An ode against automated tweets

If there’s one thing that really annoys on Twitter, it’s automated tweets. You know the ones:

• xx has uploaded a video on YouTube
• xx has checkedin on Foursquare
• xx has added xx film to their Lovefilm account

It’s lazy and annoying.

I’m not saying some these updates won’t be of interest to your followers. But all of them, really? If there is something you really want to share, then take an additional 2 minutes, log into Tweetdeck and pen a 140 update that adds some value.

Social media is a highly personal medium and doesn’t suit automation at all.

I blame the brands too. I can see why they think it’s beneficial to get users to spam their followers with updates on their latest film choices, shopping basket selections or YouTube uploads. But more often than not, it ends up frustrating – hardly a good brand association.

Increasingly it happens by accident (again, I blame the brands). You forget that you joined your Twitter/Facebook account to your Lovefilm/YouTube/Foursquare account and it happens automatically, just at the point when you decide to upload 50 videos, and automatically inflict your followers with a stream of useless, context-less drivel.

Sharing branded content is important to companies using social media marketing. But the sharing has to be earned to be effective. Sending automated updates isn’t clever and doesn’t demonstrate an eagerness to share, just forgetfulness. There are no shortcuts.

Danny Whatmough