This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Effective uses of Twitter’s DM feature
I think that people have a love-hate relationship with Twitter. Back when it was my favourite social network (Instagram is winning by a nose), we were swingin.’ It was simple, and not overcomplicated. Now, with quoted retweets, sponsored tweets, random hashtags, and auto-verify Direct Messages, it’s my perception that people have started to dislike Twitter. So much that they now loathe checking their Direct Message box.
I on the other hand, am beginning to make friends with my DMs. As we’ve mentioned before, Twitter has expanded the character limit so you can now include a lot of text in your messages, and message multiple people at the same time. I’m not going to say you should start sending your theses to your family and friends, but as a publicist, when Twitter is my secondary option to following up on pitches by phone (and more often the first option, as most people don’t like phone calls nowadays), it’s great to get a Direct Message as a reply. The private reply allows us to carry on our conversation “behind closed doors” so that the world doesn’t have to see a convo that’s just between us two, and the longer character limit allows for a longer, e-mail-like response instead of having to send short bursts of messages like we might have done before.
As with any tool, it’s in the how you use it. I remember years back getting a DM from a reporter asking me if I wanted to go for lunch with him. And just last week, I got an inquiry about a possible work opportunity AND communicated with a blogger who, for some reason, kept getting bouncebacks from our e-mails. Those are some of the most important business requests you can get! If you’re still not checking your DMs just because you think it’s all spam, check again.
Have you warmed up to Twitter’s DM feature recently too, and if so, why?
