Twitter Group DM

My first reaction to hearing about Twitter Group direct messages was negative. “Have a private conversation with anyone on Twitter, even a friend of a friend.” Sounds like a motivation to begin culling who you follow on Twitter. On the other hand I can see possibilities.

Learning more about the feature, I realized someone you don’t follow can’t invite you to a group but someone you do follow can add someone you don’t follow to your group, thus you are being introduced to and having a private conversation with this third party. This is not the same as suddenly being pounded with DM’s from friends of friends.

I discovered I had been added to a group started by a friend experimenting with the new feature. Well, I like him and the one other member to date is cool so no problem. My reaction was similar to what I found in the Mashable article below that came out today. It sounds problematic until you use it with a group of people you actually want to converse with and then it’s OK.

I noticed that I have the ability to add people to the group he created. Like you can do on a Facebook group. This person “named” our group. I don’t see this part of the feature mentioned elsewhere. “Naming” the group makes it sound like a group for tweeting on more than one occasion.

I was able to @mention another member of the group within a tweet. Of course, each tweet has the normal character limitations. Photos can be added.

I was able to DM the link to this article to the group (where tweeting links in 1:1 DM’s is more challenging).

I read that you get “notified” when you are added to a group. It came to me as an email. My Twitter group DM didn’t show up in my Twitter “notifications” but then those aren’t for DM’s. It did show up in my desktop DM messages on twitter.com. It DIDN’T show up as a “message” on my Twitter phone app or in my Hootsuite direct message inbox.

Note that “delete” only works for what you see. Once you’ve posted something you no longer control it.

Updates from friends:
Peter Gregg attempted to DM Kare Anderson and I and our names didn’t show up even though we all follow each other. I’m going to try to initiate one from me and report back.
Our discussion on Facebook.

I was able to initiate a Twitter Group DM to Peter, Kare and Serena. I named the group. How to do that? Look for the pencil where the group members names are after you initiate the first tweet.

@pfgregg, @SusanGilbert @Serena and I are now experimenting with our Group DM. I just found something cool. I posted the link to a tweet and it embedded it into the chat. Just like you can embed a tweet into WordPress:

2015 is the year of PR, says @Serena of @BusinessWire, bc of sharing, human behavior changes. @USCAnnenberg #APOCusc pic.twitter.com/LwbACAS699

— Clint Schaff (@clintschaff) February 4, 2015

HOWEVER, the difference is that with a WordPress “embedded tweet” as you have above, you can retweet or reply right from WordPress. But with the embedded tweet in a Group DM, you can only view it. If you click on it, it takes you out of the chat and to Twitter.com in your web browser, where of course you could then do something with it (mention, RT etc).

Serena just discovered that the 3 dot possible actions on a posted tweet include a “share by DM” that leads to the opportunity to DM a posted tweet to a Twitter Shared DM.

Here is the try it now link from Twitter.

Or you can just click on the messages tab on Twitter.com on your desktop or you phone, click on “new message” and the ability to add a series of Twitter names should show up.

After you enter a name it will appear below like this

When you click “next” you will enter your first tweet to the group.

AFTER you tweet your first DM tweet to the group, a pencil will show up in the upper right, and you can name the group.

Mashable’s test run with Group DM. Feb 4.

The introduction from Twitter January 28

How To Use the New Group Message Feature article from Twitter

I cross posted this article on LinkedIn.

The immediate uses seem like they would be for personal accounts. There should be uses for brands. Research?

I can see where this might work for groups working covertly where not everyone already knows everyone. Could the government demand records?

It might work for:
Brain storming
Quick tech fixes

I see some people are using it to create a special occasion for fans to talk to a celebrity.

Obviously, it could be used for anything you use group texts for but I think the point is that you have a much wider mix of people on Twitter.

It will no doubt be used for spam. Twitter put in some safeguards, hopefully they will work. Use the block and report features when necessary.

How do you see using this new Twitter feature?