auto
I often tell people who are new to social media to stop thinking about it as some foreign technology. The same fundamentals that make people likable in person are the same fundamentals that make people likable in social media.
Waaaay back in 1936, a now famous man by the name of Dale Carnegie told people How To Win Friends and Influence People:
1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a man’s Name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in the terms of the other man’s interest.
6. Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.
If we modified the above mantra to make it applicable to social media (as I did in this presentation), our top 6 rules would be:
1. Be genuinely interested in people.
2. Be approachable.
3. Connect with your audience.
4. Be a good listener.
5. Add value through your audience’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.
So, tell me…what about sending an AUTO direct message to followers meets the above social media criteria? Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people do it. For some, it’s an opportunity to tell people what they do, share a website, say something nice or set the tone for how they tweet. The problem I have with them is that people can smell from a mile away that they’re an automated message.
How would an auto-message be received if it were delivered in-person instead of online? Let’s say you’re at a networking party. You walk up to someone you think might be an interesting contact to make. Instead of asking you a question about yourself, they deliver a canned message and it sounds like a message they’ve delivered to hundreds before you. I can tell you that, from my perspective, it wouldn’t be the best first impression.
Now let’s chat about auto-follows. While not as detrimental as its auto-message counterpart, the auto-follow can expose you to a lot of noise and spam. While some herald it as a good strategy for building followers, remember that unless you have to listen to absolutely everyone who follows you (like many consumer brands have to), it’s a much better strategy to selectively follow. This allows you to have relevant and valuable conversations.
So, please remove this 4 letter word from your Twitter vocabulary and replace it with another: real. Real conversations, real value, real relationships.
Happy tweeting!
Lara McCulloch-Carter
Author of the Special Event blog ready2spark
Director of Marketing – Regal Tent Productions
President – ISES Toronto
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