I believe that tweeting is a form of short, instant communication that it should, due to it's nature and form be current, direct and personal.
It certainly doesn't make sense to set up a tweet for Christmas today and have it fire off automatically. I either remember to tweet it later, or not. If not, I'm sure no harm's been done, and if I do, so much better for me and my christian followers.
I tweet sparingly, when I have something to say. I believe that's the whole point.
Been using Twitter for two years and.. while I'm tolerant of these messages, ultimately I don't like them. DMs are typically used very sparingly on Twitter and getting one as soon as I follow someone reeks of automation and a lack of sincerity. If I get a specific, personal comment, awesome, but a totally obvious automatic message gets ignored.
I, for one, don't like automated tweeting. I tend to tweet interesting articles, links, quotes, and the occasional ramble, but one thing I don't do (and is frowned upon) is responding to people who start to follow you.
The service is certainly useful, just not the automated end of it.
Automated DMs to new followers can be a little off-putting. Because most of the ones I've received are self-promotional messages, some are even affiliate links. But I think it can be good way to say 'hello', some people don't like it though.
From what I've heard, some people schedule tweets for followers in another time-zone. I don't consider it spam at all. Twitter is opt-in anyway and scheduled tweeting is no different from 'normal' tweeting. As a user, you usually can't tell the difference.
Automated DMs are wack. Most of the ones I get are not spammy, but the impersonal nature just makes it tacky and self serving. The people doing it think they are helping themselves with word-of-mouth by appearing interested in new followers, but when people realize the message is automated it has the opposite effect.
Definitely not a fan of automated tweeting. The first time I saw somebody using this, they thanked 7 people in a row for following them and it was like, "WTH?!" And as more followers came in, that's how it was. I unfollowed them ultimately.
"Schedule tweets"
etc..
Is automated tweeting spam? I'm curious what other people's opinions are on the topic....