today I’m making a new attempt at my personal crusade against bad Internet etiquette. This time I want to rid the world of automated DMs. For those who are Twitter-less, DMs stand for Direct Messages. These messages are not in the public timeline and only the recipient can view them. Somehow, some way, some idiot decided that it would be appropriate to send an automated DM to everyone who followed them. And then, like lemmings, every other person with a Twitter account followed suit.

These DMs usually look something like this: “Hi, I’m Brandy. I have found a way to share my faith while helping with our family’s income Let me know if you want to learn more!” Or, “Thanks for the follow. I just joined the most cutting-edge breakthrough coaching club on the net. Want to join me? http://bit.ly/duMbLink” Oh, and these are real DMs that I got. Sorry, Brandy… but that’s in bad taste.

How about this, Twitterverse… let’s all take the time to send a truly personal DM to one new follower a day. Yes, this takes time, but no one wants to read your ad in their message box. So click on a new follower’s name. Take the time to read that person’s bio and send a thoughtful DM that is unique to that person. I chose @TerryCombsAZ, simply because his last tweet in the timeline was a real tweet to a real person – not a post advertising something. I wrote: “Hi, Terry. Thanks for following me. I’m a writer, too, and i’m on a crusade to end all automated DMs. So here’s a personal DM for you! =D”

Boy, that was easy. Now maybe all the Twitter lemmings will join me.

Tags: advertising, advertising on twitter, automated direct messages, automated dms, direct messages, personal advertising, spam on twitter, twitter

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.