I’ve always been fairly against automating anything in social media. I’m realizing that sometimes I’m fairly against something primarily because of my disagreement with those who are for it, even if it has some valid benefits. My will will attest to this.
Since moving to southern California, I’ve met several well-respected leaders in the arena of Twitter and social media. These are people with genuine influence and whom I respect deeply. As we’ve talked about social media strategy, each of them has recommended TweetAdder. I’ve balked in each conversation only to be met with some pretty good arguments for automating certain aspects of Twitter.
I’ve recently started using TweetAdder for certain tasks, such as automating searches for key terms, following people back, and scheduling some tweets (nowhere near all of them), especially in relationship to future events which I’d like to keep plugging until the event date.
The controversial side of TweetAdder and other similar tools is the auto-following and auto-unfollowing mass numbers of people. I totally see the argument against this practice, but I want to throw a big thought at you based on a story that really changed my perspective on it. First the thought…
Growing your following grows your audience, your reach, and your potential for influence. It introduces you to people you never would have known otherwise. And unfollowing people simply makes room to continue to expand that audience.
And here’s the story. A friend who volunteers for us manages one of our organization’s Twitter accounts that happens to be kind of a “John the Baptist” account. People in nations that are closed to the gospel have been able to read these evangelistic and discipling tweets – people we never could have discovered without a tool like TweetAdder. One lady in particular asked for prayer via a Direct Message for her son. As the back-and-forth DM conversation developed, we discovered he was, at that very moment, on trial for converting people to Christianity. This mother was sitting on a bench outside the courtroom desperately praying for divine intervention and reached out to us. Why? Because she had a connection with us.
Growing your following grows your audience, your reach, and your potential for influence. It introduces you to people you never would have known otherwise. And unfollowing people simply makes room to continue to expand that audience.
And here’s the story. A friend who volunteers for us manages one of our organization’s Twitter accounts that happens to be kind of a “John the Baptist” account. People in nations that are closed to the gospel have been able to read these evangelistic and discipling tweets – people we never could have discovered without a tool like TweetAdder. One lady in particular asked for prayer via a Direct Message for her son. As the back-and-forth DM conversation developed, we discovered he was, at that very moment, on trial for converting people to Christianity. This mother was sitting on a bench outside the courtroom desperately praying for divine intervention and reached out to us. Why? Because she had a connection with us.
Argue about how impersonal automation is all you want, but relationships can be forged that never would have existed otherwise. Potential clients, customers, friends, and listeners can be found when we’re willing to drop our self-imposed iron clad rules about social media and start seeing it as an opportunity to break through new barriers and meet new people.
Here’s the bottom line for me… being personal has nothing to do with whether you use automation software or not. It’s about whether you listen, respond, and join the conversation. So if you want to automate your account to grow your reach and still remain personally involved in the flow of social media, by all means, grab TweetAdder. Get your message out.
Here’s the bottom line for me… being personal has nothing to do with whether you use automation software or not. It’s about whether you listen, respond, and join the conversation. So if you want to automate your account to grow your reach and still remain personally involved in the flow of social media, by all means, grab TweetAdder. Get your message out.
Disclosure: Yes, I’m an affiliate of TweetAdder. If you sign up or purchase TweetAdder using any of the links on this page, I will most likely be financially compensated. My review is still my genuine thinking on the subject.
Two other things: 1.) They do have a sweet affiliate program. If you like it, promote it. 2.) It works on both a PC and a Mac!
This article is re-published with permission from Brandon Cox, Editor of Blogging for Income.
