4 Reasons why you should send an Auto-reply to your followers

Should you send an auto-reply to your followers as soon as they choose to follow you?

Wrong question……?

I should have asked why shouldn’t you send an auto-reply to your followers as soon as they choose to follow you?

The general feeling or, opinion amongst people is that auto-replies are often robotic and gives a feelingless approach to sending mails. It lacks personal touch and hence is not preferred by anyone.

To a great extent this is true. I hate to see an auto-reply from a website where I have submitted a job or, signed up for something. My normal action when I receive such an auto-reply is to Shift-Delete the mail. I am sure you too would be doing the same and so would millions of others who normally receive such an auto-reply.

So that entire paragraph above speaks quite a bit of things as a response to the question that put in the 3rd paragraph above – Why shouldn’t you send and auto-reply?

But I feel that an auto-reply could help you at some places. And so is the opinion of thousands of other internet marketers who are using Twitter.

Twitter???

Now don’t ask me to tell you what “Twitter” is.

An auto-reply is very important, if you are using Twitter to build your business.

Setting up an auto-reply is extremely simple. All you need is an account with Tweetlater. Just sign up for a free account with Tweetlater at http://www.tweetlater.com. At Tweetlater you can set-up an auto reply very easily. But when you set up your auto-reply just bear the following aspects in mind:

• Do not start to sell yourself or, your product in your auto-reply itself.
• Avoid promotions or, links especially to free stuffs, because everybody knows there is nothing free in this world.
• Make it just a welcome note (about 30 words) and a brief introduction of your personality (about 100 words).

Why should you set up an Auto-reply?

Twitter has millions of users. There are a few thousands who would have setup their accounts and would never have used Twitter. There are yet others who have setup few robots to manage their Twitter accounts and then there are the others who are serious users. How will you let your followers know, the category that you fall into?

An auto-reply can help in many ways:-

Prepare your followers: An auto-reply prepares your followers for your tweets. People have thousands and thousands off followers who tweet every day, at time upto hunderds of times. Do you read all the tweets? You just cannot. So your prioritize your followers in order of whose tweets and DMs to read. Your auto-reply will set this up for you with your followers. They will get a first-hand account of what they can expect from you after reading your auto-reply.

Express your interactivity: Your auto-reply is your first interaction with your follower. He is following your for a reason, but is yet to know your worth at Twitter. A well written auto-reply will show the level of interactivity you maintain at a social network like that of Twitter. Your follower will know that he is following a person who is interactive and might respond to his tweets and DMs and will in some way form a mutually beneficial relationship.

Thank your followers: Your followers are your assets. These assets are valuable and behave like a shareholder in a company. The more the shareholders or, shareholdings the more powerful the company. So when a follower chooses to follow you, he is putting his trust behind you. It is a courteous jesture to go ahead and thank him for putting his trust at you and following you. Your auto-reply can serve this purpose, if your write it well.

Prepares the foundation for your business:- Why are you at Twitter? You are here to promote your business – by networking and selling. The first lesson in sales speaks about preparing your prospects for your sales pitch. If you go out hard selling your product in your first interaction itself, the chances that your follower accept your suggestion is bleak unless you are a Jeremy Shoemaker or, a Yaro Starak. You will have to prepare your prospects for your sales pitch. You followers might be your prospective buyers. In some instances they might become the network to reach your prospective buyers. In both these circumstances, you need to prepare your followers to belive in you and your words. You auto-reply can serve do this for you if you are serious about it.

Spend some time on thinking what you auto-reply should be. Then write it down and fine-tune it over a period of time. A good auto-reply can do a world of good to your twitter activities.