What Is a DM (Direct Message)?

In a nutshell

A DM is a private one-to-one exchange with another person that nobody else can see. X's Help describes it as a feature that lets you have private conversations with others about posts and other content (About Direct Messages on X). Instagram, Facebook Pages, Threads and others have similar features.

How business accounts use it

Move to DM anything that would expose personal details if written in public: order numbers, booking dates and times, winner notifications, address confirmation. If you first say in a public reply, "We'll send you the details by DM," the other person feels safer opening it.

On the other hand, avoid sending promotions by DM that nobody asked for. Depending on the recipient's settings, DMs from people they don't know land in a separate requests folder and may never be read. X added inbox settings in July 2023 to reduce spam DMs.

Cautions when sending automatically

Automatic DMs are sometimes used to notify campaign winners, or to thank people who reacted to a particular post. Following these three points makes it less likely to bother the recipient.

• Write the message so the recipient can tell what triggered it
• Don't send to the same person many times
• Include a way to stop receiving it if they don't want it

The basics of how to respond are in Rules for handling replies and DMs.

It is also important not to keep consultations received by DM in one person's hands. Decide in advance who in the company to hand over to for replies you are unsure about and for complaints, so replies don't get delayed or differ from person to person. How to build such rules is covered in How to write social media rules and guidelines.

In SNS TOWN

With X auto DMs, you can send fixed text or text written by AI, triggered by a reply, like or repost on a post you choose. Every DM ends with a notice that replying "STOP" ends further messages. You can also notify campaign winners by DM (campaigns).