SocialToo squashes twitter auto DM’s

Jan 3, 2009 by     18 Comments    Posted under: Social Media, Technology

socialtoo_logoOne of the nice features about twitter is the ability to Direct Message a fellow follower, and not put your entire conversation out there for the world to read (some things are just better left between party A and party B).  Conversely, the opposite is true: Automated DM’s can be a bit on the spammy side; ‘Thanks for following me, enter this code at www.xyz.com to receive a discount”.  This generally leads to an immediate ‘unfollow’ on my part, which is rather sad, as sometimes some of these people are genuinely adding meaningful points to a discussion.

The solution?  SocialToo.  SocialToo is an interesting tool that will allow you to tweak your twitter config.  SocialToo also plays nicely with facebook and indenti.ca.  Founder Jesse Stay apparently got a bit sick of the auto DM as well, and recently released a feature setting that will allow SocialToo users turn off auto direct messages from other SocialToo users if so desired.  SocialToo will also allow for blacklisting twitter users, auto-follow people that follow you, and auto-unfollow those that unfollow you, send an auto DM to those that follow you (highly NOT recommended) and as previously mentioned, disable auto DM’s.

But don’t just take my word for it, Chris Brogan makes an awesome case for using SocialToo, and squashing those auto DM’s at the source.

I URGE you to recommend that everyone use SocailToo for their robot behaviors. Because hey, if they want to, it’s a great service. But better still, it means I will never see a SocialToo robot DM ever again.

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A simple check of the ‘Turn off automatic Direct Messages from other SocialToo.com users’ box is all that needs to be done.  Remember, this won’t turn off ALL automatic DM’s, as users need to be SocialToo users as well, and most spammers will certainly avoid this, but it’s a good start, and hopefully technology that twitter itself will adopt (read:buy).

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  • http://blog.datadirt.net/ ritchie

    I’m not with you on this on. Auto dms are great if – but only if – they do contain meaningful content. The only people who might get pi**ed off by auto dms are spammers who are following hundreds of users.

  • http://blog.datadirt.net ritchie

    I’m not with you on this on. Auto dms are great if – but only if – they do contain meaningful content. The only people who might get pi**ed off by auto dms are spammers who are following hundreds of users.

  • DT

    See, I guess that’s the part that I’ve yet to receive – the meaningful content in an auto DM. Every auto DM I’ve received has either been a not-so-cleverly-masked advertisement, or link to a phishing site.

    I’m certainly no nay-sayer of meaningful content – just haven’t had any come my way yet.

  • DT

    See, I guess that’s the part that I’ve yet to receive – the meaningful content in an auto DM. Every auto DM I’ve received has either been a not-so-cleverly-masked advertisement, or link to a phishing site.

    I’m certainly no nay-sayer of meaningful content – just haven’t had any come my way yet.

  • http://www.littmanbros.com/under-cabinet-lighting.html/ Richard@Littman Bros.

    Nice post. i think you and ritchie can both be right. auto dms can be good or bad depending on the meaningful content. basically if you can make the follower feel wanted, then its a win, either way. i’ll check out social too as well, but i don’t know if it’ll be a winner for me.

  • http://www.littmanbros.com/under-cabinet-lighting.html/ Richard@Littman Bros.

    Nice post. i think you and ritchie can both be right. auto dms can be good or bad depending on the meaningful content. basically if you can make the follower feel wanted, then its a win, either way. i’ll check out social too as well, but i don’t know if it’ll be a winner for me.

  • http://blog.datadirt.net/ ritchie

    I use the automated welcome dm to send out a link to a shirt introductory video – so the folks who want to can put a face to my screen name.

  • http://blog.datadirt.net ritchie

    I use the automated welcome dm to send out a link to a shirt introductory video – so the folks who want to can put a face to my screen name.

  • http://www.4-lift-chairs.com/ David@Lift Chairs

    I still have yet to use Twitter, but from my experience with forums, most of the time when I get an automated PM, it tends to be fairly spammy/dishonest. In fact, I can’t recall ever getting an auto PM that was legitimate.

    However, with that said, I think due to how Twitter works, there is more potential for a legitimate DM than with a forum.

  • http://www.4-lift-chairs.com David@Lift Chairs

    I still have yet to use Twitter, but from my experience with forums, most of the time when I get an automated PM, it tends to be fairly spammy/dishonest. In fact, I can’t recall ever getting an auto PM that was legitimate.

    However, with that said, I think due to how Twitter works, there is more potential for a legitimate DM than with a forum.

  • http://www.nuviderm.com/ Tina

    I would to agree with Ritchie DM’s are not that useful if they have useless contents. Others use it for spamming and it is really annoying most of the time.

  • http://www.nuviderm.com Tina

    I would to agree with Ritchie DM’s are not that useful if they have useless contents. Others use it for spamming and it is really annoying most of the time.

  • Pingback: What is the Auto Welcome DM and why do I hate it now? | The Twitter Fairy

  • kosmopolito

    Can we use Twitter for educational activities?

  • http://Yourwebsite kosmopolito

    Can we use Twitter for educational activities?

  • http://www.turnthescrew.com/ Dan Taylor

    Given twitter’s ‘morphing to search engine’ functionality, twitter can be used for just about anything:

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/05/its-time-to-start-thinking-of-twitter-as-a-search-engine/

  • http://www.turnthescrew.com Dan Taylor

    Given twitter’s ‘morphing to search engine’ functionality, twitter can be used for just about anything:

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/05/its-time-to-start-thinking-of-twitter-as-a-search-engine/

  • Pingback: Twitter Tip: Stop Using Auto DM | Smart Boy Designs

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