If you’re one of the fancy Twitter users with a Verified Account, sending and receiving Direct Messages (DMs) is about to (possibly) get a whole lot easier for you.
DMs are a great way to interact semi-privately for an exchange or two on Twitter, and allow for people to talk without lengthy email chains or even exchanging email addresses- it’s a bit less of a commitment. However, it’s necessary to be followed by the recipient before you DM them, which is mostly handy- otherwise, the Twitter cool kids would have a uselessly full DM box and they’d be unable to use the feature.
The feature is mostly a boon, but perhaps you’ve encountered a situation where you can’t DM someone you legitimately have a reason to contact. You can’t make them follow you, so in that regard the function is useless. Last summer, I was in contact with the social media coordinator of a popular chain restaurant about their Foursquare policies. The restaurant requested I DM them details, and they weren’t following me, so it impeded our communication. Quel horror!
My first world problems aside, it does create a barrier for brands on the service that may have a disproportionate number of followers to follows, so relaxing the requirement totally makes sense. And the Twitterati do have the option of turning the function off to prevent unauthorized DMs from coming their way. Should this be rolled out to all of Twitter, or is the potential for abuse too great?
[via TNW]
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