subject: Twitter Direct Messages - It Doesn't Have to Involve Such a Shotgun Approach [print this page] Twitter Direct Messages - It Doesn't Have to Involve Such a Shotgun Approach
People tend to disregard most direct messages on Twitter, I only skim through mine quickly to look for blog entries, or I use Tweed Adder to filter out the DMs that don't contain links in, i.e, to filter out all the spammy sales pitches.
If you're a social networker or E-marketer, when you're thinking about DM strategies, first ask yourself how you'd approach your inbox and what links you'd be willing to click on and why. Here are some thoughts about making your DMs stand out.
To link or not to link
That is the question. As a marketer, if you include a link, it'd likely to be automatically viewed as a sales pitch and ignored. If you exclude a link, then driving traffic involves another stage, getting the viewer to click on your profile. Damned if you do, damned if you don't? Perhaps not...
If you do include a link, forget about a cold-sell, it simply doesn't work, people expect more. so instead, try directing them to your blog, and add the word blog very early in the post, as when skimming messages, as people do, you need to grab their attention immediately, they might not even read the whole post!
Alternatively, try offering something for free, link them to an Ebook or better yet, a series of free videos. The effectiveness of this is predicated on you having selected targeted followers to begin with.
The main benefit of not having a link is that you don't come off a money-crazed spam marketer. A lot of people use programs to filter out the DMs without links in. You could be really sneaky and add a broken link that they could easily copy/paste into their web browser and adjust one character for it to work.
Alternatively, a mention of your blog or what you're about is a friendly way of getting people to check you out that will stand out against the spam.
Asking a question
To grab people's attention, a pertinent question is a great tactic. Some people recommend just asking someone 'how are you?', which might work to get them to look at your page and perhaps you can work a mention of your blog into a 'tweetversation'.
The problem with 'how are you?' is that it's not relevant to your marketing or networking project, unless you're affiliate marketing stress products! Instead, one idea would be to reference your blog in some way, perhaps even just 'are you a blogaholic?'. You'll at least grab enough of their attention for them to read to the end of your message!
Whatever question you ask, if you can get communicating with people, other's that you add around that time will see conversation on your time-line if you start @ing these people, encouraging them to follow you because you're obviously not just running an automated marketing account.
Linking your social media accounts
Another popular approach is to ask people to join you on another social media platform, typically Facebook. What surprises me is that a lot of people don't mention what they are about, why they are here, they just expect people to click a stranger's link, knowing nothing more about them than that they use at least two social media sites, which is a bad idea, especially when a lot of people won't have the patience to click to your Twitter profile first. It's obvious, but if you try this, tell people more about yourself, and better yet, give people some incentive to find you elsewhere by mentioning what kinds of different information people could find there.
Monitor
Use a link shortener like Bitly so you roughly gauge your click-through rate through the link shorterner's stats, adjust your messages, and reassess.
Special characters
To get your message to further stand out, applying some special characters work wonders, especially if you can find some that are relevant to your subject matter.
Timing
Be aware that the Twitter message limit is roughly 250 per account per day, and a Twitter client could easily send all those off within a couple of hours, so choose the right hours! The busiest time on Twitter is lunchtime in America (1900-2100 GMT), so that should always be the preference if possible.
Save some hassle
DMing is major hassle when a Twitter client like Tweet Adder will automate the task for you. Tweet Adder's let you choose how many messages to send at a time, how many seconds to space them by, has a handy list of special characters you can add, and it removes people from the messaging list so that you don't message the same people twice, the headache I was getting from my last client, Tweet Tank, which got me added to a few spam lists and could've got me suspended!
Conclusion
I know this list isn't exhaustive, but if you try out as many tactics above at the same time, I guarantee your click-through rate will improve.
Bringing targeted followers to your twitter account and turning them in the cash paying customers is a problem of the past.
