Here's a scenario for you:

You're at a cocktail party. A stranger approaches; you've never seen nor heard of this person before in your life. The stranger sidles up close to you, offers a limp handshake and says "My name is Bloated Self-Importance. Please take my business card and AMAZING new eBook, and be sure to check out my blog right away for even more buzzword-driven nonsense that I'd like you to start sharing ASAP. Don't forget to watch my videos too. Have you watched them yet? What did you think? You're welcome!"

This is how the automated direct message (DM) feature on Twitter is too often used (or abused, as it were). How many times have you followed someone on Twitter either out of reciprocity--they followed you--or seem interesting, and as soon as you've clicked that "Follow" button, you receive a Direct Message with "Click here and learn why I have the fastest growing profile on LinkedIn" or "We need your help sharing our articles--click here to get started!" and similar non-calls to action.

Here's the thing: relationship-building in social media is no different than relationship-building offline. It takes time to build trust. Would you walk up to a stranger and ask them to do you a serious favor? Would you immediately begin trying to sell a product as soon as you've met someone in real life? Because that's what too many marketers are doing on Twitter via the auto-DM. Personally, I immediately unfollow anyone sending me an auto-DM. 2009 was over 7 years ago.

The direct message feature is a utility. It's intended for two (and now larger private groups) to communicate outside the public Twitter stream. It's intended to share phone numbers and email addresses. It's intended to allow a private channel for a dialogue too sensitive for public viewing. It's NOT intended to be another device for marketing spam.

If you have an automated direct messaging system set up, take it down. It's doing you more harm than good.

Originally published 2/27/2015 on LinkedIn.