What's your definition of Twitter spam?

I have my own ideas of what is Twitter spam - too many promotional tweets, for example, or too many repeated, automated tweets.

But then again, I always tell people 'spam is in the eye of the recipient - if they think you are spamming them, then you are, whatever you think.'

Well I seem to have got a taste of my own medicine. On Twitter, I keep any eye on tweets that include the name of my home town, so that I can see who's tweeting and what's going on. The other day I spotted a local business making what appeared to be its first tweet - something along the lines of 'trying to figure this out'.

So I jumped in, became their first follower, and welcomed them to Twitter. I used the person's first name, to show it was a personal message, and I also said 'you might be interested in this - ' and included a link to my first 'introduction to social media' workshop in Lewes, which happens to be taking place this week. I guess this was my mistake.

It seemed logical to tell them about something relevant happening in their own town, and I probably wouldn't normally have mentioned it when first making contact but for the time factor - but maybe it came across as pushy. Something I'm not generally known for being, apparently.

Whatever the reason, I had no response from this person, not even when I sent them another note the next day to say 'Did you get my message? Let me know if you need any help with twitter..' Uh oh - my second mistake. In my keenness to make contact, I probably compounded the first error!

I checked their homepage, and they were now following one person (not me!)  Plus, they had started tweeting. I was puzzled and a bit hurt - why wouldn't they want my help? Wouldn't it be natural, as a newbie, when there are so few tweeters in a small town, to follow those who are more experienced in order to pick up tips and develop contacts? Not to mention just friendly to respond to a personal note?

'Relax', said my Twitter contacts, 'they probably didn't see your tweets, or are just finding their way round the system.' Maybe. But I think it's more likely, as one person pointed out, they probably thought I was spamming them, and in that case, I've learnt a lesson or two - in particular, good intentions count for nothing.

Comments

[LouiseBJ]

Hi Robin, thanks for sharing this experience. It sounds like your enthusiasm got the better of you here! From what I know of you, that would be the only reason for what happened. So easily done - a great lesson for the rest of us.

[Robin Houghton]

Thanks Louise - yes, it's all a learning curve, isn't it?!