Personalization is EVERYTHING

*Editor’s warning: Plenty of good Aaron Lee feistiness ahead*

I receive a lot of emails from people to test Twitter apps or services; however, I only reply a handful of them (that reminds me, I need to reply some of them after this). A lot of emails are pretty much standard emails which people usually blast-to-everyone kind of emails. They throw in their fishing rod everywhere hoping for a fish to bite. I do bite. I bite back at them.

I have received really annoying emails which I immediately felt like deleting or emailing back to them and asking them to go “fish” themselves. I have also received auto tweets which were annoying as hell.

Personalization matters

…Especially when it’s sent to someone. Imagine you talking to someone just like how an advertisement is being promoted, I’m pretty sure they will punch you in the face. That goes the same for emails and auto tweets. They should be burned to the ground and buried so deep that no one can find it. You wouldn’t approach someone and say “hey, please visit my website”, or “hey, I have the best product”. When people approach you in a mall with those lines what do you do? You pretend you didn’t hear them.

Damn Auto Tweets

No one should use auto tweets. Auto tweets targeting keywords and auto sending tweets shouldn’t be used. Why? Because everyone have different emotions. Here is an example.

Situation One

“Just bought a Nikon camera and someone stole it”

Auto tweet: Come buy a Nikon camera from our store *link*

What he/she would do: $%^&*( YOU!

Situation Two

“Looking for a recommendation for a Nikon camera”

Auto tweet: Come buy a Nikon camera from our store *link*

What he/she would do: What Nikon camera would you recommend?

Auto tweet: Come buy a Nikon camera from our store *link* or No reply

If you set up auto tweets this is what might happen. For the first situation, the user is not in the right mental state to even purchase a new camera and the auto tweet is not helping them and the company. For the second situation, the company might have an opportunity however the tweet didn’t help them. I have seen auto tweets that get replies, but there is no follow up later.

These are all examples of course. I get tons of crazy tweets from keywords which I tweeted. I just ignore all of them.

Personal Experience.

I had tons of crazy auto tweets sent to me. One of the best experiences would be last November when I was searching for hotels to stay in Singapore. I tweeted asking recommendations for hotels to stay in Singapore. I received tons of crappy “get great hotels deals here” auto tweets. Obviously, I couldn’t be bothered to look at them even though they had the best deal. However, tons of people recommended me where they stayed when they were in Singapore. Big lovely twitter community J

Then, one company tweeted me with recommendations for a few hotels in Singapore. It was over my budget so I replied that it was over my budget, few hours later they replied recommending me budget places to stay which I could book on their website.

All they did was listen to my key terms (which we will talk more in the future) and sending personal tweets. Did it made me check their website? It most certainly did. I even almost purchased the room till I found a better deal last minute. (sorry guys!)

There are a lot of sites out there that recommend people to send out auto tweets like those above. In my opinion, spend some time on social media listening tools or spend more time listening first, then simply reply to people. Don’t invest in auto tools that nobody bothers.

Have you had experience with auto tweets that you replied? Or personally had an experience with personal tweets that ended up with you purchasing a product? Share with us your experience below.

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