In case you didn’t know socialoomph.com (formerly known as tweetlater) has a free service where you can set up auto-DM (automatic direct messages) to send out to people when they follow you on twitter.

People see it as a great way to connect with your readers right off the bat without manually doing it themselves. However there’s a lot of debate about aut0-DMs. I’m on the fence about them. I think they can be effective if done right.

I went through pretty much all my direct messages the other day and thought I would share with you some of the suspected auto-DMs that I found EFFECTIVE.

Auto-DM’s that didn’t make me cringe thinking ‘oh, just an auto-DM’

Why did the chicken cross the Social Media Road? . . . .To Tweet of course! Thanks for following me & I look forward to Twinteracting with @JonneyJay

Thanks so much for following me on Twitter! It’s always nice to have new peeps to Twitter with! @lefinley

Thanks fur the follow! @mydeafcat
Note the name of the tweeter

Thank you for following me – much appreciated! If there was ONE tweet I could tweet about you or yr business, what would it be? Please DM me @iggypintado
Note: Although it was obvious the message from iggypintado was an auto-DM I still replied to him saying a bit about beginnerblogger. He then retweeted what I said to his entire list which is 13k+ followers.
The message he sent was: Meet Sarge from @beginnerblogger who is helping bloggers and beginner bloggers alike achieve success.
The result of that message was a lot of people adding me to twitter and even a few new subscribers to the blog. I had quite a few conversations on twitter as a result of that message and was able to help out a few people as well.

Wow-Thanks! I’m going to assume that you’re not lost & that you meant to follow me. Much appreciated! You won’t regret it. Well…hmmm. @TriciaAbney

Hi. This is it. The one & only automated DM message from me via Socialoomph.com. Congrats you found me! Now let’s talk like real people :O) @halfbakedseo

If ud like some free resources 2 help transform your life please check out my blog: http://bit.ly/x3Z9w I have nothing to sell u. Sorry. @JayCataldo

Hey, thanks 4 following. What Tweets do you like to read? @ZahidaKhan

Thank you for following me. I look forward to getting to know you. What are you up to today? @David_Michaels

Thanks for following. Just want you to know I’ll try to add REAL value with my tweets. I don’t sell on Twitter, only give! @LeadToday

Thanks for following me here on Twitter! Let’s connect and change the world one step at a time for the better…It only takes one step ya know…:)To your success,Joni @JoniBeadle

Thanks for following me…I really appreciate it! So what have you been up to? @MickSilvester

Thanks for following alicedesigns, tweet me ‘hi’ and tell me something about yourself so I can get to know you better! @alice_elliott

Thanks for the follow! How’s Twitter treating you so far? @ToddDickerson

Hey there! I’m an interesting guy! No, really! I’ve owned a restaurant, edited tv & commercials, rock out & do real estate. Let’s tweet! @mattgsilver

I don’t auto-follow, but I’d love to chat with real people. So feel free to send me an @reply anytime. I see them all. Happy tweeting. @davidrisley

Thanks for following… Would like to know more about you, do you blog? @steitiyeh

Hi there, open the door, let the sun shine in and welcome the new day. @affsaltra

Conclusions We Can Draw

Posts without links/selling that ask a question or get a laugh from me are most powerful.

I always suspect the first DM I get from a person is an auto-DM, even if it isn’t. So the worst thing to do is put a link in. Tell me about yourself or engage with a question. Get the conversation started!

Everyone says ‘look forward to your tweets’ or ‘thanks for following me’. Mix it up a bit – ask a question. I believe the best way to start a relationship with someone is to ask a question.

My one and only auto-DM you will get from me I try to engage with you. I try and and make them personal and encourage a response back so we can get the ball rolling.

Your Thoughts?

Do you auto-DM? Do you reply to DMs or click on links that are inside a suspected DM? Do you totally ignore suspected auto DMs? What are some great suspected auto-DMs that you’ve received? Let everyone know in the comments below!

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoyed this post? Here are some more you may like:

1. How I Got 1000 TARGETED Twitter Followers In 30 Days
2. Top 5 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Following Without Begging For One
3. Twitter TweetDeck and some Tips

Lately I’ve been getting a lot of twitter followers which is great, but I’m not always going to follow you back. I have my own personal guidelines and preferences for following people back. This got me thinking – What do other people do when they’re deciding to follow people on twitter?

So what do you do when someone starts following you?

• Do you auto-follow people?
• Do you have email notifications when someone adds you to twitter turned on or off?
• Do you immediately engage with the person that adds you on twitter or just add them?
• Do you have an Auto DM message set up when someone adds you?
• What are your personal reasons why you would add someone?

My following guidelines/preferences

I get emails of people when they add me to twitter. I check out the twitter page of EVERY person that adds me. To be followed back I will make sure they’re a real person on twitter and not an automated machine just posting links with no interaction with others what so ever. If they have a picture of themselves and link to a blog and are conversing on twitter – then you’ll be added.

The perfect combination is:

1. You’re into blogging and/or have a blog
2. You interact with others and don’t just pop out links which obviously seems like it’s an automated account.
3. Personal unique image and background – Not one of those premade twitter ones. Personalise it.

That’s my approach when I see new people following me on twitter. What are yours?

Enjoyed this post? Here are some more you may like:

1. How I Got 1000 TARGETED Twitter Followers In 30 Days
2. Top 5 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Following Without Begging For One
3. Twitter TweetDeck and some Tips

• What text would appear on my twitter feed if I clicked it?
• Would it automatically appear straight away in my feed without getting a chance to edit it when I click the button?
• Would I get an option to edit the text?

In contrast to my How I Got 1000 TARGETED Twitter Followers In 30 Days blog post, I wanted to write about how you can get yourself twitter followers without the need to go out and add people yourself. Granted, you probably won’t get as many followers than if you went out and followed as many people as possible using services like Buzzom, but I believe if people voluntarily add you to twitter than those people are much more valuable to you. They went out of their way to add you, so as long as they’re not a spam account, you must be doing something right!

Here are my top 5 ways you can increase your twitter following without begging for one:

1. Provide valuable tweets

First and foremost, the main reason anyone would want to add you to twitter is because you provide great tweets. You won’t find yourself with many followers if you have an empty twitter account with no tweets. You’ll also find yourself lonely if you provide meaningless updates like ‘at the shops’, ‘lunch was yum’, ‘walking home’ etc.

Picture this – you’ve just started a twitter account and you’ve been focusing solely on creating great quality tweets. Suddenly someone finds you through search.twitter.com (or something like this) that likes what you’re saying about that certain topic. This person that just added you has over 1000 friends. He ReTweets one of your tweets which is broadcast to the 1000+ on that persons list. Those 1000+ people can then follow you on twitter or ReTweet your message again to their list, which may be broadcast to even more tweeters out there.

This is why the quality and value of your tweets are so important. Provide great quality and value and you’re sure to attract many many people.

2. Engage with your audience

Don’t go on autopilot. Don’t create one of those spam accounts that just read out RSS feeds. Sure put some auto-RSS feeds on your twitter account if they relate to your niche or your purpose, but make sure you’re a person as well. People are more likely to recommend you to others willingly if you’re an approachable and engaging person on twitter.

There is a novelty on twitter on Fridays called Follow Friday (#FF or #FollowFriday) where people nominate people that they think everyone on their twitter list should follow. I’ve found that the people that recommend me for Follow Friday are the ones I have engaged with on twitter the most, some have very large twitter followings so I’ve generated a lot of followers this way.

A great idea is to make it a habit to send a message to every person that adds you to twitter that you are going to add back. Your relationship will improve dramatically this way than not interacting with them at all and them just being ‘another one to the list’

3. ReTweet valuable relative content

This is why I believe you should have a purpose/niche on twitter. If you have a clear purpose/niche people that are interested in your niche will follow you. If you ReTweet something related to your niche it goes to everyone on your list. So it’s of great benefit to have people following you that are interested in what you ReTweet.

ReTweeting also builds relationships. People love it when you ReTweet their tweets. So if someone tweets something you like and you think others on your list will enjoy ReTweet it because they might re-ReTweet it to others not following you and you may find yourself with more quality followers!

4. Follow those that are beneficial to you

Don’t just follow random people and don’t feel you have to follow people back if they follow you. You choose who you follow, no-one else. If people are thinking of following you they may check out who else you’re following. If you’re following a bunch of spam accounts and people tweeting unpleasant links or offensive content they may think twice before following you.

It doesn’t make any sense to follow someone that won’t gain anything from your twitter account – so don’t do it. Having 10 people that follow me that find my content useful, helpful and more likely to click on my links is much more valuable than 100 random followers that will ignore most if not everything I have to say.

5. Have a custom Twitter background, avatar, bio and preferably website.

You should fill these out before you even start tweeting. A bio and picture I feel is absolutely necessary and bare minimum to at least know you’re human. I would also change your background from the default blue/green background.

Personally I only add people that I feel are real people. I’m very picky now of who I follow now because I don’t want to follow those I’m not interested in.

A custom background, avatar, bio and preferably a link to your website is ideal. I always check out a website of someone before I add them to twitter. If it takes me to a sales page I probably won’t add you unless I’m impressed with your tweets and you’re not spamming.

To clarify – spamming to me is constant tweets that link off to sales pages and it’s obviously just a twitter account made to create money. I don’t want any part of that thanks.

Find your purpose

Make sure you find your purpose on twitter. I use @beginnerblogger mainly to help others with their blogging, provide valuable blogging tips I feel bloggers and beginner bloggers will gain value from and also from time to time put in the odd personal tweet. I make sure the personal tweets are not boring like ‘off to the shops’, I try and make them interesting too.

Something I’m going to do over the next few weeks is really go through my twitter list, engage with those I haven’t engaged with and unfollow the ‘unhuman’ twitter accounts that are of no benefit to me. I want to engage with real people. My struggle at the moment is that I am following too many people and it’s near impossible to keep up with everyone as much as I’d like.

What do you feel are great ways to get more quality followers without having to beg for them? Reply in the comments below.

Enjoyed this post? Here are some more you may like:

1. How I Got 1000 TARGETED Twitter Followers In 30 Days
2. Twitter Had Crashed
3. Twitter TweetDeck and some Tips