Twitter has an interesting new strategy to get you DMing with brands

Promoted Tweets are an inevitable part of using Twitter. They’re an effective way to get people to engage with brands, either by following them, or getting them to tweet out stuff for the chance to win something.

But now, Twitter is going a step further with Direct Message Cards, and wants you to slide into the DMs of your favorite corporate twitter account. It sounds awful, but it’s not.

With a Direct Message Card, brands can create visually eye-popping tweets that have a direct message call-to-action feature. Click it, and you can enter a one-on-one conversation with that company.

Direct Message Cards can be shared through paid, promoted tweets, or through organic tweets, and it can be used in a few different ways.

The most exciting, in my view, is the potential for bots. Patrón Tequila, which has been a beta tester of Direct Message Cards, has used the feature to launch a messaging bot called Bot-Tender.

Bot-Tender will appear in your feed as an advert. By DMing it with a few select words — like ‘pool,’ ‘party,’ and ‘cookout’ — the bot will give you personalized tequila cocktail recipes. It’s something I can imagine being used in a variety of situations — like retail, food service, and more.

At the very least, it shows that Twitter is serious about playing catch-up in the bot wars. A war, I should add, that Facebook and Microsoft are decisively winning.

And then there’s the fact that for lots people, Twitter is an integral part of their personal brand. These people aren’t likely to engage with Promoted Tweets if it means that their followers will see it.

Direct Message Cards gives them a way to engage with brands in a way that’s discrete, and way more intimate.

This feature is currently only available in a limited beta for Twitter advertisers. Those wishing to road-test it should speak to their Twitter representatives.