Twitip

by Robert Dwyer of The Wellesley Wine Press – Follow him @RobertDwyer

A subtly confusing aspect of Twitter, even for people who have been using the service for a while, is understanding the differences between replies, mentions and direct messages. These concepts are confusing because they’re different than E-mail and aren’t necessarily the same as on other social networks like Facebook. The goal of this piece is to help well-meaning people from inadvertently annoying others on Twitter, or worse, accidentally sharing private information publicly.

This is part 2 of a 2 part series about replies, mentions and direct messages in terms of how they’re used from the Twitter web interface (Read part one here). Today we’ll talk about mentions and direct messages.

Mentions
A mention is when a Twitter @username is included anywhere within a tweet. Think of it as a way of tagging someone in your tweet. For example “I can’t think of a wine shop that uses Twitter more effectively than @BinEndsWine“.

Every user who follows you will see this tweet because it doesn’t begin with an @. Each user mentioned in the tweet will see it in their Twitter feed -and- it will also appear in their list of “Tweets mentioning”.

How to use mentions:

Mentions are a great way to flatter people and to endorse other Twitter users. They’re also a great way to critique a business in such a way that your followers see it -and- it catches the business’s attention.

For example, if I wanted to give Comcast grief for not fixing my sister-in-law’s cable television service I could say “Hey @ComcastCares, I’m really bummed to hear that you’re not taking care of @DCSas. Step it up!” Comcast would see this, my sister-in-law would see this -and- everyone who follows me would see it.

How not to use mentions:

Unless you’re sure that you’d like all of your followers to see your response to another Twitter user, it’s better to use a reply than a mention.

Things you may not have known about mentions:

• Twitter itself didn’t always support a “Tweets mentioning” mechanism, however several Twitter clients have for quite a while. People generally want to know when people are talking about them so it makes sense that Twitter now collects mentions to make it easy for us to see what people are saying about us.
• Mentions are subtly powerful. Facebook recently implemented the ability to mention people in a status update as well.
• If someone mentions your username without “@” you will not see it appear as a mention. Sometimes, when someone has something negative to tweet about a business or a person and they don’t want the other party to know, they might intentionally leave off the “@” -or- mention you by name instead. There are ways to “listen harder” on Twitter if you’re keenly interested in knowing what people are saying about you.

Direct Messages

A direct message is a private form of communication between two Twitter users. There are several different ways to send a direct message. The most common is to click on a username in your Twitter feed and then on the right side of the page you’ll see a hyperlink to “message”:

Click on that and a box will appear that will allow you to type a message that will only be visible to that user and will not appear on the public timeline:

You can also send a direct message by beginning a tweet with “D username”.

How to use direct messages:

Direct messages are great for when you want to keep certain information private, like your E-mail address, phone number, or the fact that you’re out of town.

How not to use direct messages:

Direct messages aren’t threaded in any way, so if you’re replying to something someone said with a direct message, always provide context.

You can only send direct messages to someone who follows you. If you would like to send someone a direct message in response to a request they’ve made for a response via direct message, it’s acceptable to send them a reply requesting they follow you so you can send them a direct message. But understand that this restriction is in place to avoid people getting spam direct messages they don’t want.

Things you may not have known about direct messages:

• There are services that people use that trigger automatic direct messages whenever someone follows them. Be aware of this when sending someone an authentic direct message shortly after someone has begun following you as it may be mistaken for an automated message. If you really want to thank someone for following you, consider a reply mentioning why you followed them or respond authentically to something they say.
• The default setting on Twitter is that a direct message triggers an E-mail notification. Consider whether your direct message is urgent enough and in need of privacy. A reply may be more appropriate.
• Some people think that Twitter direct messages could eventually replace text messages.

Question of the Day: What other nuances about about mentions and direct messages weren’t obvious to you when you first started using Twitter?