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Last week Twitter added a new feature that changes Direct Messages to make them much more powerful and useful. Now Twitter has enabled a feature allowing people to let anyone send them a Direct Message. Formerly you had to follow someone before they could send you a Direct Message.
That requirement sometimes thwarted communication on Twitter. People had to tweet you and ask you to follow them before they could send you a Direct Message.
Now, if you turn on this feature, you can allow anyone to send you a Direct Message, even people you don’t follow on Twitter.
If you’re concerned that this will open the floods and result in you getting thousands of unwanted messages, don’t panic. This feature is turned off by default.
While you may not revel in the idea of having this feature for yourself, you may be able to use it to communicate more effectively with others. If someone has this feature turned on, you can send them a Direct Message without asking for them to follow you first. This could open a new avenue of communication for you that you didn’t have before.
What Is a Direct Message
A Direct Message is a communication on Twitter that is private between the parties involved and doesn’t appear in the Twitter Stream. You may want to use Direct Messages to relay private information. For example, a company may ask you to send your address via Twitter if you won a contest, are owed a refund, etc.
[tip] Twitter recently allowed Group Direct Messages between more than two accounts. [/tip]
Unless a person has allowed anyone to send them a Direct Message, that person must follow you before you can send them a Direct Message.
You can send someone a Direct Message by going to their Twitter profile page and clicking the gear icon. Choose Send a Direct Message.
If you click the icon and don’t see “Send a Direct Message” as an option that means:
1. The person doesn’t follow you and
2. The person hasn’t enabled everyone to send him a Direct Message.
[note] See Twitter’s About Direct Messages page for more information about Direct Messages. [/note]
How to Let Anyone Send You a Direct Message
If you’ve been wishing you could get more Direct Messages on Twitter then you’re in luck! You can now get Direct Messages from all 300 million Twitter users! If you want to, that is…
To let the entire Twitterverse have the power to send you a Direct Message:
Go to =>
- Settings by clicking on your profile picture in the upper right corner of the screen =>
- Security and privacy =>
- Direct Messages =>
- Check “Receive Direct Messages from anyone” =>
- Click the Save changes button
After you save your settings people will be able to send you Direct Messages on Twitter without you having to follow them first.
Note that you can block an account from sending you Direct Messages, even if you’ve allowed anyone to send you direct messages.
Sending Someone Else a Direct Message on Twitter
You may be able to use this new feature to send Direct Messages to others whom you want to contact using Twitter, without asking for them to follow you first.
Twitter can be a highly effective way of contacting businesses directly. The response time for tweeting a business often tends to be much shorter for contacting them on Twitter versus email.
The next time you want to contact someone on Twitter, check to see if you can send them a Direct Message first. Even if they don’t follow you, you may be able to reach out via Direct Message.
Some businesses may want to encourage Direct Messaging to avoid the public forum of Twitter. They may have more incentive to provide customer service to someone who sends them a Direct Message to keep the issue private.
Or perhaps a business may want to ask for suggestions from customers for new flavors of ice cream or pizza topping ideas. By using Direct Messages on Twitter it could avoid its email being flooded and keep the suggestions private from its competitors.
Poll
Do you use Direct Messages on Twitter?
Your Thoughts
Are you excited about this new Twitter feature? Are you going to enable it for your Twitter account? Do you look forward to sending Direct Messages to others who don’t follow you on Twitter? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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* Twitter photo (edited) courtesy of mkhmarketing via Flickr and Creative Commons
Hi, Carolyn, this is an interesting one.
I quite often want to send a direct message to someone who’s not a contact but I rarely receive one worth reading. It all looks very spammy.
Would you say there’s a demand for a function that blocks messages with the words ‘follow me’…?
So I won’t be turning on this feature but I hope everyone else does 🙂
Hi Donald, You’re right, Direct Messages can be a powerful communication tool but so many people ignore them because the medium has been exploited by people using auto-Direct Messaging asking new followers to connect with them on other social media.
Many people don’t even check their Direct Messages any more because so few people on Twitter use it for meaningful message. You’re right, the ability to block spammy auto-responses would be a welcome feature on Twitter!
Hi Carolyn,
It seems like a good feature, even though I don’t use direct messages much. The direct messages I have received in the past are mostly spam or auto messages thanking me for following them.
I will test it and hopefully it can be useful. I use Twitter a lot, and I believe that direct messages should be a lot more important than it is today.
Thanks for letting me know about this Carolyn. It’s the first time I’ve read about it.
Hi Jens, I completely agree with you. Direct Messages have the potential to be very powerful so perhaps this new feature will help move people away from spammy auto-responses and towards meaningful messages.
I’m glad you learned of this through The Wonder of Tech. Twitter seems to be accelerating the pace of introducing new features so I look forward to seeing what comes next!
Thanks for sharing..! I would admit that I don’t know about this new feature from Twitter, it was really awesome tips to me.
Actually, I think that direct message is really important for building relationship with other users amount of the interest.
However, It own advantages and disadvantage of using direct message. Honestly, that for only building relationship, and not for self promotion.
Thanks for sharing this feature, I will get back to twitter and turn it on now.
Hi Kimsea, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Excellent point. Like any social media tool, how you use it makes a world of difference. If you’re only talking about yourself you won’t be successful. No one wants to read nothing but promotions from someone. Reach out, ask questions, show you care about others and you’ll be much more successful.
Being able to communicate with someone via Direct Messages on Twitter is a privilege. We shouldn’t squander that privilege by spamming others.
Sure, I agree what you said…! Using private message for communication with other people in Twitter easy to make as spam. However, if we use that for communicate with other friends, or some people who have know you, it will helps you closer to them. thanks for responding..
Hi Kimsea, Yes, if we use Direct Messages wisely for real communication, instead of spammy messages, we can make the most of this format for communication. I hope that Twitter users make the most of this new feature and that it does turn the tide for Direct Messages.