Your followers have already decided to follow you when they followed you.

Hopefully they followed you because they’re interested in what you have to offer. I agree that there are Tweeple who engage in “mass following” – however those individuals would not likely make a decisions to unfollow due to your content-related DM. After all, they’re just interested in “mass following.” However, the Tweeple that follow for content and value already made a conscious decision to follow you – so the auto DM stating what you cover/tweet about is a bit redundant IMO.

With all due respect, I disagree that any auto-DM is better than no DM at all (unless, perhaps, you are a large brand and you have something of value to offer in the auto-DM like an incredible offer, contest opp, coupon/discount of the week, etc).

Otherwise, I find it intrusive, especially if there is no relevant value for me specifically. The auto DM has more “perceived” value to the sender (as a time-saver), not the receiver (as valued content). It’s intrusive because when the auto-DM is sent, it also pings my phone and my email. IMO, it’s a triple interruption that is simply a canned response from someone I just followed.

But it sounds like auto-DMs work for you – so that’s what matters. On the other hand, we would never know if people unfollowed us because of the auto-DM would we?

And, yes, I have unfollowed people for auto-DMs. Have the Tweeple in your community ever done this? Do you know? Have you asked them how they feel about autoDMs?

I offered some alternative options to auto-DMs to Bill Abramovitz in this comment thread. Check it out.

Glad you stopped by Anne.

That’s how you get a conversation rolling. And that’s what Twitter is about – conversation. The number of @replies in your stream is a good measuring stick for how well you command the medium and how well you engage your community, which is what the social web is all about (not broadcasting).

Want to really make an lasting impression? RT one of your new follower’s tweets (only if it makes sense for you to do so of course, based on how much value it would provide your community.)

Does this sound like a lot of work? Yes, it is. So is building a community.

If you do get overwhelmed with the personalized replies/acknowledgments, try sending out batch Thank Yous. A public thanks gives them exposure > e.g. “Welcome and thanks to new followers @Bill @Anne and @Deanna” or you – if you have tons of new followers each week – you can make it less intrusive on your existing community by starting with the follower names e.g. “@Bill @Anne @Deanna welcome and thanks for following – (custom tidbit here)”

I offer these suggestions out of respect for your desire to acknowledge; however, I don’t believe acknowledgment of a follow is even necessary. But it is recommended if you want to more quickly build “community” as opposed to building a list of “followers.”

Thanks for stopping by Bill.

I never auto-contacted any client even when I was doing massive business. You can find something personal to say to anyone and can avoid turning people off.

I don’t DM everyone who follows me, I only send them if that person has said something interesting or their bio contains something I want to discuss.

If an auto DM has a link in it, I unfollow that person immediately.

Keep the spam out of Twitter!

Whenever someone sends me a link in a welcome auto-DM, I think, “Why couldn’t they just put this link in their bio?” I received a welcome auto-DM today reading “Looking for non-mainstream music? Follow the Underrated Song of the Day at ” This DM contains useful information, but I’d much rather they share it with me via their bio or by simply daily tweeting the Underrated Song of the Day.