This tweet of mine struck a chord with many yesterday:
I’ve gotten this type of message on LinkedIn before, but this one was in my Twitter DMs. The woman and I had been following each other but had never made direct contact.
While I still hate receiving this “message from an assistant” on LinkedIn (you’re supposed to be engaging as yourself, unless you’re a company page), I feel it’s marginally more appropriate there than here, since that’s specifically a platform for business connections. One of my favorite things about Twitter is that personal accounts are almost certainly managed by the person themselves.
I get that building relationships online at a large scale can be time-consuming. I get that automation and delegation are useful tools that allow greater outreach. And I get that it’s a pretty decent practice to periodically go through your online connections and reach out to those you haven’t had conversations with yet, to bring that relationship a little deeper. All understandable.
BUT. This just rubbed me the wrong way, and felt like it crossed a line of impersonalism(?).
Thoughts?