Does Twitter automation work?
As a long time user of Twitter, I have been around the block and back many times and have tried automation in a number of forms. Some successful, some moderately successful, and some abject failures.
For those newer to the platform, automation is a tempting alternative to spending hours building a sizeable following and adding content to a Twitter stream. While there are many ways to automate your Twitter account or accounts, Tweet Adder is probably the most known software available. Either by coincidence or planning, I’ve read a number of blog posts very recently by authors espousing the virtues of this program and have to wonder if some may have been paid to post favourable experiences.
Before I get into this, I should point out that I do have Tweet Adder and have experimented with many of the automation tools available and while some features are useful, some are a good way to get yourself suspended from Twitter if you are not very careful.
My own experiences with this program are not glowing. The automated follow feature filled my account with dead users and rubbish accounts and worse, spamming followers no matter how I crafted the keyword search. The automatic unfollow feature had two of my Twitter accounts suspended within days. The proxy server connections, which are recommended to get around Twitter tracking your activity, require the user to buy these connections. Added cost, no thank you.
What is very good though is the automated Tweets using ‘spin’ words. In other words, using a selection of words to alternate to create unique tweets. The posts I have read recently suggest an ‘hour or so’ between these auto-Tweets. Talk about bombing yourself into being ignored completely. I use this feature for posting about once a day at most to promote my books on my secondary accounts. In a way, just as easy to do it manually, but with my memory, yes, it’s useful.
There are also RSS feed facilities, but this can be done by using free services such dlvr.it, so this is not worth spending good money to get.
Even though I have used Tweet Adder, I still select my follows manually. Slow yes. But the result is that I have a focused and next to spammer free Twitter following. When I need to do some housekeeping, free online apps such as Manage Flitter do a much better and safer job at finding dead accounts and unfollowing those who fail to follow back.
So is Twitter automation worthwhile? In my opinion, a little goes a very long way. Don’t think you can fool people. Auto Tweeters stand out like sore thumbs.
Cheers for the info Derek. Me, I tend to let Twitter do its thing, mainly because I haven’t the patience to muck around with it. :)
If someone follows me first, I take the time to check out the person’s tweets for the last few days before I decide if I want to follow back. And if their behavior changes, and I pick up on it, there’s always the unfollow button. I agree that auto tweets stick out like a sore thumb. A few months ago I unfollowed someone who was putting out about seventy promotional tweets a day. Since then they have tried to follow me twice more. Clearly an automated system.
I use automation via SocialOomph, if I didn’t I wouldn’t get any work done. I follow people manually but also use SocialBro which I think is great for drilling down your stats. I use queue reservoirs on SocialOomph and make sure I update the updates as regularly as I can.
Another very helpful post, Derek.
I’ve been using TweetAdder since September and have increased the numbers of my followers from 300 to 5,400 in that time. The problem I have is that TweetAdder doesn’t provide any information about new followers, so all I can do is follow back blindly. I’m not at all sure how you managed to do this ‘manually’ and pick and choose who to follow back.
Of the 5,400 followers I now have, quite a few tweet in Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, Turkish etc., langauges that I do no speak and cannot read…
I have messed around with a bit of automation but nothing linked to my blog. I’m a bit reluctant to get into it simply because I’m afraid of being labeled a spammer. I think you’ve managed to keep it to a sustainable level. I have never rolled my eyes and said ‘not another tweet from Derek!’ Maybe I’ll browse through your twitter musings and give it another shot…