Member Avatar for MktgRob

If we follow people on Twitter we will sometimes get that "Thanks for following me" message and sometimes it will say that the person is following you in return.

Beyond the type of message metioned above and not including the SPAM tweets that you get sometimes, is there an etiquette to using Automated Response messages on Twitter?

I could see if you are running an e-commerce site and as part of the sale you ask the person if they would like to follow you on twitter for future sales, then I could see generating an automated "Thanks for the sale and for following us on Twitter" message. Does anyone have any other times that an Automated response tweet would be a) appropriate and/or b) a good step in the customer service process?

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Useful thread. Short summary of what matters and a simple way to decide when to automate.

raised the e-commerce use case, warned about diminishing returns, emphasized responsiveness, and shared that manual personalization was costly with little payoff. Combine those observations: automation is worthwhile when it saves work and adds clear value; it is not worthwhile when it feels like generic noise.

Quick decision checklist before automating:

  1. Is the recipient opted in for social notifications? If not, dont send promos.
  2. Is the message transactional or value-driven (order status, shipping, one-time coupon)? Automate those.
  3. Will the message be personal and useful, not purely promotional? If not, skip it.
  4. Can you measure impact (unique promo codes, trackable links)? If you cant measure, dont scale.

A practical, low-friction workflow for an online store: offer an opt-in at checkout and collect a handle only if customers choose it. Send the primary confirmation by email as usual. If the customer opted in, send a single, concise social message that is transactional (thank you + order link or tracking) and, optionally, a one-time incentive tracked by a unique code. Add followers who opted in to a separate marketing list and test any promotional cadence on a small sample before rolling out.

Dos and donts: do keep tone human, limit frequency, and make opt-out obvious. Dont auto-DM every new follower or bury sensitive order details in a public tweet. Monitor engagement and be ready to pause automation if it raises complaints or lowers overall response — testing and measurement are the best guardrails.

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Member Avatar for articlemaster9

You can use tweetlater to send automated persons who to people who are following you. Now since everybody is using twitter and use automated service, so hardly any people visits your message.

The success with automated message has reduced a lot when it comes to sales.

Member Avatar for bobchrist

Yea, but at least you should show your responsiveness by just telling them "thanks for following!

Member Avatar for InsightsDigital

I have tried both and now I use neither for one account. In regards to the automated response, I felt it was impersonal. Then I created personalized direct messages for each follower. This was very time consuming and I only got one or two responses among 100 DMs. Do I see a difference? Not really. I do think it is nice to send a thank you message regardless but the issue is that the member might just ignore it. What do you think?

Member Avatar for MktgRob

I agree with all comments, especially in that the auto-tweet is a bit impersonal. But the more I think about it, using a variation of the automated response whan a sale is completed online (where along with a confirmation e-mail for the sale a tweet goes out thanking them for the business and suggesting they follow the feed for new sales) might be a viable option.

In a situation where someone is ordering on-line where they are asked for their e-mail, I think asking for the twitter account would be appropriate. Also, as most e-comm sites will ask the person if they want to receive future messages about sales offers, the person could choose between receiving e-mails offers or tweet offers. If is was me I would choose the tweet option as it seems less invasive. Any thoughts?

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