Here is a guaranted touchy subject; including your URL in initial DM’s on twitter? or not including your URL in your initial DM’s on twitter? That is the question!
So – I have heard both sides of the story on this one…. but let me share with you my story and maybe you can decide for yourself the answer to the post question!
When starting out on twitter…. I had no idea what I was doing. Eventually through watching others and engaging with people, I began to learn the “twitter culture” ways to promote my followers, my blog and me! Until one day…… I sent a “following you” request to someone that was recommended to me… Let’s use a fake name of MC …
MC returned the “following you” favor and at which time I Direct Messaged him back thanking him, including a little note and then signing my name with my blog URL.
WHOA! MC returned that DM with an “un-follow” and a URL to another blog that talked about twitter etiquette and the proper way of responding back via twitter being of course… URL-less.
So – after reading the blog, googling the subject and settling down (from the unexpected public lecturing) I decided I had made a “twitter faux pas” and no longer included my URL in DM’s.
That worked well…. because the fact is LOTS of people include their URL’s in their DM’s to me… and you know what … I look at EVERY ONE OF THEM. I love it! Isn’t that the “what sites are out there” idea that made stumbleUpon so fun??
Since I’ve started “non-url-ing” here is what has happened:
My blog views went down.
My engaging with people has gone down.
My ability to really connect with people on my blog IMMEDIATELY (face it we all have short attention spans) went down.
Thoughts:
It’s too many clicks and too much of a thought process for people to go back to a twitter profile and click on a link.
Aren’t we as web – savvy people supposed to know that the less clicks the more response?
Do you place your URL in your email signatures? if so … what’s the difference?
While networking in real life…. do you not put your company name on your name tag? tell people who you work for?
So I pose this question folks…. Do you DM your URL on Twitter …. or do you NOT DM your URL on twitter. (I think this would exclude free e-book downloads?? but does it?)
My vote…… DM it baby! If you don’t like it … don’t click it!
Cheers,
Jennifer
P.S. I’m still learning about social media as it’s ever changing and greatly appreciate all those that have guided me! Cheers to you!
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Jennifer – I read you link on twitter , I am JulieJ. I personally do not like automatic DM’s when I follow someone. They feel like spam to me. If the DM is personalized like one I got this morning I have no objection to them including a link. Like you I enjoy taking a look at other people’s blogs and websites although I don’t do it often.
I also don’t mind an occassional tweet announcing a new blog post and giving the link but if that is all the tweeter has to offer I will “unfollow” quickly.
See you on twitter…JulieJ
Hi Jennifer —
I hadn’t been including my URL’s in my initial thank you to folks follwing me, but after reading your comments – I sure will going forward!
I’m one of those people who always checks a URL before responding to a “follow” with a follow. First off, I want to personalize my response to them either with their name, which isn’t always in their profile or a mention of what they do. Secondly, I don’t follow every person that follows me. We can spot a “spammer” in two seconds, and I’m really not trying to support that!
As far as you encounter with “MC”… There’s a reason why Prozac and the like, are doing so well.
Much prosperity in 2009,
Kara
Kara Smith’s last blog post..8 Legal Marketing Recommendations for 2009
I don’t DM back my URL, but like a lot of things in the social media echo chamber, too much is made of people who do it. So you get a DM from someone with their URL. Big deal.
Dirk Singer’s last blog post..One for your ‘09 marketing plans: Sponsor a new type of bat
My stance on this is more on the issue of the automatic reply rather than the link in the DM. If you are sending a personal DM then that seems fine, though I’m probably not going to click the link until I’ve interacted a bit with you on Twitter. But if you have a service set up that sends an automatic DM as soon as I follow, that feels like Spam to me, and I oh so hate Spam.
As for the tweeted links to blog posts? That’s one of my absolute favorite parts of Twitter. If you pop up in my time line and say that you have a new blog post up there’s a 99% chance that I’ll click on the link. (The 1% is when my kids are pulling me away from the computer!) And if I like the post then there’s a huge chance that I’ll retweet the link to the rest of my followers. In the long run this is going to get you a ton more traffic than that one original DM which might get you one hit, but doesn’t guarantee return visits.
Well according to most of the top bloggers, Chow, and the rest of the MMO community.. Sending a DM is the way to go. I send a message to every person that follows me. That’s just the cost of reading my ramblings and twitters through out the day. If they don’t like it.. they shouldn’t be on twitter. Maybe a island in the South Pacific would be a better place for them.. Seriously… that’s why they create the delete button, right?
Eathan’s last blog post..IDW Person Of The Year 2008
We never use the DM feature on Twitter. To us, the true purpose of Twitter is to share your tweets with the world, so sending DMs is contrary to that purpose. For fear of appearing too “spammy,” we don’t tweet every blog post, but we do so if it’s a post we are particularly proud of. However, we admit this is probably why the traffic we get from Twitter is minimal.
We also understand where MC was coming from regarding his “un-follow” response. If someone had DMed us and included a URL, we would think that the sender was more interested in getting us to visit his/her blog rather than engaging us as human beings.
Email signatures are different because email is a more “formal” form of online communication. The signature serves as an electronic equivalent to a hard-copy letter written on company letterhead or personal stationary. Including a signature for informal communication such as DMs and instant messaging doesn’t feel appropriate.
Greg & Sheryl’s last blog post..A Work in Progress
I do not include my URL in direct messages, but I do sometimes refer to my podcast about me and New York City. I mostly agree with JulieJ above, and add that today’s Twitter phishing problem – fake links in DM messages – would add a new security concern for awhile. You do raise interesting point re: people’s responses.
Andy’s last blog post..Tony Furtado
I’m not a fan of the auto-reply either, b/c it DOES feel like spam/not genuine/like you are only trying to promote or sell something… I find the best way is to engage w/other twitters via updates… weird to say b/c it is only the internet and not real life, but people gauge whether or not you’re follow-worthy or worth their click to your blog/site that way…
TheStyleChild’s last blog post..Window Shopping
Jennifer:
I agree completely with both your comment and the additional advice of Julie. If all you do is sent out “hey my blog is updated (which i was guilty of) it’s annoying. But providing useful links info is what Twitter should be about not just people constantly
twitting “I’m bored” or “it’s snowing”
The only time I DM a new neighbour, or neighbor, of the Twitterhood, as I call the followers and followees in my network, is either to say that I am unwilling to introduce everyone to them until I see a Bio and some conversational tweets on their page or in response to an automated DM from them when I follow back (often to suggest that this form of communication can be off-putting), preferring to create an introduction to genuine new people and tweet it to the group.
It is impossible for me to understand why some people think Twitter and/or the Internet in general is not “the real world”. Of course it is part of the real world – Walter Mittys, pushy salesmen, fakers and liars are neither more nor less prevalent offline than on!
Everyone, apart from autobots which are usually pretty easy to spot because, however ‘human’ some of their tweets may sound they don’t engage in conversations with other tweeters, is a real person and to think of Twitter as outside the real world is to rather miss the whole point of social networking, in my opinion.
Very well Said Linnet!!
Great Post, I have been inviting my Twitter followers to connect with me on Facebook. In fact that is how I got here to your blog. The vast majority of my true circle of friends don’t have blogs and don’t get Twitter despite the fact that they love Facebook. I felt like opening up a different part of my social network to like minded individuals would do two things give me the opportunity to view and share in a mutually beneficial format, tips, ideas and experiences as they relate to new technologies and common interests like blogging. Reading your blog and providing you with feedback in exchange for the insights. thanks for connecting and I look forward to sharing insights. After reading this post I decided to close the Facebook connect DM and go back to a Business website or Blog URL. I have been fortunate and have added quite a few new friends like yourself that have great blogs and I can now continue to share and collaborate with this new group. Thanks for connecting. Eric