A blog post

The Fastest Way to Lose Your Followers on Twitter

Posted on the 01 October, 2008 at 12:14 pm Written by in Social Media

Over the past few days, I’ve noticed a curious tactic that some Twitter users are employing to generate leads from this microblogging tool.

Whenever someone follows me, I follow them back. And then on first contact, they send a direct message to me (DM) that says:

“Thanks for the follow. I have a special bonus ebook for you at mywebsite.com.”

When it happened the first time, I brushed it aside. But then, it became a pattern. I hate spam and I hate twam even more (twitter spam). When someone I like and trust twammed me with this very tactic, I teased him saying that all these new Twitter followers learned it from him. He called me narrow minded (**sigh**).

Sending twam on first contact is the fastest way to lose your Twitter followers. Anytime someone twams me through a DM, I quickly unfollow him or her. I know that it’s tempting to twam people, but avoid it.

Instead, here are some tips on how you can generate leads using Twitter without twamming:

  1. Your first DM should highlight something interesting about the person who’s following you. For example, if you visited their blog and you love their design, DM them and tell them so. Make your first DM about them, not you and your product.
  2. Study their tweets on the public timeline for a few days. Most people post personal details about their day and it’s actually fun to watch. Based on people’s tweets, I know the names of their children, what hobbies they participate in and what their political leanings are. This will give you clues as to who would be interested in hearing more about your product or service.
  3. Promote your products and services in your own tweets. When people follow you, your tweets show up in their public timeline. People will read your tweet. I’ve used my tweets to promote upcoming sales and it’s been successful. Don’t overdo it, but certainly that’s the place to promote your wares.
  4. Make sure you have a URL in your profile. Before I follow someone, I visit their profile and check out their website. Every time. If the website is up to date and looks good, I follow you. If you have an offer for something I’m interested in, I’ll sign up. Curiosity will generate leads.

What others tips can you share on how people can use Twitter to generate leads without twamming people?

Update: In regards to #1, the tool people are using to send an autoreply to new followers is TweetLater. At first, I was totally against the dang tool, until I read a note on their customer service blog advising people not to include their product in the very first autoTweet. Now, I like TweetLater. They care.

Update: My friend Nancy Marmolejo provided some great tips on how to use Tweetlater as a great relationship building tool. It’s worth the read if you’d still like to use Tweetlater and wondering how to do it without offending people.

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  • http://www.kick-assblog.com Karen Skidmore

    Humour works well for me – especially with an application like twitter which is very informal. If someone posts something that is obviously a plug but gives the plug with a hint of tongue in cheek that makes me smile – then I tend to click.

    Nothing like making me smile to get me to respond to something :)

  • http://www.ttmitchellconsulting.com/Mitchblog Mitch

    You’re right, I hate that also, and it just started happening to me. However, what I did was send a link back with one of my products; I figured what’s good for the goose,…

    Meanwhile, what I hate is when someone is just writing and writing and writing, and not saying anything. Some folks really get on a roll, but when they’ve written 15 posts in a row without anyone else getting a turn, then they’ve forgotten what the spirit of microblogging is supposed to be about.

  • http://www.truecallings.net Lissa Boles

    Hey Leesa,

    Love that you addressed this tactic gone wild, and how tempting it is to do what you yourself dislike – and know it’s cool – in the name of biz.

    Was tempted myself for about a week, but all I could think of is ‘why’s it okay to do it when it’s not okay to get it?’.

    Love Karen’s thing about humor. Questions work well too if the topic’s one I’m interested in.

    Just wondering: what’re your thoughts on automated follow & pleasant but generic DM followed a few days later by a personal DM?

  • http://jeanettefisher.com Jeanette

    Hi Leesa,

    I despise twam! But, I put up with the auto replies IF they follow me back. What I don’t like is people who follow you, you follow them, they twam you, then they quit following you. One guy at an IM meeting told others how to do this to make yourself look more popular by having a bunch of followers when you only follow a few.

    Do you have a new word like twam for this practice? Twammers who want to be fake IM rock stars?

    Joy~

    @JeanetteJoy

  • http://newmediachatter.com Dave Peck

    Well done and well written I hate Twitter Spam

  • http://www.teenentrepreneurblog.com Shonika Proctor, Teen Biz Coach

    I think your post says it all, in your quest to be a powerful and branded person it really comes down to empowering other people.

    1. Greeting your community in the morning.

    2. Personally sending tweets to those in your community when they share struggles and success stories alike.

    3. Retweeting interesting and new things in your community. Introducing other people in your community to each other.

    4. Sharing ideas with others you may think it will be beneficial to.

    5. Commenting on their blog posts that they listed in their tweets….when you find a useful or interesting post ;-)

    Overall goodwill really has to be a part of your psyche. If you do it in the offline world, you definitely need to do it in the online world. If you don’t do it- you need to start otherwise you won’t be getting very far!

  • http://www.taylormarek.com Taylor Marek

    I have definitely changed how I use twitter recently. I now encourage, almost beg, conversation between my followers. I also use the DM option when someone follows me, but I don’t pump any of my products or websites. I simply say, “Thanks for following me on twitter, I’ll follow you as well :) ” I am getting alot of positive feedback from that. Keep up the AWESOME WORK Leesa!

    -Taylor

  • http://www.ninja-radio.com Ninja

    There’s always http://www.mytweeple.com/

    I never follow any ID without doing checking out their twitter page and their website. I spend as little time as possible on this kind of research. Longer than five minutes I just ignore them. I use http://www.mytweeple.com from time to time to block or unfollow IDs I don’t want my time wasted on.

    On facebook, if someone I do not know wants to be my friend, I make sure they understand they had better, to paraphrase the spice girls, “get with my existing friends” otherwise I ask them not to bother. (This sometimes backfires…when someone says…”But don’t you remember we met at podcamp???? You asked me to friend you.” Yipes. Ninja sometimes does not know how to make friends and influence people. :-D )

  • http://www.marketingfitstudio.com Leesa Barnes

    @karen, mitch, dave & taylor, thanks for the feedback. And @shonika, great tips.

    @ninja, reminds me of the title of that new movie coming out: “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.” I too check out the person’s website before I follow him or her. So, I’m glad to hear that someone else does that too.

    @jeanette, you’re kidding me? There’s an internet marketer out there who’s teaching this stuff? How silly.

    @lissa, an automated follow? Which service are you using to do this? Do share, I’d love to check it out.

  • http://www.SunLoverPublishing.com Melanie Jordan

    This is interesting. I got the idea of doing a DM back to someone I legitimately want to open dialogue with that includes a helpful resource link from a top new media person. I have been testing just a thanks for follow message and something about the person’s web site, with a thanks for the follow message, compliment and a helpful resource link (not a sales page) that would be applicable to that person’s stated interests. I do not use the link if it obviously is no match for their interests or business.

    I have gotten very nice comments back in both cases and no complaints at all!

    I think the difference is writing a personal message that shows you bothered to check out who they are and what they are about plus a helpful freebie resource URL, vs. someone who has obviously not done their homework and just links to a sales page, and one that is usually some affiliate or network marketing offer.

    The first shows a sincere effort to make a connection. The second I think would be “twam” as you call it.

    In reverse, I would not mind someone sending me the personalized message with resource to check out that makes sense with my interests/business upon my following them.

    Overall, there should be a nice balance between connecting on twitter or any social site, and having some measure of business purpose as appropriate. Being tactful, respectful and having an ongoing win-win connection with someone I think is ultimately the right approach however you choose to accomplish it.

  • http://www.TinaMcAllister.com Tina McAllister

    Oh, if only the guilty parties would read your post and then have a light bulb go off above their head. A girl can dream.

    I’m new to Twitter but getting quickly addicted and I too can really do without the DM junk. Seriously, don’t DM me unless you want to communicate with me alone. I don’e even need a “Thanks for the follow” message. (Which is nicer than twam, but just unnecessary in my book).

  • http://twitter.com/TheJennTaFur TheJennTaFur

    Wow, I had no clue people were sending spam like this! I’ve been on Twitter since April 2007 but I have never received a DM like that from a new follower. I am private so I screen every1 before I even allow them into my orbit. Recently, I’ve been denying a lot of people who don’t even have any twitter conversations and all they are promoting is an RSS feed. I usually choose the RSS feeds I want to follow on but if I had to get a DM telling me to go to someone’s website, I think I will scream if I am not interested.

    Thank you for sharing..

  • http://www.indiebusinesblog.com Donna Maria @ Indie Business

    Great post, Leesa. Timely and thoughtful. I think that, as a general rule, automated interaction on Twitter is not a good idea. Twitter is about live sharing. It’s about authenticity, real life and genuine relationship building. DMs such as the ones you describe cannot make a valuable contribution on that level. They are cold, terse and intrusive, all the things one must not be if relationship building is the goal. If you build targeted relationships, the business comes organically. There’s no need to force it. People who behave as you describe also look a little on the desperate side.

  • http://www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com Maria Marsala, Chief Business Collaborator

    Tpam is akin to meeting someone at a networking event, and they turn their business cards over to give to you and it says “a referral is the best compliment you can give my business.”

    Heck, I don’t know you yet! And your business will do a lot better when you build long relationships with key people you meet.

    ERRRR

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  • http://www.funfelt.com funfelt

    I agree with Maria. What people don’t realize with online presence is it is parallel to “IRL” presence. If someone introduces themselves to you at a party, is your first response, “Thanks for saying Hello! Now buy my stuff!” ?? It’s all about building trust and rapport so that people want to be around you. Use the golden rule online and remember there are real people on the other side!
    Karen

  • http://www.thefitshack.com JoLynn Braley @ The Fit Shack

    I’ve experienced this more times today than I can count – following someone and then immediately getting an auto dm with a link or something promoting the person I followed. And yes, there is a service that will auto-follow whoever follows you, a script you can use – http://is.gd/5c1p

    The thing is with the auto-dms….they are so impersonal and social media is supposed to be about building relationships first. No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care, that’s simply a basic way of the world.

    I don’t use auto replies but I did tweet about 2 of my new followers today who sent me personal dms after I followed them. I won’t mention the ones who did the auto replies but I like to give shout outs to the ones who are keepin’ it real. ;)

  • http://www.bestbizwebsitesolutions.com Jennifer Haubein

    Hi Leesa,

    I feel pretty confused right now. About 1 month ago I read an article by the Blog Squad outlining exactly what you are talking about as a good strategy to build your ezine list. As I was excited to find a way to build my list I thought about doing this as well, but had not done it yet.

    But it sounds like from the comments here and your article this tactic doesn’t work. I have had the best communication with people who send personal DMs and then we start into a dialogue. But it is time consuming to send personal DMs to everyone. Any tips on how to do this without spending all day on Twitter? I think that is the great draw to using Tweetlater to automate your DMs.

  • http://vivavisibilityblog.com/twitterverse-responds-to-social-networking-and-politics-question/ Nancy Marmolejo

    Leesa, once again we’re on EXACTLY the same page and I’m really disappointed to see that some marketers actually advocate this cheezy spammy technique.

    I use TweetLater (I’ve used it for several months now) I just say “Thanks for the follow!”. When I see a link to anything in an autofollow, I cringe. Most folks are making innocent mistakes, but they should know better.

    This goes to show YET AGAIN that Web 2.0 marketing and “traditional” internet marketing are worlds away.
    :-)
    Nancy

  • http://guruofnew.com Sarah Browne

    @jeanettejoy. Love your comment. IMHO about half of the folks who are using social media are fakers of some kind. The ones who are making the most noise are often the ones without tangible skills or expertise — other than blowing their own horn. Leesa’s excellent article points up the avalanche of self-promotion that’s quickly making Twitter, Facebook and virtually every social media tool tiresome. With the economy, I know it’s only going to get worse.

    Community used to be fun. I loved having online neighbors. I loved meeting great new people across the globe. Now too much of it is Robo-Friend . . automated everyone. Is it too early to say Bah Humbug!?

    Thanks for listening to my soapbox — and thanks to all for such a provocative conversation.

  • http://www.yarncoture.etsy.com Yarncoture

    Thanks for writing this informative article. I am new to Twitter and have definitely experienced the DM spamming firsthand. I also noticed many people over-promoting their products…it’s tempting, but I am trying to stay away from that. I definitely look at a person’s website and even down to how they present themselves in their avatar. I’m old-fashioned and I think that if something would offend me, it would offend my followers. I definitely don’t have time to spend my day twittering, but I do want to build long, lasting relationships with my followers.

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  • http://www.techoss.com Gregory Burrus

    Absolutely agree – I hate when someone sends me their product as an auto reply to a twit. I prefer to get to know what they are about first. What we will have to deal with is every application now has a way to send someones information to twitter even when it is not about conversation. So we shall see how twitter handles all these inputs.

  • http://www.coachingwithapril.com April Gregory

    Thanks Leesa–great discussion!

    As a newbie to twitter, it’s so annoying to get 101 ‘free offers’ in my dm box. I’m starting to hate FREE offers. Anything overused-gets abused and that’s what I feel is happening with these dm messages.

    Everyday, someone says, hey I have a free gift for you and I say to myself hey I don’t want your free gift.

    I want valuable info(stuff) that happens to be a gift. That’s why I’m not an advocate of FREE stuff. I tell my clients to put a value on it even if it is free.

  • tomwilhelmy

    I am new to Twitter, and the above name is listed as such in Twitter. I find Twitter unique and have been following whom I think can help me. I have yet to be spammed but I truly like the idea of personal websites listed in profiles so I find out what they do and get a feel for their personality. I just went through a divorce 4 years ago, have five kids, two grandaughters, lost everything, then started another relationship lasting a year that ended recently. So again it still came down to money in the bank over what a man carries in his heart and soul. I pick woman on Twitter to follow because most of my friends over the years have been women and in general I find woman to be more personable, genuine and caring (Twitter gives me an avenue to find this out), and hopefully I will find the website business that someone can help me set up and make a decent living. For what it worth. Felt the nerve to write this.