If used right, direct messaging can work wonders for your online presence, building trust through open, free flowing and personal dialogue.
And while the notion isn’t necessarily the most popular, Facebook’s probably known this for a long time, and have finally opened their DM’s (Direct Messaging) out to advertisers as well.
But with great power comes… great responsibility. At the end of the day, personal messaging is quite intimate and you could quickly go from being interesting and helpful, too very annoying and ‘blockable’.
Here’s how you can make the most of the feature without alienating your audience.
1. Competitions
Open up dialogue and get your followers more engaged through framing unique competitions that would require them to participate via the platform. For instance, maybe you ask your followers to send over pictures, workout snippets possibly following your lead, with the best ones being featured on your page and of course rewarded.
Fair warning, these work best once you’ve built a sizeable audience and trust amongst them. When starting out, it makes more sense to stick to simpler contest formats i.e. the likes, comment and share formats.
2. Fielding Complaints
While we’re sure you’d never give one reason to, in any business or form of service (even the free ones!) are bound to be misunderstandings. And seeing streams of complaints can sully a great post or worse yet, your image overall.
Instead approach these situations the way situations the way the pros do, and try and transfer the conversation offline or in this case, personal messaging.
3. Receiving Testimonials
As a service provider/influencer on the come up, we could all use some positive commentary to keep us in high spirits and more importantly rather, tell the world we are legit and here to stay! So the next time you receive a positive review, DM that person, thank them for the same and ask if they mind you use them as a reference.|
4. Q&A’s
Showcase authority in your field through offering advice and answering queries personally. Don’t take a reactionary approach to it though, if you have a sizeable following, show an active interest in assisting your fan base, assign times for active Q&A’s and let them know.
Take some of the best questions and your respective answers of course, and post them publically. As with the testimonials, make sure to ask them first.
If you’re feeling a little brave, host a real-time Q&A. Make things even more interactive by addressing comments and questions real time. Unless you’re excellent at multitasking, have a friend log on and manage the same through a desktop.
5. Offers & Promotions
Another proactive way to use direct messaging to get people involved, offers and promotions! Tons of ways you could frame this, one example would involve you asking them to write in with a specific caption, to receive a discount or promotion code.
This way, you’re promoting your product in a more appealing manner as well as starting a conversation about the same.
6. Keep An Eye Out for Sponsored Messages
While this hasn’t been rolled out in the UAE just yet, it’s only a matter of time. Bear in mind, sponsored messages would only reach those who have engaged with your brand. Here’s where your proactive approach in opening up those chat lines will come in handy. Not only to promote your own new offerings to your followers, but secure some hefty sponsor fees as well.