Doing the DM shuffle

DM stitching by Pixel23 (some rights reserved)The DM shuffle isn't (just) the kind of dancing I used to engage in as a teenager to the strains of Morrissey, the Inspiral Carpets and Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

It is also my name for a particularly annoying "road block" which anyone who uses Twitter for business will probably have come across.

140 characters are great, but if you are engaging with potential clients or customers on Twitter then there will come a point when you need to go into more depth.

The logical way to do this is usually (although not always) by email... and typically the client, customer (or whoever) will want to send this by Direct Message so that it is kept private.

It is at this point that the DM shuffle begins. Twitter only allows you to send a direct message (DM) to a user who is following you. This blocks a lot of DM spam which would otherwise flood Twitter, but it also means that if a potential customer or client wants to send you a DM (or vice versa) then you have to follow them first.

This gives rise to the "tried to DM you, but you are not following me" messages which I have exchanged with various companies who use Twitter for customer service. This can be pretty frustrating, and it also disrupts the flow of communication... sometimes to the point where you simply decide not to bother.

Twitter have recognised this and the new Twitter business centre which is currently in beta testing will apparently allow "business accounts" to receive DM enquiries from any user whether or not they follow them.

It isn't clear when this will be rolled out and whether Twitter will charge for it. I also don't know whether individuals who use a Twitter account for business marketing (lawyers, for example) will be included or whether it will be limited to business entities.

In the meantime, I have found that a secure "email contact form" on your blog or website (like the one on this blog) works well as an alternative. It gives contacts an easy way to email you privately and it seems to be fairly spam-free (assuming that it has some kind of CAPTCHA protection built in).

Tweeting a link to the relevant page of your blog (or including it in your Twitter bio) lets you avoid the DM shuffle and point the receipient to your blog or website... which hopefully shows how you have helped others with the same problem.

Squarespace has a decent secure email form "widget" which is easy to add to a Squarespace-hosted blog, but other blogging platforms have similar plug-ins.

To me, this is a great way to remove the barriers for clients who want to "trade-up" from an exchange of tweets to a more detailed discussion, whilst also using your blog as an additional business development tool.

The Twitter business centre features may work for this too, but it could well lead to a deluge of DM spam.

http://www.nedsatomicdustbin.com/