Or is it?  An interesting comment was brought up that I thought I would like to address regarding direct messages on Twitter.  This is not the first time this question has been posed, but it is one that always seems to have a “gray” area in my opinion.  Should Twitter users utilize automated direct messages within their account?

The Rundown

There are several sites that you can use to setup automated welcome direct messages in your Twitter account.  I am not going to beat around the bush and say that ploked does not use this tool.  For those who don’t know what an automated DM is, it is basically an automated/scheduled welcome message that is sent out to welcome your new followers.

The Pros

Face it, anything that helps automate or save you a few minutes of time can be a worthy tool if PROPERLY used.  When I say properly used, I mean this in that you use it to engage your follower with some information about who you are, what you do, or what you think about a certain topic.  Not something about getting rich quick, gaining 16,000 followers, or seeing more scantily clad pics of you.

Most of us probably do not have the time to manually go through all our new users and send them a welcome message, so this can be a Read the rest of this entry »

Most of us remember when Myspace was the next big marketing tool, and now Twitter is practically in the same boat.  Take a look back and see how spam has essentially ruined Myspace.  You can’t view a Myspace profile without seeing all the different comments posted by spammers.

By now, we can probably all agree that Twitter is a very powerful social media tool for creating, expanding, and maintaining both personal and business relationships.  However, with great marketing opportunities, we will often find lame attempts to milk the marketing opportunity.

Basically what I am referring to are the spammers that are so rampantly DM’ing me with their fool proof ways to make money or get a gagillion friends on twitter.  I mean come on, could it not be so obvious whatever crap you are trying to market does not work? Read the rest of this entry »

As many of you are well aware by now, some of the peeps you are following on twitter can flat out get on your nerves.  You know what I am talking about!  These are more than likely newbies to the twitter scene or social media in general and have no clue on what they are doing.  Typically, they are easy to spot.  While many of these types can get on your nerves, so can actually be entertaining to a certain extent.

I am going to talk about the 4 most annoying types of users on twitter I have come across.  Let me know your thoughts on each, or if you feel that there is a type that should be part of the top 4.

Shameless Pluggers

First and foremost are the “shameless pluggers”.  You know exactly who I am referring to.  This is the twitter user that does nothing but spam your twitter feed with blatant, spammy attempts to get you to check out their lame product.  While some users may very well have a good product to Read the rest of this entry »