Don’t automate your tweets – please!

I’ve not had a good ol’ rant for a while. So forgive me while I indulge myself.

Something that’s always annoyed me is automated Direct Messages on Twitter. So when you follow someone you get a tweet “sincerely” thanking you for following them.

There’s no sincerity in automated messages!

But what’s got my back up today is James Caans twitter feed.

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet James Caan on a few occasions. Once at a small breakfast meeting when the Prince’s Trust Enterprise Fellowship was first formed and more recently at a BizSpark event.

If you’ve ever heard James Caan talk about his entrepreneurial journey then you can’t help but be impressed by what he’s achieved, how he achieved it and how engaging a speaker he is. He also has an amazing ability to immediately know what questions to ask to get straight to the heart of any business matter.

All that makes it more dissapointing that his Twitter feed now has a collection of quotes that are automatically churned our once every two hours.

Examples as follows:

“You are what you are because that’s what you want to be. You, and only you, have the power to make a change.”

“I am a champion standing over the shadow of my former self.”

“Stand up and say loudly to yourself, ‘I WILL BE A WINNER’. Believe me, you will be one; conviction and attitude matters.”

If you want “inspirational” or “motivational” quotes there are already enough people on Twitter spouting those. I think (and I could be wrong) that most people following James would hope to see more substance and engagement in his Tweets and are more interested in what he’s up to than stuff like this. See Peter Jones on Twitter for an example of what i mean. I’m sure James has much more value to add to the Twitterverse than this stuff.

The only place I can see for automated tweets is for company (as opposed to personal) feeds. So whilst the KashFlow Twitter account sends out our latest press release and software changes, my personal feed is not and never will be automated.

I feel so much better now that’s off my chest!

http://www.mattchedit.com/Blog.aspx Matt Chatterley

I couldn’t agree more – I originally started following James as I’ve always admired him (though I’ve never met him in person) – but recently stopped following as it’s simply a load of drivel.

I’d rather have very sparse “personal” tweets from someone than little quotes or snippets spewed out by a robot!
http://blogs.thesitedoctor.co.uk/tim/ Tim

I’m with you and Matt on that one. I’ve not stopped following him but it’s a close call. That said, I unfollowed Stephen Fry within about 10minutes of his Apple store talk…

It’s a shame that celebs/people in the public eye abuse Twitter like this, I wonder if they realise -they could use Twitter to really raise their profile…
Dave H

I agree too.
I’ve always been a big fan of dragons den and when I found them on twitter, I was looking forward to hearing the more personal side of things, with a few business tips and tricks thrown in for good measure.
Duncans recent tweets about winning the battle with technology and tweeting for his blackberry is a prime example.

There is nothing wrong with the odd motivational tweet, but to be so robotic-like doesn’t help you connect with your followers.
Fingers crossed we will see some more varied tweets, maybe announcing a deal recently struck or good areas to network, just something from “a day in the life of…”
http://www.annhawkins.com Ann Hawkins

I often have very lively discussions on Twitter and then along comes an automated tweet telling me to ‘smile when when I make a call’ or ‘engage with people don’t broadcast’ (duh!). Its like someone marching into a room where I’m have a chat and shouting stupid instructions then walking away before I can tell them to bugger off.
No place for autotweets, quotes, platitudes or other lazy tweeting – unless you want to be seen as lazy, boring and unoriginal in which case – bugger off.
http://www.tonihunter.com Toni Hunter

A good (obvious) point, well made. I’m an avid twitterer and do not see the point in sending blanket messages or following celebrities, I’m here to learn and develop relationships that may help me on my journey through life.
I admit I occassionally schedule a tweet as I have a large proportion of non-UK followers who tweet when I’m in bed!!
Dave T

I have unfollowed James Caan. These automated quotes are a poor quality and often contain typos. It just a sign of a lazy Twitterer who has nothing to say but feels the need to keep up with other business men attempting to be celebrities.

Even more comical are the a***licking followers who repeat the quotes in the hope of being noticed by James.

Sad really.

Stick to business James
http://www.mattchedit.com/Blog.aspx Matt Chatterley

@Dave T – I forgot to mention the typos, actually – that was a serious switch-off for me – and surely it’s slightly reputation damaging for James himself..?
http://www.startupbiztalk.com Cheryl

Woo-hoo! Someone else hates Auto DMs and automated tweets! There is nothing authentic about it. It’s understandable that people can’t tweet all the time; some of us webpreneurs can do so more than others. But tweeting anything just to be tweeting says that you’re playing the “numbers game” and it’s annoying. I’m here to know more about people and make friends, everything else comes after. Great post!

P/S Just followed you back on twitter.

UKStartups

Don’t automate your tweets – please!

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