Direct messages a.k.a. DMs can be a scary place sometimes. Lots of odd robotic “collab” requests. Weird men saying “hello, beautiful,” and much more. For influencers, I am sure there are a lot of hateful messages as well. I once DMd an influencer because she said “um” before every frame in her story and it drove me nuts. But then I realized there is no good to come of that and quickly deleted it.
There are not *too* many stats out there on these conversations because they are private. But I was able to find that one in every five organic stories gets a direct message. And I’m sure that number multiplies per follower count.
So what’s the point?
The point is, there can be magic in the DMs.
Sure, feed posts get a lot of traction, but I know personally when I post something in my stories that people feel strongly about, I get a ton of responses. Maybe it’s a heart eyes emoji when I share a photo of my cute baby daughter. Or a laughing emoji when I share a relatable TikTok or Reel. I remember last winter when I was pregnant and shared a question whether or not to get the owelet sock (a very polarizing baby product), I had SO many responses. And lots of advice on other baby products. It was overwhelming that I didn’t ask a public question again on baby products. I’ll stick to texting a few trusted friends. But that’s not to say I wasn’t grateful.
There are so many conversations going on behind the scenes that we don’t see. We work with influencers at my company, and they share screenshots of story metrics on campaigns we work with them on so we can track them for reporting, and sometimes we get some gems that share actual DMs/conversations. Here, followers may share important information we can relay to our client like how informative their story was or even intent to purchase. I know these conversations are meant to be private, but I wish there was more data on the DMs that Instagram would share (not necessarily the messages themselves but how many).
The DMs are a place where authentic, one-on-one conversations are taking place in social media. People are relating to each other, sharing information and connecting. While we can’t all see what’s going on or how many messages are being shared, this is where the magic happens.
What are your thoughts? Slide into my DMs.
