The Anatomy of Twitter Automated Mass Direct Message

So Twitter is the new web phenomenon and it is still shy of its third birthday. Since it has come to the scene, we had heard much about it in the media; about its popularity and security breach. So what is twitter? This is how I define it:

1. It is a social (networking) site J where users can send short messages to each other in the same manner as SMS (short message service) and mainly targeted to the mobile market; but a lot of people still use the web to twit messages including myself.
   
2. It is a "PUSH" application where when a user publishes a message all the registered interested parties will automatically receive a copy' this is almost similar to RSS feeds. When using the Application Programming Interface to develop third-party client, it then becomes a "PULL" based broadcasting system.
   
3. It is also a marketer best friend ( but I do not see how Twitter as a company can monetize on it), people on Twitter are more likely to click on a URL link, due to the fact that only 160 characters are allowed, either by curiosity or in hope to find out more about the subject of the twit.
   

The popularity of Twitter is a funny one. When the web first surfaced, technologists were discussing its lack of multimedia and its static type, then came Youtube and Facebook among others. Twitter on the other hand is based on text and that's all! Takes much of its features from SMS but it does not even allow for smillies L
J but I am sure that they are probably working on that and hopefully it will not cause any problems to Twitter current internal commands.

Anyway getting back to the subject at hand (see blog title), let me explain how to implement automated direct messages on the Twitter platform.

Twitter has some cool functionalities but it has a lot of restrictions. First, there are two types of messages available on the platform:

1. Public Messages – this type of messages can be viewed by anyone with an account on twitter.
   
2. Direct Messages – these messages are private messages that you send to people and hidden from the public stream. They are a good of making sure that the recipients notices (not sure they will read it but that's a start).
   

The platform allows you to monitor (tracking) words in the public stream which is very useful if you are running an automated Mass Direct Message campaign. So how does the mass message works?

1. You can only send DM to people who are friends define by Twitter as:
   
   1. Friends are those who follow you and reciprocal meaning you need to be following them as well.
      
2. Mentions and Replies messages are very useful for automated messages and will be of greater value if you do not have many friends.
   

To have an automated mass Direct Message, you need to do the following:

1. Setup a (ro)bot which tracks certain words on twitter.
   
2. Every time a track word is flagged, the bot should send a public reply to the originator.
   
   1. A public reply will make your message available in the public stream.
      
   2. A mention of the message originator will bring your message to his attention thus a very good marketing tool.
      
3. Use a bot to send a DM messages to all your followers to make sure that they have a look at what you have to say.
   

Nothing is guarantee but when I run a test for a friend online shop, he was getting at least 100 visitors a day when he usually only gets about that a month or so. They are tools that can do the job but there is a chance of you getting banned by Twitter.

I have written a working prototype in JAVA, so it should be able to run on any platform, get in touch with me for a copy. It is free but I do not want to post it online in case it against the Twitter terms and conditions. You can also DM me on @armelnene.