Sue Waters and I were discussing this earlier this week and we decided to call today, Don’t Auto DM Me day. We came to this idea because automated direct messages are impersonal and don’t really do anything to build social networking relationships. If you want to make a connection with people in your network send a personal message, not a cookie-cutter style message. Auto DMs are a lot like the form letters you get from credit card companies, sure you’ll get a couple of people to respond but, most people will just be annoyed. So please, when trying to build a network of Twitter contacts, don’t use auto direct messages. Tell your friends and use the hashtag #dontautodmme.

There are many approaches to and opinions on building a network of Twitter contacts. One of the easiest ways to find other teachers is to scan through the “teacher” category on WeFollow. You can also try the educator category on WeFollow, but that category seems to have a lot more than just school teachers listed. WeFollow is a user generated list of Twitter users so while you’re there sign up and let people find you. In addition to WeFollow you may want to try one of the methods I described in Seven Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter.

For more on this topic read this article or this article from Mashable.