Twitter Automation Gone Wrong

Maybe I’m an idiot, but I’d bet I’m not the only idiot to screw up my twitter account by using too much automation.

How did it happen?

Simple – I just lost control.

Like most green-eyed newbies trying to embrace a new platform I was greedy. I wanted to be popular and all I focused on was getting thousands of followers. After all, that’s how the big guys were doing it and I wanted to be just like them. I wanted to be a leader. But I just didn’t get it.

the symptoms

After I reached about 3000 followers I realized that there was no dialogue. I had a bunch of followers who couldn’t really care less about me – they didn’t care about what I wrote or who I am. And I don’t blame them.

Diagnosis – Twauto-DM

Using tweetlater to send an auto-dm to new followers made me lazy and had the same effect on everyone else who was using it. At first it seemed like a cool thing to do – and courteous too – after all using an email autoresponder to welcome new subscribers is perfectly acceptable. But when everyone ends up using it, no real dialogue takes place. It just turns into a string of 0′s and 1′s exchanged by robots. It turns social media into an oxymoron.

Diagnosis – Twauto-follow

The next part is where it went really wrong – I gradually signed up to a few systems that automatically follow people in exchange for new followers. I lost track, I didn’t know where my followers were coming from, I didn’t know who I was following and I didn’t didn’t know how. Worst of all I didn’t know how to turn it off.

At first I enjoyed the inflated follower count (ego stats are good for mental masturbation) but when I ended up auto-following hundreds of spammers and porn stars, I knew it had all gone south. I was just drowning in noise and my tweetstream was just unmanageable. By the time I got around to using a desktop client (first Tweetdeck, now Seesmic) it was too late to categorize my followees.

One mistake I did avoid was autofollowing those who followed me. There has always been 2 camps on this one – some say that it’s only polite to follow someone if they follow me. But why? In all honesty, why would I take my time to listen to you? I don’t even know you exist, let alone care about you. You have made no attempt to talk to me or to engage me.

If you haven’t seen Perry Belcher’s video on Social media, take 10 minutes to watch it now (go on, I’ll wait for you). It was an epiphany for me.

Do you want to be the quiet guy wandering round listening in to all the cool conversations going on around you? Or are you gonna step out of your comfort zone and join the conversation? It’s not about following or leading, just talking to people and making friends.

If you want to get to know me (and believe me, I do want to get to know you) don’t just follow me silently – talk to me. Ask me a question or even better, answer one of mine – then you’re giving me something, I owe you. Now you’ve got my attention.

The Cure

Fortunately, I had kept my vanity URL unblemished and started a new account with a totally different focus – to keep my network compact and have meaningful and passionate conversations.
I ditched the bigger, faster, more mentality and so far it works perfectly for me.

How do you feel about automating your social networks? I’d love to read your comments below.