DMing on Twitter shouldn’t count as “really” reaching out. Or should it?
I get it, social networks are all the rage (see my roundtable post coming soon.)
But as with all formal business, why would you leave something to chance? With the unreliability of the ever-growing Twitter, is it really fair to assume that I’m going to get your DM for assets in a timely manner? Or am I being naive and thinking that I have a choice in the means of communication?
Twitter is starting to become one more thing journalists and PR people have to check for professional communications after we check MySpace, Facebook, email, AIM, and Voicemail. Is it a fair assumption that Twitter, with all its real-time carefree social glory, is yet another mandatory inbox?
I hope not.
It would be nice for everyone to stick to email… I mean, I even have a hard time remembering/keeping track of stuff I get/say via AIM. Part of that’s probably my fault for having such shitty organizational skills
wait, people dm you for stuff on twitter! awesome! it beats filling up your inbox, no?
Tom, it’s not really your fault here. While the twitter servers are finally managing to keep up with the explosion of messages, the usability / manageability of the interface really hasn’t. The third-party solutions (eg. clients & websites) don’t seem to be designed for this either.
I think one of my problems with DMs is that I don’t actually get notifications via email, and I don’t find out about DMs until I actually click on the Direct Messages thing in Splitweet… while at the same time I have Outlook open all day long.
You can setup twitter to notify you via e-mail when you get a DM, it also contains the full message. Seems to work for me and I don’t think I’ve missed a DM yet.
Exactly – it’s that I could potentially miss something important if someone sent it to my Twitter…if I’m travelling, I’m not always checking Twitter (though I do have it on my phone.) I’m torn, as it’s been an incredibly valuable networking and information-dissemination tool for me I still think of it as something not necessary to check often. Except when I see I missed something important.
And then I’m mad. Email me! Call me! Don’t rely on DMs…