CYBERSORTER:This week our social media agony aunt looks at unwelcome social advances and how to keep the personal touch on Twitter
Dear Cyber Sorter,
I was on Twitter the other evening and bumped into a couple of good friends. We ended up arranging to have coffee. We didn’t go to direct message because there were four of us.
Then an acquaintance of mine tweeted all of us asking to join in.
She is a very nice person but completely out of context with my other friends.
I felt I couldn’t say no, but it will ruin our gossip because I know her in a professional capacity and my other friends in a private, personal one.
Was it reasonable of her to hijack our social group via Twitter?
CF
Dear CF,
Not really. It's never a good idea to invite or insinuate oneself along to a social gathering without first being encouraged in some way. Look at The Talented Mr Ripley.
All Twitter friends were not made equal and less socially adept users often make these sorts of awkward blunders. The organic open nature of chat between friends on Twitter lends itself to this kind of conundrum.
This is one of the reasons making personal arrangements on Twitter is ill-advised. Unless your tweets are protected, it is more public than Facebook or LinkedIn.
The general rule is that after a couple of tweets, take your conversation off the stream and direct message your close friends, suggesting a move onto a private group message on Facebook or email.
This time, respond gracefully and see what comes of it. You never, know, she might be your next new bff . . . just don’t get in a boat with her.
Dear Cyber Sorter,
I’m a little perplexed :/
My business Twitter account normally picks up two to four followers a day. I like to thank them for the follow. Recently, though, my followers have jumped to 84 and then another 112 in two days. Great! Or is it?
I’ve checked as many as I can and they don’t seem to be spam. Could the trigger be that I recently hit the 1,000 followers mark?
I like the personal touch but feel I can no longer maintain it if this continues, what’s going to happen tomorrow, another 150? I’ve got work to do!
MLN
Dear MLN,
While it’s nice to acknowledge new followers it isn’t essential to having the personal touch. Replying to messages directed at you and following back those who retweet you is a more genuine way of connecting.
Your growth in followers could be down to others putting you on lists, which their followers then automatically follow.
It may be time to consider hiring someone to monitor and manage you online presence – for goodness sake, treat it with some respect. Several very big companies have made the mistake of underpaying someone inexperienced in PR, used an intern to run their social media or ignored the sector entirely, only to find themselves in some seriously expensive PR doo dah.