どうも is one of those words in Japanese that have so many different meanings. Words like this makes Japanese very interesting, I think. Anyway, here are some examples of どうも: どうもありがとう。Thank you very much. どうもそうらしい。Apparently so. どうも好きになれない。Somehow I can't like it. どうも、初めまして。Hello, nice to meet you. The word どうも is something even Japanese people do not completely understand, but we use it in variety of contexts. I guess the only way to really know when to use it and what it means each time is to learn by listening to how other people use the word. Sorry if this doesn't help much:/ But I'm very glad that you brought this up because it made me realize that even though I've been using this word all my life, I still don't know the rules of this word's usage!