With so many businesses looking to tap the power of social media — and so many experts interested in selling to them — it’s no wonder that headlines like this one flourish across the web. Promise people bottom-line maximizing, brand-leveraging, social-media-packed goodness, and they will tweet and retweet like little demons. Best of all, they won’t even peek inside: they’ll set up keyword searches that automatically grab and tweet any sexy-sounding headline (like this one) using an automatic RSS-to-Twitter service.
But does automatic tweeting add value, or does it devalue Twitter by delivering automated content instead of personally curated links? I’m of two minds. You could say it’s a victimless crime. But I tend to think it breaks an implicit promise, that I’m tweeting stuff because I found it useful or at least intriguing.
If you’re reading this post, I’m betting it’s because my sexy title has gotten automatically sucked up and tweeted by someone you are currently following. (One clue: the tweet you read was posted via twitterfeed or another RSS-to-Twitter service.) So please tell me what you think:
Do you feel scammed if you were led here by an automatic (twitterfeed) tweet, rather than an actual human recommendation? Or are you still delighted to have found this interesting and provocative post? Please let me know in comments below — you’re helping to make up my mind.
I have an ancillary question to yours: Is hiring ghost writers for your twitter account better or worse than setting up rss-to-tweets?
I have an ancillary question to yours: Is hiring ghost writers for your twitter account better or worse than setting up rss-to-tweets?
I was not led here by a twitterfeed tweet; I subscribed to your blog with Google Reader. But – social media to me is an extension of the “real” world in that your virtual relationships should be treated the same way you treat contacts in your offline networks. I’d never call or email my friends with automatic messages, so I don’t believe social media should be automated in that way. I think it violates the basic tenants of the social part of social media. It is more work to send personally vetted recommendations, but I would stop following someone if all they tweeted were useless retweets and auto-generated content.
I was not led here by a twitterfeed tweet; I subscribed to your blog with Google Reader. But – social media to me is an extension of the “real” world in that your virtual relationships should be treated the same way you treat contacts in your offline networks. I’d never call or email my friends with automatic messages, so I don’t believe social media should be automated in that way. I think it violates the basic tenants of the social part of social media. It is more work to send personally vetted recommendations, but I would stop following someone if all they tweeted were useless retweets and auto-generated content.
I also read this post because I subscribe to your blog. I actually had no idea that people feed rss direct into twitter, but I guess it doesn’t really surprise me. It doesn’t really bother me that people do it either, but I personally wouldn’t tweet or re-tweet something that I hadn’t already read. It’s about standing behind your work (whether that work be either writing, researching, and/or reading).
I also read this post because I subscribe to your blog. I actually had no idea that people feed rss direct into twitter, but I guess it doesn’t really surprise me. It doesn’t really bother me that people do it either, but I personally wouldn’t tweet or re-tweet something that I hadn’t already read. It’s about standing behind your work (whether that work be either writing, researching, and/or reading).
I’m new to the blogging stratosphere and was directed to your site by a link from the Harvard Business School. I’m delighted to be reading this particular blog and being a Newbie, Techno, FB, Twitter, Flickr potential participant, I await the accumulation of more stellar info from you! Many thanks!
I’m new to the blogging stratosphere and was directed to your site by a link from the Harvard Business School. I’m delighted to be reading this particular blog and being a Newbie, Techno, FB, Twitter, Flickr potential participant, I await the accumulation of more stellar info from you! Many thanks!
Well, I see both your points. However, I don’t like looking at my Twitter stream and seeing a flood of auto-posts jamming up my feed–I prefer to “listen” in real time to the tweets of the people I find most compelling.
As a matter of fact, just last week I began following an interesting tweeter on Tues, only to unfollow him on Fri night because his voluminous tweeting that clearly wasn’t real time. He may have been moving himself up in the SEO world, but he lost my attention and lost the attention of anyone I might have influenced to widen his audience.
I think there’s some middle ground here with fewer, more carefully spread tweets. But whether to stand on that ground or not depends I guess on what your objectives are. For me, Twitter is a great listening/meeting/research tool. I just am not ready to part yet with these functions for the sake of search engine optimization.
Well, I see both your points. However, I don’t like looking at my Twitter stream and seeing a flood of auto-posts jamming up my feed–I prefer to “listen” in real time to the tweets of the people I find most compelling.
As a matter of fact, just last week I began following an interesting tweeter on Tues, only to unfollow him on Fri night because his voluminous tweeting that clearly wasn’t real time. He may have been moving himself up in the SEO world, but he lost my attention and lost the attention of anyone I might have influenced to widen his audience.
I think there’s some middle ground here with fewer, more carefully spread tweets. But whether to stand on that ground or not depends I guess on what your objectives are. For me, Twitter is a great listening/meeting/research tool. I just am not ready to part yet with these functions for the sake of search engine optimization.