Since i started tweeting in April 2008 I adored Twitter and have made some wonderful friends, connections and had some amazingly real, fun and meaningful conversations. I have personally connected with many of the top people in social media and count them more like friends than contacts. I’ve connected with people from many different industries, learnt so much about business, visited all sorts of fab websites I would never have known about otherwise and so much more – all in 140 characters or less! I loved it, Twitter was my number 1 social media site.

This was until recently, when I did things a bit differently – I have since realised that certain techniques were not serving me well… I was not connecting with tweeps in the same way I used to and finding I was drifting over to Facebook much more than before.

So, here I honestly tell you my 3 big fat Twitter mistakes, the impact they had and how i plan to fix them.

1. I STOPPED sending Auto Direct Messages to new followers

Yes, you read that correct – I believe i made a mistake by stopping sending Auto Direct Messages to new followers!

Whenever auto direct messages (Auto DM’s) are mentioned things get a little heated on Twitter with the AGAINST camps considering auto DM’s as Spam, which i do agree to a point – with so many people simply pitching their business, website or blog – It is definately not cool.

When i did send auto Dm’s I sent a very short VIDEO HELLO – just saying Hi and introducing myself – not my business, no pitching, but introducing myself! I have to say the response i got from this was outstanding!

To be honest – i personally wouldn’t send an auto DM unless it was a video.  I really do wish more people would use video to connect. To date,  I think I have received a grand total of 4 video hello’s from other people on Twitter. Just think about it for a moment the power of video causes an almost instant connection, photo’s and text only say so much, video makes you truly real and people will decide very quickly whether they like you – or not, they will feel like they know you already!

For me, making this connection with those who watched my video has formed real friendships which are still going strong! I stopped sending my video after a lot of bad press about the DM’s – but plan to record a new video this week and set it up again. Auto DM’s COULD be used for good – instead of for spamming!

There are several services which you can set up an auto DM with, including SocialOomph (formally TeeetLater) but please think about sending a video – just give it a go, even if it’s a link to a YouTube video.

2. I Started Auto Following

Several months ago I choose to automatically follow new followers, it started out that i set it up only to auto follow on Fridays – For anyone following me on #FollowFriday, but it ended up being a permanent feature for my twitter account.

Before auto following, I used to allocate time to check through new followers and choose to follow those I like the sound of. I thought by auto following I would save time, but the result was I had NO connection with my new followers and vice versa, with very little chance of developing a relationship.

So now no more auto following for me, I shall be sure to check who’s who before following new tweeps, i believe it’s valuable time well spent. After all Twitter is all about the conversation!

3. I was using Tweetdeck to only focus on certain friends

I love Tweetdeck as i have mentioned pleanty times, i also love CoTweet & Seesmic Desktop. BUT, I remember the days when I tweeted from the web – as in Twitter.com Although I was following many less tweeps, I had relationships with more than my main current circle. I blame myself, when I started to use Tweetdeck I set up a group collumn, called “Twitterbuds” for my absolute fave tweeps… It was these people I mainly read the tweets of, as well as my @ messages, certain #tags, keyword searches etc… I feel as though I limited myself by not taking so much notice of other followers, and I am pretty sure I am not the only one!

So I still use Tweetdeck, but I do feel a bit like going ‘back to basics’ and using the web version to keep an eye on the tweetstream and to connect with some more tweeps.

What do you think? Care to share any of your mistakes and how you solved or plan to solve them? Come folow me on Twitter and join the conversation. Just don’t expect me to follow back instantly – do send me an @ message any time to say hi : )