It seems that everywhere you turn, no matter what your endeavour, there’s always someone with a bit of ‘free’ advice for you.

Wondering the best route to take to get to your aunt Mary’s house? There’ll be a neighbour or friend who went that way back in ’84 and they’ll have some strong opinions as to which roads to avoid and where to eat along the way.

Considering what DVD to rent for a family movie? Just pop online and check out the latest reviews – folk aren’t backward in coming forward on the internet.

Not sure what web hosting company to use, what WordPress theme to choose, whether to create your own products, which affiliate products you should promote? There’s a ton of questions you’re forced to ask yourself if you want to create a business online and there are thousands more opinions as to the answers.

A couple of days ago, a very prominent Internet Marketer (John Reese) declared that he was shutting down his Twitter account and, in effect, abandoning his 25 THOUSAND followers.

It was John’s decision. He made the call in the interest of his own business. He said that it sucked too much of his time and that Twitter was clogged up.

Whatever his reasons and whether or not you agree with his decision we all have to respect that it was HIS decision.

Where, I believe, John boo-booed was in the way that he suggested that closing your Twitter account was the only sensible strategy to employ. Now, he didn’t come right out and say this but because of his prominence in the internet marketing world, that’s the message that came across.

So, should you listen to John Reese?

Should you close your Twitter account?

Do you want my opinion?

I haven’t a clue!

Or, more specifically, how could I possibly comment as to whether you should shut your Twitter account, or open up five more, or concentrate on Facebook advertising, or put your efforts into PPC. I don’t know your business – that’s your job.

John’s job is to run HIS business. In his opinion, not being on Twitter is the right choice.

The key is this…

Everything you read about business, whether it’s online or from a good old trusty real-life book, it largely opinion. Yes, there are some proven strategies, but even they only hold true if a bunch of circumstance prevail.

My advice, which you’re free to ignore, is never blindly follow anyone’s advice! Always assess it against YOUR business, YOUR circumstances, YOUR resources. After all, it is YOUR business, not mine nor John Reese’s.

Now, hand me that 1982 road map and let me find the best way to dear old Aunty Mary’s house.

Peter

A very quick post on the subject of Twitter again.

If you are plagued by a DM box overflowing with useless auto DMs from folk who can’t grasp how to use Twitter effectively, here are a couple of options for you to consider.

DMWhacker and SocialOomph (formally Tweetlater)

Both tools will rid your DM box of all incoming or outgoing messages with DMWhacker offering a few more options to discriminate which DMs it gets rid of.

DMWhacker will delete the little blighters in a flash (well, a few seconds anyway) It just sits on your bookmark bar and is there whenever you need it.

Go here:  The DM Whacker site

There’s full instructions there but they’re very simple to follow, look:

Drag the bookmarklet: ‘DM Whacker’ onto your bookmark bar and navigate to your DM page. Click the new bookmark and a menu appears in the Twitter sidebar. Choose your options and zap them! Careful though, there’s no recycle bin, once they’re gone, they’re gone!

SocialOomph requires that you sign up for an account (just the free version will do for deleting all of your DMs)  Once logged in you can do a host of things regarding DMs. As this is the tool that most people use to send automated DMs (they’re not ALWAYS useless, the auto DM function can be VERY useful) you can also opt out of receiving auto DMs that are sent from SocialOomph if you wish.

However, we’re just dealing with deleting the things.  You’ll need to go to the DM menu and choose ‘Purge DMs’.  Select your account and time frame and click ‘Purge’.  It takes a bit longer than DMWhacker but it is just as permanent – once deleted there’s no going back.

Go here for SocialOomph

If I was to choose one, for the basic job of deleting ALL of my Twitter direct messages, it would have to be DMWhacker – it’s quick, integrates easily with the Twitter web interface and it doesn’t ask for your Twitter login credentials.

Enjoy your clutter-free DM box.

Peter

EDIT: Did you know that when you delete a DM that’s been sent to you that it’s also removed from the senders inbox too.  Similarly, deleting your sent items will remove them from your recipients’ inboxes. Weird huh, and it explains the curious mystery of the disappearing DMs!