One of the frustrations (and features) of the way Twitter is setup is that unless you follow someone they cannot message you privately and vice-versa.
And in order for there to be two way communication you need to follow each other mutually.
So if I followed a famous celebrity or brand they could message me privately, but unless they followed me back I wouldn’t be able to reply.
Twitter has now changed this.
Fortunately it’s “off” by default
To edit the settings you’ll need to go to your Twitter account settings page and scroll down to this option:
For a personal account it probably doesn’t make too much sense to enable it, but for a business / brand account it might be a good idea.
Thoughts?
Related articles
- Twitter Now Lets Any Follower Send You Direct Messages (gizmodo.com)
- Twitter now lets you receive direct messages from any follower (theverge.com)
- Twitter Now Lets Any User Send You Direct Messages (If You Enable It) (lifehacker.com)
Not sure about the value of this – even for big brands. Could checking this box open the floodgates on spam and trolls? Engage with me first – then you can DM.