Do Tell

Posted by Gabe on January 12, 2010 under Social Media, Twitter | 5 Comments to Read

I spotted a tweet in my Twitter stream that caught my attention today:

@so-and-so Love some feedback on my blog:) http://unshortenedspammylink/wordpress:) Leave Comments!!!!

I know that Twitter is a service we can all use as we wish, but this tweet violated so many of my own private rules I had to look further.  Looking at this person’s profile there was sadly (and predictably) a long list of the same requests to other “so and so’s”.  The proximity of the smiley face to the link broke the link itself, so I never got to see what was so great that everyone should want to go and leave comments on this person’s blog.  The person has been tweeting since June of 2009 and despite this long list of tweets the other interactions he/she has had seem to be genuine and quality interactions, at least as far as I looked back. 

Rather that dissect what is wrong (if anything) with what this person is doing I would like to pose a question.  Assuming you truly believe that “this person just doesn’t know any better”, is it appropriate to leave a gentle DM telling her that what he/she is doing might be a bit spammy?  I’m not going to try to taint anyone’s opinion one way or the other by giving mine, but on other occasions I have been tempted to do just that, even if I didn’t know the person.

So what do you think?  Is it appropriate to nicely tell someone about something like this, as a friendly gesture, if you have never had interactions with them? Or do you simply unfollow and move on?

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  • Louise Armstrong said,

    Good topic and a tough question. Normally I would say that a gentle reminder is in order but some tweeters are not mindful or aware of Twitter etiquette and get angry if you try to suggest there’s a right and wrong approach to Twitter. If you don’t know the person personally and haven’t interacted with them much, I would say just unfollow and move on and if they ask why, be honest.

  • Gabe said,

    Thanks Louise,

    I will wait to comment till I hear a few more views. We all know I guess that there is no right or wrong answer to this question.

  • Jane said,

    If you are following, then a DM regarding widely perceptions of spam behaviour would be appropriate.

  • Amy Shropshire said,

    Something similar happened to me, but it was me on the side of doing something not so kosher. I had just started on Twitter and didn’t even think of doing that. One of the people following me sent me a DM saying something to the effect of ‘You know, spammers do *X* quite a bit. I don’t want ppl to get the wrong idea about you =)’ …complete with the smiley emoticon

    I appreciated the feedback and have never made that mistake again! I say send him/her a short message, be positive about it and then afterward, make a concerted effort to engage him/her in meaningful conversation so they know that you weren’t just trying to be ‘bossy’ but genuinely concerned.

    Good Luck! Cheers!

  • Gabe said,

    That’s a great way to say it, Amy. It’s always difficult to not appear belligerent or condescending. And nice to see you here – haven’t seen you on Twitter for a while. :)

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