Twitter to allow DMs without following for verified accounts?

Twitter July 4, 2011 2 Comments

According to a post by The Next Web, Twitter are introducing a feature for verified accounts that will prove invaluable for some, and a nuisance for others. Going against the grain of how a direct message on Twitter actually works, they will now allow users to send DMs to verified accounts on Twitter, without having to follow the account works. While we currently have one-way direct messaging, where one user can send a DM to someone if they’re being followed but aren’t following back, this takes following out of the process altogether. For celebrities and popularity personalities on Twitter this is probably going to become quite annoying quite quickly. Though this new DM feature isn’t yet confirmed, apparently it will include the ability for verified accounts to turn this off. Though we don’t yet know whether this will come as an opt-out or opt-in.

Good news for brands

While this means many celebrities will be subjected to unwanted private messages, this is largely good news for brands on Twitter, particularly those that are interested in running customer service. It’s often the case that a customer query will start in public but will then need to take place via DM, as the company may need to get hold of certain detail such as phone number, email address or customer references. At the moment you have to ask them to DM you, then there’s often a tweet from the customer to say they can’t as they’re not being followed and it gets quite messy. This allows Twitter to function more easily as a place for brands to communicate with customers, removing an unnecessary part of the process. Of course this does go against the ecosystem in which DMs function, so you would hope that this is left only to verified accounts and is strictly opt-in.

What this shows is that Twitter is also keen on developing itself as an easy hub for brands to contact their consumers, in ways that are much simpler than on Facebook. For brands on Facebook, there is no facility for sending a private message to fans (if you play by the rules), so the only real option is to leave an email address they can use, or build a contact form as an app on the Page. This ultimately adds another step into the process however and makes it a difficult user experience.

No longer about followers

What this expected move by Twitter also shows, is that the site is moving away from a reliance on followers to get value from the site, at least for brands. While Facebook Pages are experiencing the hunt for Likes, Twitter seems to be developing products for brands in a way that removes the need to follow people at all. As shown with a recent ad campaign run on their site, Amtrak managed to double their followers on Twitter purely through advertising and without really following anyone back or even sending out much engaging content. This is away from how brands have typically grown followers, when it was always about following people back and sending out interesting tweets. Now it’s moving into the actual promotions you run and the day to day interaction with people, regardless of whether they count as a ‘follow’ or if you follow them. This could be a good thing for Twitter overall, though it will be interesting to see how much they can afford to change the infrastructure without changing what made the site a success in the first place.

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