Some people who tweet are prone to slothfulness, a vice exposed by Twitter.
I blame software like tweet adder and lazy social media marketing managers who run corporate or small business Twitter accounts.
I have managed several small business accounts but have never used tweet adder. However, I’m pretty sure it works with Satan’s charm.
From what I understand, tweet adder will take over your twitter account and automatically follow anyone in a certain location or people who tweet specific keywords. For example, if you operate a business selling jewelry, you can pre-select keywords like “necklaces”, “earrings”, and “bracelets”.
If I tweet, “Wow, I love this Twitter hashtag necklace!”, tweet adder follow me with your jewelry business account.
The problem?
This same automated account would follow me if I wrote, “I hate necklaces! If you mention the word necklace to me, I will rage!”.
It’s gotten to the point that I can expect automated accounts to follow me when I tweet certain words like “bargain”, “anxiety”, “prescription”, and “marketing”. As you might imagine, spammers and anyone selling a get-rich-quick scheme are most likely to use tools like tweet adder. The people who expect instant gratification from social networking are completely missing the point.
Here’s one timely example from the Twitter auto-follow hall of shame: the @SaveABC7 account.
If you live in the New York City metro area, and you are a Cablevision customer, then you know about the Cablevision/ABC-7 dispute. Basically, the Walt Disney Company removed ABC from Cablevision’s system after Cablevision refused to meet some demands. If you’re not from around here, you can read all about this shitshow online.
On Saturday, my friend Ross tweeted:
I really wish Cablevision, ABC, Scripps Network, et al would just settle their hissy fits without broadcasting their propaganda at me.
@LosapNJ Yeah, the Cablevision wars are getting old.
About five minutes after I posted this tweet, the @SaveABC7 account started following me. If the person manning this account had actually read my tweets, they probably would have reconsidered the follow.
@LosapNJ IMMEDIATELY after I tweeted about Cablevision, the @saveabc7 account started following me…
@ryssiebee Same here! They oughta do a context check before following. Bleh.
Social media marketing is about creating relationships, the same way you create relationships in real life. In real life, you wouldn’t just go up to every brunette female and ask her to be your friend if you had already been successful in making one female brunette friend. Each woman is different.
On Twitter, you can’t assume anything about a person just because they are tweeting a word or phrase. Using Twitter search CAN be a great way to find people to follow, but a REAL PERSON has to use it intelligently.
I understand that @SaveABC7 was trying to find new followers as quickly as possible, but the person manning the account could have searched Twitter for words like ABC and Cablevision and then actually scanned each person’s Twitter stream to determine whether or not following that person would be a good idea.
Marketing people might think they’re taking a calculated risk by using tools like tweet adder, but they’re probably annoying more people than helping them.
(Photo by Howdy, I’m H. Michael Karshis)
That’s like cold calling to sell real estate, or putting up those tacky signs along the road that say, “Lose 50 pounds in 30 days, call…”
There’s an off chance that, by sheer volume of calls made, signs put up, (or people annoyed) you’ll run into a few suckers. But I never understood how this method was cost effective, from a money or time standpoint. Those that agree to buy your product via this method will buy just about anything. Those that don’t buy it end up hating you for being garbage, and will never have anything to do with you or your company.
I never understood why people did this.