A guide to effective Twitter direct messages (DMs)

To contact a individual people via Twitter, you have two choices:

• “Reply” to them by placing “@” in front of their Twitter name
  • Ex: “@cbreecopy has a great new blog post, check it out!”
  • All of your followers and cbreecopy’s followers can see the tweet
• Direct message or “DM” them (see Twitter’s explanation of direct messages)
  • Nobody else will see the message

Both options are great marketing opportunities. They are also, unfortunately, a great way for spammers to reach Twitter users.

When direct messaging, avoid these common mistakes:

• Copy and pasting the same mass message to followers. You aren’t fooling anyone — it’s obvious that it’s a mass message and your followers will feel unimportant (if they even read it at all).

• Not offering any value to your follower. If a call to action in the direct message only benefits YOU and YOUR business, NOBODY ELSE CARES. Ex: “Check out our Web site: http://shameless-promo.com.”

• Too generic. So many direct messages are identical. “Thanks for following!” Or, “I look forward to sharing information with you” are both examples of generic and over-used direct messages. Be original.

Now that you have a sense of what NOT to do, here are some tips for good direct messages:

• Use their name. Like in e-mail marketing, people like seeing their name. When you use their name, you personalize the message and show that you didn’t merely copy and paste the same message to all of your followers.

• Give a compliment. Tailor the message to each individual recipient. Check out his or her Web site and give a compliment about a recent blog post or the site design.

• Include a call to action. You first gain their interest by using the above tactics, but make sure you benefit from the effort! Invite them to check out your blog or send them a link to a landing page you want them to see.

• Offer a special discount. Give them a special discount as a “thank you” for following. Include a coupon code and a link so they can put the discount to use right away!

• Encourage interaction. Let them know that you’re a reliable source; invite them to ask you any questions related to your industry.

If you don’t have time to devote to personalized direct messages, just don’t do it. Your mass messages are a wasted effort and can actually do more harm than good. Twitter, like any social media, require time to get results. It’s simply not enough to just have an account floating around on the Web. Set goals, make a plan, have a strategy and monitor the results.

Don’t have the time? Contact me or fill out my online quote form to receive a free quote for social media management services.