How DMs get sorted
What each category means, and what to do when one is wrong.
How it works
Brand deal: a company offering paid work. It goes to Money when the message mentions sponsorship, a budget, deliverables, usage rights, or comes from a company email address.
Wants to buy: a follower asking your price, availability, or how to order. It goes to Money because a sale may be lost if you do not reply.
Gifting or barter: free products, affiliate commission, or “exposure” instead of cash. It goes to Needs a reply because it is worth answering but not urgent.
Question: an order, refund, or download that will not open. It goes to Needs a reply and is never auto-answered. A canned reply can make a real problem worse.
Fan mail: praise, reactions, and emoji. It goes to Handled for you.
Pitched to you: growth agencies, video editors, or messages like “I can 10x your followers”. It goes to Spam & pitches.
Scam: fake copyright strikes, verification phishing, crypto, or prize bait. It goes to Spam & pitches and is never auto-replied to. Scam signals rank above sponsorship language because convincing scams often look like brand deals.
Other: no category matched confidently. It goes to Needs a reply so you can read it yourself.
Set it up
- 1
Re-file a conversation
Open the card and pick a different Category. It applies immediately and pins the conversation so it is never re-sorted.
- 2
Fix a budget
Edit the Budget field on the card. A hand-entered figure replaces the parsed one and drops the “from …” note, since it is no longer a parse of anything.
Tips to get the most out of it
- A link alone is not treated as suspicious. Brands send links too, so scam detection looks for scam language. A deck link from a brand can still land in Money.
- Praise in front of a real offer does not make it fan mail. “Love your work! We’d like to book a paid campaign” is a brand deal.