One of the main arguments for reciprocal following on Twitter is that you gain the ability to send direct messages between accounts without (usually) having the message show up in public timelines. Here are five reasons Twitter Direct Messages are actually quite useless:
- They’re not threaded – They’re quick-blast friendly…not conversation-builders.
- They’re not searchable – That DM you sent to whoozy 3 weeks ago? Start scrolling and hoping.
- They’re not secure – People with 3rd party apps mess up and send DM’s as @ replies regularly. Many users also treat DM’s with a lower sense of privacy than they would emails. DM’s are cut-and-pasted regularly. Ask your honest friends and at least a few will back me on this. To those who argue that DM’s must be secure because banks on Twitter ask users to send account information in DM’s? A bank participating in something does not legitimize or secure the process. It’s a bad idea to send confidential information via DM’s.
- They’re not archivable – If I delete something from my inbox, it disappears from your sent folder. The same goes for deleting from my sent folder and the message disappearing from your inbox.
- They’re the same length as tweets – There was a time when DM’s were a bit longer than normal tweets. No more! There’s simply no real advantage to using DM’s for regular communication.
The question remains, “What are Direct Messages good for on Twitter?” Here, just for you, are five things direct messages are quite useful for:
- Sexually harassing other users – Ask your friends, especially the good-looking ones and confirm this if you don’t believe me. Direct messages allow people (not saying this is a good thing) to say things they’d be severely chastised for in their public stream.
- Requesting that other users pimp your projects – spam much?
- Telling users that their link is bad, spelling’s wrong, and other such mildly helpful criticisms.
- Allowing celebrities to reply to individuals while prohibiting the recipient from taking any joy in the interaction beyond joyously sharing the message with household pets and fellow stalkers.
- Sending your email address, skype name, or other other contact information so the recipient can connect with you in a value-added way.
So the next time you hear a social media expert telling you to follow everybody back because it’s important that people be able to send you direct messages, give pause. There’s a good chance they’re just jerking your chain as they go about trying to boost their follower counts.
If you have a twitter account, what do you primarily use direct messages for?
Damn good point. Anything that you want communicated privately might as well just be an email.
So Twitter DM's should be to give each other our emails?
DM have two sides, and to make most of it, you must know the pros and cons of it. Thanks for telling us your thoughts about DM. I usually use it to say thank, or private chatting with my friends (I don't want to annoy others when say thanks all day)
Most of us have our email addresses posted somewhere online–mine is at the bottom of my twitter profile. People are actually very respectful and only use it for things they genuinely think I'd be interested in so that's been working well for me.
If you only follow people who interest you in some way, I think the DM thing becomes less of an issue. You can use them like another tweet stream for remarks between friends and inside jokes other people might take in the wrong way.
That said, the people who only send DM's they wouldn't blush to discover released in their public stream…will never run into a problem.
I'm a big fan of email, obviously. =)
100% yes! “Thanks for the RT” or “Hey, is your foot still sore?” are all lovely things to send through DM's.
I really appreciate your style of Twitter use. Deference is hard to find and a joy to discover!
All good points. One reason I stopped auto follow was I couldn't stand the endless stream of auto DMs. However, I will admit I've gotten in the habit of using at as a quick email, or an alert to someone to email my real email, or to send someone a phone number. Given that everyone has two or more email accounts, FB, Twitter, blog email etc., it's sometimes easiest to assume well, at least they'll check their DMs on Twitter.
Yes, DM's can be very handy as quick chirps between friends to check up on each other and send contact information. We've gone from pinging to tweeting.
If there were an app available that threaded DM conversations and made them archivable and searchable, I'd be a huge fan. Not sure if/when that will happen. I can hope though!
I find Twitter DMs to be useful when I want to take a conversation offline and one of us doesn't have IM up (usually me). It's quicker than an email conversation where each side makes points in less than 140 characters anyway.
And I also use DMs to see if it's OK to impose on someone's time with a longer email or follow up. If it's not, they usually ignore it or tell me so. But I agree that email is definitely a better way to go in depth in your conversations and better explain things.
For what do I primarily use DM's? Replying to Seth Simonds, of course
Excellent rant.
I loved that the “sexual harassment” was #1. Thanks for the laugh this morning. My coffee-with-a-splash-of-milk nearly came out of my nose.
The good thing, though, on those sad-but-true aforementioned DM's is #4 on the useless list. When I delete them, they're removed from the sender's in-box
What do I use Direct Messages on Twitter for? I use them to save money. For every DM I get that asks me to take off my top, buy a gazillion followers, or join SpyMaster, I put a dollar in a jar. If Twitter hadn't done me the service of including my account in the latest round of mass suspensions, I'd be a millionaire next week.
Bang on observations, fella. I think I use my DM's mostly for either confirming something with someone, a thank you for a RT or a shout out, and maybe a link that someone might enjoy. I'll occasionally ask for a RT, but hopefully very politely and with no pressure to do so. And hitting up my good 12for12k folks
Apart from that? Yes, DM's are pretty useless
Are DMs useless? I say yes, for your reasons and more. But there's another side: In the days after I unfollowed everyone, some tweeps asked if I was going to refollow them. I said I was unsure. They (mostly people I had beyond-twitter relationships with) felt offended, that they preferred using DMs than other forms of online communication. Everyone's different.
Oh, and DMs are archivable; but you have to send copies of “received” messages to your gmail box.
I recently unfollowed somebody I like quite a lot for the very simple reason that he's a bit of a link whore and I don't obsessively click and RT everything I see. He appreciated the heads-up and had no problem with my action because we are connected across so many other platforms. People who only use DM's are a possibly among those who think Twitter will save the world and that every business needs to be involved with social media. =)
You mean emails are archivable? What's in the email doesn't count.
Kicking the “Thank you” action over to DM's is nice although it's less of an issue now that Twitter put a lid on the inter-network publicized blather. =)
I don't think anybody has a problem with forwarding something they've loved in the past and simply forgot to stay on top of. It's just good policy to gently remind them, sir!
Best!
I went to send you a really snarky DM applauding myself for contributing so much to your savings account…only to realize that your account is still locked down! I shall have to wait. =P
Just so you can say mean things that make me cry blue cyber tears, obviously.
Wait, you're saying that I probably only see half of your DM's because you delete them fiendishly? I shall have them sent to my email and I'll miss no more in the future! =)
It's true about the sexual harassment. People get weird online…or they get more like their natural selves. Not sure. Either way, I used to get some great laughs out of the things random people would send me as DM's. Really, really creative people in the world we share.
Have you used Gchat at all? It's a lifesaver for quick conversations and has video integrated as well. I'm a big fan.
I hear you on that. I've been away from email all week so I'm still catching up. It's a lot like standing at one end of a long reception line and seeing the hundreds of people you have to chat with before you can sit down and eat. =)
I've been checking into Gchat, and I like what I see. When I'm at the office it's hard to convince some of the peeps that my time is better spent on chat with one of the creative guys in marketing, or talking with someone away from the university than it is in another meeting. Twitter, however, I seem to be able to get away with. It goes back to that taking a creative round peg and trying to hammer him into a square “MBA” hole.
A week without email? Good lord what was that like? Was it the paradise that my friends keep telling me it is?
When I am responding to several people in a short period of time, I sometimes use direct messages so that my other followers don't have extensive amounts of @xxxxx tweets to read that they might not care about. Other than that, the only direct messages I receive lately are spam!
<<<Wait, you're saying that I probably only see half of your DM's because you delete them fiendishly? I shall have them sent to my email and I'll miss no more in the future! =)>>
Yes. That's what I'm saying!!
Or, what I said, at least. Note to self — FINISH the coffee before posting on the Internets 
This may sound like semantics, Seth, but I think it's more that those are five potential weaknesses with DMs or five “warnings” about DMs as opposed to why they're useless. To wit, Twitter DMs weren't designed for threaded conversations, so saying they're useless for them is a bit like saying your car is useless as a way to cross the Atlantic. Knowing the limitations of DMs certainly helps you use them more effectively (or not mis-use them), but limitations alone don't make them useless.
Mind you, I'm not a heavy DM user, and wouldn't mind if they disappeared if for no other reason than to take the spam with them… but I do find them useful, particularly as a variant on IMs or a quick way to pass on useful information to specific friends. But if it's mission critical information, I'm really old-fashioned and don't use Twitter or email: I use the phone!
I agree. However, “five potential weaknesses of Twitter DM's” while the most accurate, is also not a very strong title. Perhaps I went overboard? I find that comments can be a great place to clarify any perceived misinformation. Good spotting, sir!
I like that you call it “mission critical information”…yes! Although I tend to use email more than the phone. It's nice to be able to refer back to conversations…perhaps I don't have a strong a memory as you? It's nice, for me, to have mission-critical items in writing.
Point taken on the title, as yours is far more dynamic. And I agree about having a paper/email trail to help remember key points and paths. Still, I do find the phone the only way to know for sure that I have communicated directly to the person I need to with no worry about spam filters, network failures, or anything like that. Doesn't mean there isn't also an email trail, though.
Hi Seth, I'm not buying into the worthlessness of DM's. But I can appreciate, as Greg Pincus points out, that they might be better described as weaknesses. However, those said weaknesses, don't really bother me in the least. And, of the good reasons for DM that you list, only #5 is of value to me. As for #4I was waiting for @aplusk to DM me, but it didn't happen and so I unfollowed him in retaliation.
Without DM, Twitter would be far less useful. You can receive DM's to your email and as text messages. This is super helpful when you are out and/or need to communicate with people to arrange a meeting spot, etc. I don't have all the email addresses or phone numbers of all my Twitter friends, nor do I need them as I can communicate with them effectively via DM. DM's are great for communicating when the content isn't right for public consumption such as a comment to a friend, a reply to a question, a business inquiry, or any kind of request – and I'm not talking about spam type requests.
DM's are quicker than email if they go to your phone as a text message (that is, when Twitter is working properly.) And, if you are already on Twitter, it's easier to send the message via Twitter than switching over to your email client, especially if the person you are communicating with is on Twitter at the same time.
Granted, you never know when a breach might occur or when your Twitter client might fail you, but I hardly think this qualifies as reason to feel that DM's are worthless. I treat DM's as semi-private — meaning I try not to send things that might cause me a headache if they were to get out in the public domain.
I don't agree with you here. DMs are useful for passing on confidential information OTHER than email addresses. It's also useful for making comments about someone who is following you which you would rather they didn't see!
I'm intrigued by something you've said here. “If I delete something from my inbox, it disappears from your sent folder.” How do you do that? I've not found a way of deleting other people's tweets from my timeline.
I only use DM's to let peope know I just emailed them…
Kidding!
DM's are alright. I mean I'll use them if I feel the conversation I'm having w/ someone would be better suited for the phone. So being lazy, I simply DM them. Plus I may be thinking I don't want to clutter the stream with a “hey did you watch the bachelorette?” conversion.
I know quite a few people who use DM's to alert others to sent emails…just like the people who use tweets to alert others to sent DM's. It's a vicious circle! =)
Step it up a notch and send the DM saying “find me on skype” … it's always more fun to see the face of the person you're enjoying a conversation with!
I'm all set on talking about TV shows. No time for them! Perhaps when I'm old.
Thanks Dave!
No, DM's aren't very good for passing on confidential information because they're not especially secure. Trashtalking is best suited for…well, it's never really a good idea so perhaps it doesn't matter where you do it? I'm uncertain on that one.
I'm afraid you've confused Direct Messages and Tweets. Hmm.
Yes, you're right about the phone calls. I'm a big fan of using skype in conjunction with google documents to work on writing projects. Very efficient.
I think the only spam filter you can use on a live conversation is the brutally honest “dude, you're putting me to sleep right now” =)
What you say about the speed of DM's being sent as text messages makes sense.
Not sure about the rest. We are each the captain of our own boat though. Sail on!
When I first started on Twitter all of like 2 months ago or so, I used to DM's to meet people I wanted to build a working relationship with, that is… UNTIL… I realized bots had taken over DM's & most folks simply don't read them.
So now I just use it when someone sends me a DM, guess I'm one of the few lonely Twitters who reads his DM's, maybe I need more women in my life or at least a new hobby. =)
All the Best,
~Carlos Duran
http://twitter.com/CarlosDuranLive
Perhaps a few international women? =)
I read all of my DM's (~40/day) and they seem to work well as a different type of twitter stream. Most of it's just “you on skype?” etc.
Hobbies are good. Collect the whole set!
Actually, I communicate with several colleagues on Twitter — not sure why, just got in the habit, and it works fine. Updated version of leaving a note on the counter, I guess.
The fact that there are people who misuse it doesn't mean it's entirely worthless.
Ahh, but I don't believe I said “entirely worthless.” =)
It makes sense to use a DM like leaving a note on the counter…except it's a note that you have no real way of keeping track of. Great for blurbs though.
In the end, if you find that something works well for you, please ignore me. Twitter is many things to a variety of people. I delight in that fact and understand that we all walk away from the party with a different back of left-overs.
Thanks!
Just another against-the-grain post from Seth that violates the misconceptions of the average person using Twitter.
Thanks for being un-average, Seth, and please continue to buck
the common logic on social media and Twitter specifically. They'd
be wise to put you on staff over there in SF, but I'm not sure they
could take it.
You are a pioneer, Sir… your legendary un-follow of 30k people
still makes me laugh! Right on, Seth, nicely done…
-jef