Recently Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) blogged about his frustration with the current capabilities of Twitter DM’s. His issues come off as being very selfish with no regards to the person on the other end of the conversation. Communication is a two-way street and not all communications warrant the same device.
Below are his qualms with my response to each set. They are broken up into 4 general sections: Closing off communication, The nature of communication features, Private messaging etiquette, Opt-in conversation.
Closing off communication
1.? I can?t delete them all. So I ignore them all.
Ignoring a form of communication is myopic, selfish and un-caring. It’s not just about you. Its a conversation, not a broadcasting system.
The nature of communication features
2. I can?t put them into folders. So, no way to prioritize them. Or, if you are a Gmail addict, no way to tag messages.
3. No way to resort them. No way to see old messages. Or messages from someone specific. Email has those features.
6. You ask me a question that requires a 500 word response but you ask it in a place that limits me to 140 characters. Thanks for frustrating me.
DMs are meant to be a personal, instant form of communication which are inherently time sensitive. If you want to save & organize these interactions take these links/conversations and move them to a more conducive environment. It’s up to all of us to figure out when a conversation will change communication forums. The beauty of Twitter is that it FORCES you to NOT be long-winded. Give a pithy answer that paraphrases your unwieldy tome of an epic statement. If it warrants more, bring it to Gtalk/AIM/Email or any other longer format communication medium.
Private messaging etiquette
4. No way to forward messages. That means they are useless for business. If you ask me a business question I MUST forward the question and get approvals. No way to do that on Twitter.
5. No way to BCC messages. In email I can copy my boss blindly so you can?t see that I?m doing that. That?s a way that I can keep him involved in my life and up to date on all the wild promises I?m making to people. That?s why I don?t make promises on Twitter or Facebook.
9. I can?t CC, or copy other people, or send a message to a group. Things that email has been able to do for years
10. I can?t move my DM?s out of Twitter and into other systems. That?s something that I?ve been able to do with email for years and it?s served me well. Even Hotmail lets me forward emails to Gmail.
Re-sending private messages to others that they are not originally intended for is surely litigious in nature, if not deceitful by merit. Any form of correspondence should be deemed private unless stated otherwise. If you do not have the permission of the original sender then you should not be sharing this information with anyone else. This is common etiquette. Getting approvals are even referred to in point 4.
Opt-in conversation
7. I can?t respond to your own DM?s unless you follow me. Seriously. The design of Twitter?s DM?s +is+ that lame.
8. I can?t put an auto answer onto DM?s so that I can tell you to get a clue and to send me email instead.
If they are not following you there is a reason. For some reason or another they do not want to hear what you have to say. In this case if you want to hear what they have to say and speak to them privately THAT’S where this issue comes into play. Think of it as a one-sided conversation. This keeps unwanted DMs to a minimum as you control who and how many people you follow.
Taking Action
11. UPDATE, this just came in via Twitter from @TraciKnoppe: ?@Scobleizer Use your great influence for good & get Twitter to chng the DM req. & API limits. Make it so number one. :P?
Anyway, I hate DMs. Don?t you? @ev can we get these things fixed? Yes, that?s my form of direct messaging @ev because this feature has caused me so much hell over the years.
INSTEAD of complaining- which are just unactionable concerns- take the time to actually get involved to move the conversation forward. Putting out a vague request to do something in an open forum is not a direct dialogue with someone who is empowered to make those changes (@ev). Creating an actionable plan of how things can change, opening dialogue up for discussion on what should change, and bringing a well thought out plan with set goals are what should be done.
Goals and plans are attempting to solve the problem. Complaining and broadcasting is like sitting in the middle of a lake with a fishing line out. You’re just putting it out there with a hope of a bite possibly. Finding out what type of fish frequent the spot, where they gather, what bait they like, what proper tools to use and time of day is having a plan for fishing with the goal of catching the most fish.
Are you just complaining or are you changing things?
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Seriously? If Robert hasn’t discovered @dacort’s DM whacker by now, it’s not our fault.
BUT – that said? After the slew of auto “thanks for following me please check out my website/ebook/fill-in-the-blank” messages that have shown up in my DM inbox of late – I’m less inclined to complain about the fact that he ignores them.
I only follow/am followed by 1/5th of what he does/is on a regular basis and I can’t imagine the number of times I’ve wanted to find a way to follow someone but block DMs or filter them out.
The sad part of the thing is that the misuse by some makes the correct use by others too much of a hassle :(
Lucretia Pruitt’s last blog post..It’s the Contest I’ve Been Hinting About!
I remember when Robert asked that if you wanted to actually get a hold of him to Tweet him as his EMAIL was unmanagable – LOL; times do change I suppose
I don’t know that Robert is necessarily wrong. That would imply that there are rules for Twitter. I don’t think there are “rules” for using Twitter. Preferences, etiquette to a degree, but not rules.
I also think that someone who has 100′s or even 1000′s of unread DM’s has two issues – Firstly, they have become victims of their own success. Achieving celebrity, in any medium comes at a cost. This is one of those costs. Secondly, recognize the fact that you don’t have time to answer them all and setup a system that allows you to get to the ones you do want. Tweetdeck, Twhirl etc all have filters, searches etc that allow you to thin the chaff from the wheat to some extent.
One last point, I take issue with saying that Robert is complaining and instead he should be doing something about it. You assume two things, one he can do something about it, two that he doesnt have the right to complain because he is popular and should focus his attention on doing not saying. Oh to be that perfect. Robert Scoble, Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Chris Pirillo or any other popular blogger/Twitter user are all human being first. Allow them their humanity before you impose rules on them.
simon salt’s last blog post..Money Makers on Twitter
@Simon Complaining is stating your opinion without a way to change your current situation. Its all sound and fury. Its to hear yourself and take solace in your situation. No one has the right to impose negative talk without action on themselves OR others, including weblebrities.
Dont talk about your problems talk TO your problems.
WORDS ARE POWER.
The more you say something, “This is horrible, i hate this, My body hurts” etc you bring more of it to yourself and solidify it more into existence. Instead of just exacerbating the situation, do something about it. Say how you want it to be. Say how it can be better. See it happening. Bring it into fruition.
It’s the difference between saying “Less War” and “More Peace”. One youre focusing on the issue at hand, the other youre focusing on where you want to be. It’s also the difference between saying “No War” and “Peace by doing…”. One youre focusing on the problem at hand, giving it more power/energy, the other youre focusing on where you want to be AND giving a way to get there.
If you dont have a solution or some thoughts about how to get a solution, keep it to yourself until you do. Dont give an already daunting situation more power by vocalizing its weaknesses without talking what can change it.
While your theory is great as just that, a theory. You are setting expectations of your fellow human beings that have never and will never be met.
Having unrealistic expectations of others leads to frustration and rejection. First seek perfection in yourself, when you achieve it, then point out the imperfections in others.
The title of your post “Why Robert Scoble is Wrong” immediately takes the position of pointing out his imperfection. You aren’t taking your own advice. You have an issue with what he has said, yet you offer no solution to his situation. Do you have 1000′s of unread DM’s, do you have 1000′s of followers to generate that level of communication? If you do and you have come up with a method for coping with it, share that, not your frustration at Robert being imperfect.
simon salt’s last blog post..Money Makers on Twitter
@Simon I actually DID point out a solution. I said if he doesnt like how DMs function and they arent suiting his needs then he needs to take his communication elsewhere. The MAIN title is Different Communication for Different Media.
Perfection is elusive. Once you change something another thing pops up with a desire to change it.
Maybe Robert served a purpose by stoking the conversation so others can start to find answers. It isn’t too much to ask if someone says something to be constructive. Case in point: If someone comments on a post with “I like it” or “I dislike it” thats all well and good but it doesnt move the conversation forward. THIS back and forth here with you now IS moving the conversation forward.
Its not too much to expect anyone to actually think out their thought fully before stating it. IF youre going to say something make sure you have considered all sides. Come to the table with your pros and cons and get the conversation going towards a tangible solution by talking to people about what could be done.
Gentlemen, please!
Take a look at the civil and highly productive way Chris Brogan approached the issue of twitter features.
1. He moved the discussion to his blog.
2. He mused about a solution and put this out for discussion.
3. He has a huge swath of users and developers in dialogue about his suggestion, which is that Twitter create two channels, one conversation channel and one “platform” channel.
Why is this important?
1. Others are involved, because many people have retweeted his post.
2. His blog is getting more traffic and signups; he’s probably growing his twitter follower-ship as well. Win-win.
3. The quality of the discussion is high. Ideas are being exchanged. This kind of actual exchange of ideas is how science and technology (heck, human knowledge) grows.
4. This discussion subtly puts pressure on twitter to respond *to the underlying noise/signal problem because it has engaged so many people.
The way you and Scoble are approaching this does not rise to that productive issue. It isn’t about how Twitter can improve. It also isn’t about solving the problem individually. It’s just ranting.
Scoble is not obligated to solve this problem for Twitter, or even engage others in this discussion.
But he IS obligated to solve it for himself rather than add to the noise on Twitter by ranting.
Some ideas:
– Sift through DMs and create FAQs.
– Change your Twitter bio to focus on how to contact you. Also put this in an auto-responder to new followers.
– Hire a VA to help organize response to DMs, if answering them is a priority. Not terribly expensive…especially if they are substantive (see next idea).
– Consider the possibility that he should write a book IF the DMs are substantive and not just peevish. The boss should like that…
– Consult with others at his level to see how they have solved this problem.
This is the second peevish communication I’ve seen from Scoble whom I follow but don’t DM. The first tweet was essentially “prove to me you are worth following and I may follow you back if I find you interesting enough.”
This is an invitation to DM. Is this part of the problem?
One thing I have learned is that Twitter needs to be integrated with other technologies to be useful or else you will drown in the noise. I’d like to know what technologies people find most useful for this!
I sympathize with Twitter stars like Scoble and the problem of twitter noise. But someone at his stature should be leading discussions of how to solve it, not whining.
@Susan Very wise salient comment. It was never the point of my post to lay out a plan for augmenting Twitter’s DM features or solve Scoble’s DM issue otherwise. The point was to point out that different forms of communication deserve different mediums as you point out yourself.
This actually IS the beginning of the discussion towards solving the DM issue. I spoke up for people’s valid concerns of privacy & relevancy of the medium. Robert Scoble was only talking about his concerns, which may be others concerns as well, but completely leaves out a huge group of people.
Maybe the answer is to find a better Twitter tool. Maybe the answer is to find a different format like Chris Brogan did. Maybe the answer is to augment Twitter’s DM capabilities. OUR answer is to strike up this conversation, debate the issues & fully flesh them out. Best you believe that Twitter is listening to our conversation as I’m sure keywords concerning Twitter are monitored. And i gather people are directly talking to Twitter higher-ups about what could be done. It is up to Twitter to implement these changes if they deem it need be.
We can not do anything more than debate about the merits of expanding/keeping DM features with the various reasons as to why or why not. Neither I nor Robert Scoble works at Twitter and can change their time table for implementing changes. As for now, if DM capabilities don’t suit someone’s needs then they need to find something else that augments it until DM eventually may do so.
Thanks for adding to the conversation and moving it forward.
Nice rebuttal, Damien. I added a link to your post from my own rant regarding Scoble’s hatred of Direct Messages.
http://g2th.com/?g=8n57nv
I don’t think twitter should be used as a one way channel of communication either. I think Scoble comes across as arrogant in his comments. I am increasingly questioning tactics of marketers in social media, which is tough since I am in marketing myself. Don’t mean to do a shameless self promo, but I just posted about it: http://tinyurl.com/8jc3pd