The more I use Twitter, the more I've noticed an annoying phenomenon: the autotweet.
What are 'autotweets'? They're tweets sent in an automated fashion, usually through websites connected to Twitter via the Twitter API. The purpose of autotweets: to alert followers to new content posted on the Twitter user's website.
What's the problem with autotweets? Nothing in and of themselves.
But they can become a problem when a Twitter user's website posts new content all the time. The flood of new tweets promoting new content (I once saw a dozen at a time) is annoying and often defeats the purpose of following that person in the first place: to find out what he or she is personally doing, thinking and discussing.
So I hereby propose a new Twitter best practice: don't autotweet on your personal Twitter account.
If you want to promote content in an automated fashion, set up a separate Twitter account.
We do that here at Econsultancy. If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm at @probles. Other members of the Econsultancy staff have their own personal Twitter accounts too. If you want to be alerted to Econsultancy's new content as it's posted, follow @Econsultancy, which autotweets our blog feed.
Simple? Good.
Patricio Robles is a tech reporter at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter.
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Digital Marketing and Comms at Scope
5:28PM on 20th February 2009
I think generally using twitter to advertise new content doesn't work very well and isn't really what twitters for. When the content is something special, then it works, but when it's just a fairly dull update you just end up turning your twitter account into a glorified rss feed!
We use autotweets to direct message new followers welcoming them and showing them how else they can connect to us online. It's gets a mixed response, mainly positive.
Alex