What Are Direct Messages on Twitter?
August 23, 2010 by Retweetie
Filed under twitter tools
You have noticed that people have said that you should “DM” them. What does that mean? A direct message or direct mail is a short note that is sent not to the whole Twitter following but just to one person, the person that you identify to send it to. It works just like email works, only
you are limited by the number of words or characters you can use and the entire thing is contained on Twitter rather than on your email lists.
Why Use Direct Messages?
There are many times when you will want to use direct messages instead of posting the information directly on Twitter’s boards. For example, let’s say that you go to Twitter.com and update on what you are doing. You send a short message out stating that you are looking for help on a blog post you are writing. Instead of having people send you “@” messages, you tell them to send you direct messages or a DM, as they are commonly called. The benefit here is that you will be easily able to share your message with whomever wishes to respond to you, but because you have them send back as direct messages, you can interact with them on a one on one basis without being in front of the crowd.
There are some situations in which you should always use a direct message:
You are sending private information to someone that you know. It is never advisable to send private information or identification to anyone over the Internet unless you know them personally. Twitter is the same way. You should protect yourself.
You want people to share personal information with you. Never request this information otherwise.
You need to talk about a private topic, perhaps a business opportunity.
You want someone to read something but do not want to allow others to do so. You know the person and want to say hello, personally.
Direct messages can only be sent to those people who are following you. If you want to send a DM to someone that you do not know, you first have to request that they follow you, usually using the Twitter “@” function.
Direct messages can be abused by some people. If you are getting too many from one person and you do not like that person, you may wish to un-follow them, which will stop the messages from coming through.
