As my Twitter stream has grown, I’ve noticed that about 1 in every 5 new followers sends me a message like this after I follow back:

“Hi, thanks for following my tweets! Here’s a link to my website, please click it!”

Ok, I’m paraphrasing. But if you’re on Twitter, you’ve undoubtedly had a few of these. (If you’re not, go there! And then follow me here.)

This turns me off, almost instantly. Here’s why it bugs me.

1) When I decide to follow someone back, it’s usually because they’ve got interesting conversation going on in their stream or a fun bio, or both. If you hit me with a spammy sounding DM right when we get connected, I instantly think your community participation is a sham. Or at the very least, that you’re looking at this endeavor bass ackwards.

2) You don’t know a thing about me yet, except what you read on my profile. How on earth do you know that what you offer is of value to me in the least?

4) Your website is in your profile. Before I follow you, I’ll be going there to check you out. And I’m pretty smart (most days). If I want to click to your site and see what you’re about, I will.

5) I’m a very social person, and dig meeting new people. Truly. So I’m excited that you’re following me. But I’d much rather learn about who you are on a personal level. I guarantee you that’s more interesting than what you do for a living. You’re not letting me see the best of you.

6) If your business proposition is more important than saying hello and getting acquainted, then it’s clear to me that you don’t feel the same way about people as I do, which means we’ll probably have little in common anyway.

7) Like many, many other people, I do business with people I like and trust. But like and trust are not instant affinities. Hitting me with your junk right off the bat tells me that you’re impatient and not willing to invest in like and trust.

8) I participate in social networks for business, yes. But I’m also there to connect with people I just enjoy interacting with. Usually the second part comes first.

9) I’m going to be a much more loyal reader of your blog or patron of your business if I feel like your reached out to me to do more than build your subscriber base. I’m human too, and I’d really like to think you find something interesting about me besides the click I make on your site. Call me sensitive.

10) Introducing yourself by using my name at least lets me know that I wasn’t part of a mass message.

So let’s find the positive in this, shall we? For as many of you as have slipped me a link, hundreds and hundreds of you are doing the right thing.  Here are a few intro DM’s I’ve gotten lately that made me glad I’d followed back:

“Hey Amber, thanks for the add! Looking forward to having some fun conversation.”

“Hi Amber, thanks for the follow! Can’t wait to chat more about beer. Cosmos suck.”

“Hi Amber, thanks for the follow.  I like your blog and content.  I’m getting mine rolling, hope to share cool content soon! ”

“thanks for the reciprocated follow, Amber. Looking forward to sharing tweets.”

“Hey Amber, hope you had a great weekend! Thanks for the follow back.”

“Amber, thx for the follow. I hope we can learn, communicate, and collaborate here on twitter–enjoy a beer for me too!”

So there are lots like this. I guess what they all have in common is that they feel personal, they feel real, and they make me want to start a conversation with these people. Linky spamlicious crud (yes, that’s a very official term) makes me afraid to start talking to you lest you start pushing your wares on me. And that’s not exactly what you want, is it?

No, I’m not that darned important. I’m just one person, and this is just my opinion. But there are so many things that I can pick out from the list above that apply to just about any communications endeavor that I couldn’t resist talking about it.

So tell me then. Do you plunk links into your welcome tweets? Why or why not? And if you do, tell me why you think it’s a smart move. If it bugs you too, tell me what I’m missing.

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