Sliding into someone’s direct messages or ‘DMs’ is a scary move. Many of us refrain from messaging the person we’re interested in because we overthink what to say and don’t want to come across as creepy or overeager.
While it’s intimidating, sliding into someone’s DMs can be a quick and effective way to get something started between the two of you. As long as you’re being safe and respectful, you don’t have much more to lose than a little pride.
There’s no perfect way to make the slide, but I can offer some advice. Here are five guidelines to use when sliding into someone’s DMs while saving somepotential awkwardness:
Take your profile into consideration
Before you reach out to someone on Instagram, remember they can see your profile, too. If you don’t have any photos of yourself on your profile, you may lose some points with the person you’re messaging before the conversation even begins—or they might have no idea whoyou are.
Get in and get out
When you slide into someone’s DMs, your best option is to get outimmediately—that is, you should ask for their Snapchat or phone number. Most people don’t check their DMs as often as they may check their Snapchatnotifications, so by getting out of their Instagram inbox you’re automatically more important than everyone else.
Don’t say “hey”
More likely than not, if you start up a conversation with a simple “hey,” you won’t get an answer back—at least not one you want. Not only does this opener achieve the opposite of helping you stand out, the only thing someone can really say is a “hey” back, and if you don’t have the nerve to jump into flirting, the conversationgoes nowhere.
Don’t overdo the compliments
If you start rambling compliments, something like, “You’re gorgeous, you’re perfect, …” you might overwhelm the person you’re talking to. Try to keep it to one compliment off the bat so you’re not overbearing, although I personally think the best move is to wait and build up suspense within the conversation rather than compliment someoneright away.
Go with what you know
Kicking off your messages with something you know about the person brings a sense of familiarity to a potentially awkward encounter. If you’ve seen this person before in class, the best thing to do so is reach out to about something to do with the class and talk from there. You can say something like, “Hey, I think you’re in my stats class, have you finishedthe homework?”
If you don’t know this person, the best way to message them is to build on something from their profile. If they have a picture of them travelling to Greece, you can send them a message like, “I’ve always wanted to go to Greece, how did you like the trip?”
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