Great tweet, looking forward to your next work of art :-)!

There’s a twitter account running from Cape Town called @SM_CapeTown. It seems to exist solely to promote local SMEs and the like. I’m not a fan of that sort of account – it adds little or no value to my social media experience – but, I assume that as far as these organisations are concerned, having their name and/or posts broadcast to the 4,284 followers of @SM_CapeTown makes good business sense.

So, fair enough.

Except, if I were one of those clients, paying for the service, I’d like a bit more attention paid to the manner in which stuff was being shared. Several (or more) times each day, the account appears to auto-RT a random tweet from one of the accounts it follows, along with the message:

Great tweet, looking forward to your next work of art :-)!

Nothing more sincere than being a number picked by a computer and then congratulated… er… by a computer.

Sometimes, this works. The other 99% of the time, the random tweet is out of context and either makes absolutely no sense or is wholly drab and disinteresting, in which case the whole thing just looks daft. I’d love to unfollow the account, but I can’t because firstly, it’s like watching a car crash in slow motion: you just can’t look away, secondly, it can be stupidly entertaining at times, and then thirdly – one day, maybe one of my tweets will be shared.
I can but dream.

In the meantime, here are a few examples of Great tweets, from people whose next works of art we are looking forward to :-)!

We begin with a fantastic trifecta of osteoporosis prevention advice, some copyright issue and a question about lightbulbs. IT GETS NO BETTER THAN THIS! Great tweets, looking forward to your next works of art :-)!

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Then, Hilda doesn’t know if Andre and Hilary are coming along to… her… thing. Will Andre confirm?
Either way, Great tweet Hilda, we’re all looking forward to your next work of art :-)!

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Here’s a tweet from Andre Beukes (the owner of @SM_CapeTown), auto-RT’d by his own auto-RT bot. It’s almost like his alter-ego wants us to know all about Andre’s habits with Vaseline. Eww. On the plus side though, it is a Great tweet Andre, looking forward to your next work of art :-)!

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It pays to be prepared. Guy Fawkes Day in Cape Town may be November 5th, the same as Guy Fawkes Day everywhere else in the world, but you can never get important messages out too early. Even 11 months ahead of time. This is a Great tweet, I’m really looking forward to your next work of art :-)!

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A short compliment with half a twitter link. Have we now reached Peak GreatTweet? What a Great tweet, looking forward to your next work of art :-)!

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Pizza delivery is a cut-throat business in SA. And any company whose social media policies can help it to rise above the rabble is bound to be successful. In telling us what they sell and for how much, Domino’s has really achieved this. In a difficult field, this is a Great tweet, we’re literally looking forward to your next work of art :-)!

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More from Andre’s other account, but this time, it’s an bot auto-RT’ing a tweet originally automatically sent out by another bot. Botception, almost. Great news for Andre though, as both his follower count and his mention reach is up. It’s for these reasons that this can rightly be defined as a Great tweet, looking forward to your next work of art :-)!

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Cape Town Freeway Management Service is dedicated to keeping us all on the road, 24/7/365. Their updates are therefore very important if you’re travelling by road in the Cape Town area, but surely you would be hard pressed to describe them as a “Great tweet” or “a work of art”. Well, you would have been until you see this next superb update about the routine maintenance occurring on the N7 south: it’s a gem! Wowzers! What a Great tweet, Cape Town Freeway Management Service, looking forward to your next work of art :-)!

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The technology to make this system work better surely exists. We can put men on the moon, probes on comets, almost definable iced animals on Zoo Biscuits. We must be able to program a computer to better decide what actually is a great tweet and come up with something more varied and sincere than Andre’s bot is currently managing. No?

I know what you’re thinking though:

Great post, looking forward to your next work of art :-)!

Thanks, guys.