Why Forums Shouldn't Automate Twitter with RSS
Everyone today is looking to make their marketing experience easier and effective, so automation is the first thing that comes to mind. Most people don't mind seeing the occasional link/update that gets posted in their twitter timeline, but is there a point where it gets out of control? Well, of course and I've been seeing a lot of forum owners automating their twitter just way too much. Which brings up the question, why shouldn't you automate your twitter?
It's Annoying and Spammy
Being a person who follows a lot of forums on twitter, seeing constant rss feed updates can get pretty annoying and it usually ends with me unfollowing the account. Also, a random user might stop by to take a look at your twitter feed. Do you think your twitter account will be reputable if every single tweet only has a sentence and a link? People enjoy “normal” tweets and not just a bunch of spam.
Prevents Communication
No one is going to take the time to talk to a bot. If your twitter is full of links and barely any “normal” tweets, then most likely a user is not going to contact you about your forum or your services. Which could prevent a potentially golden member from joining your board. The thing I like about twitter is that it allows you to set up a quick connection between parties, but by automating your twitter account you are hindering some wonderful opportunities to talk to people.
It Just Doesn't Work
If you are managing to get visits and followers from using this technique, then I'm going to take the chance and assume that most of them are bots. I have never seen a twitter account get successful from just tweeting a bunch of links and there is a reason for that. Take the time to look at other twitter accounts that are affiliated with your niche. Do they automate their twitter? Probably not. Taking your time to actually communicate with people is what helps you get followers.
These are the reasons I think that a forum should watch out when they start automating their twitter to post their rss feed. It can make your twitter accounts have a bad reputation and ultimately if someone reports you, then your going to end up with a banned account. Now, don't get me wrong I have nothing against automating twitter, and I do have my rss feed posted on automatically, but its only a few updates a day. While if you own a forum that is even the slightest bit active, then you are going to be posting a lot of links onto your twitter account.
