Twitter is adding a new “Direct Message Cards” feature to help businesses reach their customers easily

Twitter is introducing a new style of advertising that can help businesses reach their customers easily in their direct message inbox. They are calling this the “Direct Message Cards”. Basically, this feature attaches a menu of buttons to a promoted tweet which users are then prompted to click on one of the automated reply. This will then start a DM thread on a particular topic with the advertiser’s bot or the humans that manage the brand’s private messages.

 

These “Direct Message Cards” are similar to that of Twitter’s welcome messages and Facebook Messenger’s referral codes, both of which modify a brand’s opening message based on the link a person click to open a conversation. The difference is Direct Message Cards allows people to pick from multiple conversation starters, advertisers can include up to 4 options.

 

For example, the tequila brand called “Patron” has been using the cards to poll the users on beverage choice. The card firstly shows a menu of different contexts in which someone might want a cocktail, the user then picks one and this will open the Direct Message Conversation with an automated bot or a real human who will then ask the user a series of questions about the occasion. Based on the answers, the brand’s bot or human in charge will recommend a drink for the user to try.

 

This is I think is a great new feature by twitter which can help brand marketers to have a more topic-specific conversations with their customers directly online and eliminate the need to have an awkward small-talk in the beginning. Furthermore, it enables brands to have a more efficient and effective interaction with their customers as the messages and questions sent through would be handled by employees who are dedicated and knowledgeable about that certain topic.

 

I believe this feature is a great addition for the Marketing world, as it will help many companies in many different industries. I personally would love to see this being used in the travelling industry. Some great difficulties when it comes to travelling are to pick a suitable destination and to find out about a certain destination that you are considering to go to. With this feature, you’ll be able to not only get a good destination recommendation, but also acquire a lot of useful information on a certain destination relatively easily from people who are very familiar and knowledgeable about that particular place.

 

So, what do you guys think of this new feature by Twitter? Can you think of any other industries where this feature would be particularly useful?

 

Please share your thoughts and comments below!