I kind of assumed that everyone knew this. Amongst all the power players on Twitter, tight knit social Twitter groups, and casual users I have spoken to over the course of the past year - one of the common, and unquestionable rules of thumb is: NO AUTO DIRECT MESSAGES.

And ya know, I used to consider them more of an annoyance than anything else... a quick delete or unfollow usually did the trick. For the 2-5 that I get on average per week to my personal @JPedde account, it's generally a pet peeve and was never something I needed to rant about until now.

In the past month, I have become a Community Manager for an amazing third party relocation services company called, Alliance Relocation. I have assumed a twitter account (@RelocationAlly) that has 6,000+ followers and I continue to try and improve that. The focus of this account is not necessarily numbers, but of course, the quality of relationships. We're trying to reach out to a few areas and act as a resource for the Relocation Industry. My goal is to find people that are moving who need tips, moving companies that need leads, and HR/Recruiters who deal in corporate relocation. All in all - I'm trying to meet people. I'm not necessarily selling anything at the moment. However, I am faced with 10-12 Auto DM messages per day. PER...DAY.

Many have asked, "Well, what is wrong with an Auto DM?" And the long and short answer is: Everything.

Twitter is about engagement. It is about participating in the conversation, networking with friends, customers, anyone for the hell of it. If you send out a generic, canned message to anyone that initially found you interesting, what kind of message does that send? Is that a perfect example of engagement? No. Is that the very definition of traditional advertising that many on Twitter have hoped to get away from? Yes.

Let's say for a second someone just says, "Thank you for following me! Here's a link to my business!"

In the grand scheme of things how is that ANY different from the spam message in my email spam filter that says, "Thank you for reading this! Here's 10% off penis enlargement!"?

First off, both of those messages were sent by robots. Some person somewhere set them up using an automated machine to send me a generic message that every single other person on the planet gets. How is THAT thanking me personally for following you?

Second - it demonstrates that you don't know me. In the case of the email spam, clearly, being a woman, I do not need a link to penis enlargement. Same goes for your twitter account - maybe I did not follow you, because of your business. Maybe you talk about other things that I liked.

Now, I have 10 Auto direct messages in my twitter DM folder. How do I find the value in you when you're sitting amongst a waiting room of other advertisements? I don't. You blend in with everyone else.

Your saving grace MIGHT be that if I look at your profile and see a number of @ messages to and from people following you about general everyday things. If I don't see any of that and see NOTHING but links to your product, it is a 100% guaranteed unfollow. I do not have time for a person, or a business, that is trying to advertise to me. End of story.

Twitter is a place of engagement. A place of 'If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. A place where we break down the walls of traditional marketing and start being real to potential friends and customers. If you do not have time to develop true relationships on twitter, you shouldn't be there in the first place. A good social media plan takes time and effort, and people know when you half-ass something.

I will leave you with this... 21 Amazing tips on how to Engage. I found this after I started writing this post, oddly enough, and found #10 to be exactly what I needed to corroborate my point.

Lets start adding value, instead of generically thanking people, shall we?

< Rant Over > ;)