When I was a teenager, my friends hated McDonalds pickles. Pickles aren’t really an Aussie thing. Or maybe they just aren’t a teenager thing. They would pick them out of their burgers and throw them against the wall to see who could get their pickle to stick for the longest.

Automated Direct Messages (auto DMs) are like pickles on Twitter, no one really likes them, yet everyone is throwing them against the wall to see what sticks.  In case you don’t know, they are generic little messages sent automatically to you after you follow someone on Twitter. They generally say something like “Hi, thanks for following me. This is what I do. You can also check out my website/blog/facebook”. People send them in hope that, if enough people receive it, someone, somewhere will visit the website/blog/facebook page.

Are Automated Direct Messages Effective?

I’ve very rarely read and never responded to an auto DM.  Since they really aren’t personally sent to me, I categorize them as SPAM. If anything, the only action I’m likely to take from an auto DM is to unfollow someone if the message has made enough of a case that a relationship between us isn’t right (for example they show they are a Spammer).

To figure out if Auto DMs are effective, I did a little research.

• I looked at 40 automated direct messages with a link from bit.ly that have been sent to me in the last couple of weeks.
• I recorded the number of followers the sender had.
• I looked at the number of clicks for that Auto DM link on bit.ly’s statistics and subtracted any links not from Twitter, leaving on any clicks from external Twitter clients for the benefit of doubt.
• I removed any clicks that were from Tweets and not Auto DMs.

There are elements that I couldn’t account for like:

• If the Auto DM was set up at the beginning of the Twitter account meaning every follower actually received the message.
• How many people unfollowed as a result of the Auto DM.
• If there is a difference in response between Auto DMs response without link or that don’t use a URL shortener.

Obviously it’s not an exact science, but it does allow you to see some patterns.  For example the people who only used the link in Auto DMs had zero URL clicks.

Based on my findings the average click-through on direct messages is 0.8%.

My in-home physicist worked out that the error margin for my little study was 0.8. Meaning that the best case scenario for a click-through on a Automated Direct Message is 1.6%.

Is 0.8% effective? Personally, I think not.  Why bother with something so ineffective that just labels you as a Spammer?  But if you disagree with me and still want to use them, here are some best practices for making the most of your auto direct messages that will hopefully lower the annoyance rate.

Auto Direct Message Best Practices

1. Understand the function of an auto direct message

The point of the direct message isn’t to thank someone for becoming a fan – it’s meaningless, everyone does it. Instead you should try to intrigue your follower enough to check your Bio and Tweets more carefully (ideally liking what they see and adding you to a list) or to build some trust and credibility, which hopefully has the same result.

2. Be Original

If you say something different, you have a chance of catching someone’s attention and improving your response rate. Almost every Auto DM I’ve seen tries too hard, and is about the sender instead of the follower.  Be in service instead of asking for something from your follower so early in the relationship.  Send your best tip – one that got a great response when you tweeted it.  Remember, at this stage you aren’t trying to sell anything but your point of view. Showcase that and give them an opportunity to see what you are made of.

Here are 2 Auto DMs I really liked:

This is a great example of being in service, rather than asking for something early in the relationship. Of course it only works if they actually follow up. If you offer something, make sure you deliver.  With this Tweet, there is an added problem that people can only reply to a Direct Message if the receiver is following them already, so unless this guy auto follows everyone back, people can’t actually DM him, making this tweet pointless.

I would change it to:

“I’d love to tweet to my followers about your business. Send me a tweet telling me what to say and I’ll share it sometime this week.”

This Auto DM is brilliant for 2 reasons – it’s another example of being in service to your follower and it aligns the reader to position the sender in the same category as the other well known bloggers. I would change it to:

“For more blogging tips check out @problogger, @patflynn and @johnhaydon. Send me your blogging questions and I’ll tweet about them.”

Top 7 Auto Direct Message Mistakes

1. Trying to sell or trying to get someone into your sales cycle. It’s too early in the relationship.
2. Trying to get them to visit your website, join your Facebook fanpage or download something.
3. Using URL shorteners. There are lots of warnings about people’s accounts being hijacked from links in Direct Messages. If you must add a link, use the proper URL.
4. Using TrueTwit Validation. No one wants to validate themselves for you, it’s obnoxious.
5. Pretending it’s not a Auto DM. Avoid saying something generic like – nice profile.
6. Asking for a DM. Unless you are following them, they can’t send you a DM.
7. Thanking people for following – it’s a waste of space. Use it more productively.