Dive Brief:
- Twitter is rolling out a new opt-in feature that allows users (only a selected group at the moment) to send and receive direct messages (DM) from users who do not follow them. Previously, DMs could only be sent between two users who mutually followed each other.
- For marketers and brands, this now means they can communicate with customers and potential customers in a more private format. This will be especially helpful to large brands who receive a lot of customer service communication on Twitter.
- Marketers looking to reach journalists with an embargoed story can now use Twitter, which many journalists prefer, to send the information privately.
Dive Insight:
What this change truly holds in store for marketers and brands has yet to be seen. The main obstacle to this feature being widely used is the prevalence of spam on Twitter. There is a huge risk of spammers ruining what could be a useful feature for marketers. If no one opts-in to the feature because of spam, it could potentially become useless.
