TIP: You may also want to read “Why so many URLs are suddenly unclickable on Twitter.”
Want a short URL to remember to share this specific post with new folks? Just tell them to visit bit.ly/BestTwitterTips
Because different interfaces create and display Twitter messages in different ways, depending on your interface, you may have an entirely different idea of what a retweet is than someone else does. And also because tweets that look similar can act in different ways, people take a long time to learn how messages on Twitter work.
Here are the twelve things that confuse people the most about tweets, retweets, replies and direct messages.
► 1. Tweets that start with “@…” are mostly private and won’t be seen by many people.
These are known as “@messages,” and are pronounced “at messages.” As private as they are, there is a trick you can use to make @messages be seen by everyone. And it can help you make friends quickly on Twitter.
Some people call this Twitter preventing you from eavesdropping. Here’s how it works: If you are @Girlfriend on Twitter, and @Boyfriend sends you this tweet:
@Girlfriend Dinner tonight?
None of @Boyfriend’s follower’s will see it unless they also follow you. (However, it can also be found in Twitter search, or if someone visits @Boyfriend’s Twitter page directly, e.g. Twitter.com/Boyfriend.) The most common error is sending a tweet something like this:
@TweetSmarter is very helpful—if you’re looking for help, contact them.
None of your followers will see this tweet unless they already follow @TweetSmarter! You need to rewrite the tweet so more of your followers can see it, and the easiest way is one of these methods:
- .@TweetSmarter is very helpful—if you’re looking for help, contact them.
- If you’re looking for help on Twitter, try @TweetSmarter. They’re great!
For a detailed table covering all the possibilities, see Meg Pickard’s great table of replies & DMs here. If you are seeing tweets from someone you follow that start with “@…” that means that either:
- They are writing to someone you also follow;
- Twitter is having errors
- You didn’t notice that it was a Twitter.com “native retweet” (explained next).
Here’s how native retweets work:
► 2. You will sometimes see Tweets from people you don’t follow
UDPATE: Twitter is beginning to put ads from people you don’t follow into your stream…another way you may see a tweet from someone you don’t follow.
There are two main forms of retweets. One is sent out looking like a regular tweet, but include a tiny retweet icon. This is the Twitter.com “native retweet.” All others use some form of writing in the tweet to let you know it is a retweet (see #3 below). It’s confusing, because Twitter prefers the kind they created, and so don’t provide much information on the other kinds of retweets (again, see #3 below).
What you need to know is how to identify one of the special kinds of retweets, or it will look like people you don’t follow are posting tweets in your timeline. As Twitter says “If you see a message from a stranger in your timeline, look for the retweet icon – the retweeter should be someone you follow.” See the white highlighted area in the picture below—this is what the retweet icon looks like:
However, many Twitter clients will let you easily edit retweets. But when you do, what are the rules of etiquette for how you can edit a tweet to turn it into a retweet? Start here:
► 3. Retweets need to include the username of the original tweeter, and not necessarily the author or website usernames.
Don’t get me wrong—it’s perfectly FINE to include the usernames of an article’s author or website—it’s just not required to make it a retweet. Twitter actually has rules regarding this, but they are not strongly enforced. The general idea is that if you see a tweet and then make a tweet of your own as a result, you need to credit the person who wrote the tweet, and crediting anyone else is optional. Here are some handy guidelines:
- What are the standards for retweeting?
- Retweet Glossary, Syntax and Punctuation
- Tips and benefits of being brief when retweeting
► 4. Twitter turns some things into links…but only if you do it right
If you write a bunch of characters that start with “http://” Twitter may turn it into a clickable link for you. So, for example, if you type “http://blog.tweetsmarter.com” into a tweet, it will appear as a hyperlink that users can click on, e.g. http://blog.tweetsmarter.com. But if you only write “blog.tweetsmarter.com” it only might become a clickable link. Why? You should start URLs with ”http://” and there must NOT be any space after the //
But even then, it could be turned into a WRONG link. If the URL is the last thing you type in a tweet, you should be fine. But otherwise, make sure you have a space at the end of the link! Without the space, Twitter may think that what you wrote next is part of the website URL.
Two other things Twitter turns into links are #hashtags and @usernames. The same rules apply: If the #hashtag or @username isn’t the last thing in your tweet, be sure it is followed by a space. However, some punctuation marks are okay, for example @TweetSmarter: will be turned into @TweetSmarter: but if you’re not sure, put a space after the #hashtag or @username to make sure the link is accurate. And that there is NOT a space after the # or @. So an error might look like @ TweetSmarter —which will NOT be turned into a link in a tweet because of the space between @ and Tweetsmarter.
► 5. That funny “#” sign can be a menace or a friend
If you put a # in front of a word, Twitter will turn it into a link, and some websites might display your tweets. This is called a “hashtag” and would be written like this: #hashtag. Some people believe it helps their tweets be seen by more people, and so they figure using more is better. Wrong. They make your tweets hard to read, and using too many often hurts more than it helps.
Generally if you don’t understand how to use hashtags, avoid them. And usually try not to use more than two or three per tweet. (One or none is often best.) Only the most popular or current #hashtags generally have any beneficial effect on your tweet being seen by more people. Here are a few references about hashtags. Of course, if you have a deeper understanding of how hashtags are used, sometimes it makes sense to use a bunch of them in a single tweet. But not usually.
► 6. How do tweets become pictures, videos or documents?
Some interfaces make it appear that a Tweet is a picture or video, and people get confused. What you need to know is that you can put a link IN a tweet to a picture, video or document (or anything else that can be linked to). But first, the picture, video or document has to be posted somewhere on the web. See this list of services that make it easy to take something from your computer and post it via Twitter.
► 7. Why did my tweet disappear?
There are a lot of different scenarios possible. One that is often overlooked is that people type what is intended to be a public message into a DM box. At least once a week someone I follow sends me a Direct Message something like this
“Hey @Mom, I’ll bring the potato salad on Sunday.”
And I have to write them back and tell them that @Mom never saw their tweet, because they accidentally sent it to me as a Direct Message!
For other reasons regular tweets sometimes go missing, see this. If you have sent a DM that disappeared, here is one of the weirdest and least-known features of Twitter: If you send someone a DM, and they delete it, it disappears from YOUR sent DMs as well as their received DMs. That’s right, people can remove DMs that you have sent from your outbox by deleting them from their inbox!
If someone deletes their Twitter account (or it is suspended) all the DMs they sent to you will disappear as well.
► 8. Why did my private tweet get posted publicly?
There can be several reasons for this. Usually it’s because you were using “d” or “dm” to create direct messages and you had a typo. (Starting a tweet with “d @user” or “dm @user” turns it into a direct message if that user already follows you.) Specifically, you have to be careful about replying to DMs that you receive by text/SMS. See Twitter explanations for common public DM problems here.
► 9. An awful tweet got sent to me—why can’t I delete it?
You can delete DMs that are sent to you (Direct Messages) just as you would an email message. But if someone send a public tweet, you can’t delete it. It would be like being able to delete other people’s blog posts. You can only delete tweets that you created, or any kinds of Direct Messages.
However, you can hide tweets you don’t want to see from some interfaces by creating a search that filters out what you don’t want to see. The best example of this is TweetDeck’s global filter.
► 10. Why can’t I edit my retweets? Other people do!
The retweet function on Twitter.com creates a special kind of retweet than can’t be edited. Some ways to be able to edit retweets include:
- Use a browser plugin that creates editable retweets.
- Copy/paste and write your tweet by hand.
- Use something other than Twitter.com to tweet from, such as HootSuite or TweetDeck.
► 11. Why do certain retweets behave strangely?
Why can’t I see some retweets?
If someone uses the Twitter.com retweet link (classic retweet) it won’t be seen in some situations:
- Twitter.com classic retweets do NOT show up on Twitter lists. So if you follow someone via placing them on a list, you won’t see ANY of their retweets sent via the Twitter.com classic retweet link.
- Once someone has retweeted a tweet using the Twitter.com classic retweet link, it won’t be repeated in your timeline. So if you missed the first retweet of it, no matter how many more people retweet it, it won’t be shown in your timeline ever again.
Why can’t I retweet certain tweets?
This is most likely because you’re viewing a tweet from someone who has protected their Twitter account. See Twitter’s explanation here.
► 12. I’m getting DMs that I can’t reply to!
If you follow someone, that is the same as giving them permission to DM you. But only if they follow you can you send them direct messages. Sometimes people intend to follow you but forgot or had an error. So if you’re pretty sure they meant to be following you, just send them a tweet something like this:
“Hey @user will you follow me so I can reply to your DM?”
► 13. Bonus answer: “____ doesn’t work or always gives me an error!”
Many Twitter features are a little bit broken at times. Some problems can be easily cleared up by clearing the cache in your browser, so that is a good thing to try first. Otherwise, check out this reference to fixing Twitter problems, or send a tweet to @TweetSmarter with your question.
{ 172 comments… read them below or add one }
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I would like to hide any traces of my account/tweets from a certain somebody, however I’m not sure if there’s a way to do so..
If the person types in my account name (without the @) into the search bar, a list of replies that my friends wrote back to me shows up.. even when the person is blocked. How can I private these?
And is there a way to make your twitter account “unsearchable” ?
You can hide your tweets from EVERYONE who doesn’t follow you, and make it invisible publicly, by changing it to a protected account. If you block the person, they will be prevented from following you with the account that you block, but not from viewing your page, or from following it from another account.
There is no way to hide something from a specific person. Anyone can visit anyone else’s Twitter page—they are all public.
Hi Dave,
this is prob a very stupid question…. if im following someone on twitter (lets say someone famous) and lots of people tweet them every, day, minute and hour….How can i see all the tweets that they are sending them…is this possible?
I have only figured out how to see tweets that someone famous replies to…but not all tweets that they would get?
Thanks
You can use Twitter search to do this, but it’s both unreliable generally and doesn’t show the tweets of people who are excessively spammy or just recently joined.
You can do it either by searching for the username, e.g. search for @Alyssa_Milano or for tweets to them, e.g. to:alyssa_milano (click the links for examples). Notice that in the one case you use the “@” and in the other you don’t, and in the search results you need to click “Top” and choose “All” from the choices that drop down.
Hi Dave, you have probably already answered my question somewhere in here but I am going to ask again. When I send a tweet to someone, and then go to their page and look at the details under the tweet that I am replying to, I do not see my tweet. I see others but not mine. Does that mean mine are getting deleted and not read? Just curious.
Very informative site – thanks so much for the help.
I am a musician and use Twitter to promote my music. After I post a new song I take to Twitter for a quick block of self promotion… I roll through my following and follower list and send quick individual “at messages” to a bunch of followers and followees. Usually something like “@user Just posted a new song and could use your feedback.” At first I never thought twice about it because I thought at messages were somewhat private but I had a few followers tell me recently I was cluttering their feed for about 10 min? Is this a change to Twitter where “at messages” show up to all followers or is it that the few followers that complained happen to be following a bulk of the same users I am messaging? Just wanted some clarification becuase I don’t want to alienate users but I also have the most response from sending one “at message” at a time.
Hi Dave,
thanks for your article.
I blocked someone but I still get this person into my timeline if somebody else I follow retweets the person I’ve blocked. Is this normal? I don’t want to block retweets because I like them, I just don’t want to read it if someone retweets the person I’ve blocked. Is there any workaround for this? Would an app like Janetter or Tweetdeck filter retweets, too?
If you accidentally follow someone on twitter and then immediately unfollow them, will they receive a notification?
First, not everyone gets notifications. But probably your question is that IF they have asked for a notification, would they get one?
I would say that it’s possible they would NOT be notified, but it’s hard to say. It depends on the state of the Twitter infrastructure you are connected with at the moment you do it.
I follow some celebs, no-one follows me. I send occasional that I hope they may read using the button on their Profile page which says for example Tweet to Ricky Gervais (on iPhone app) or sometimes to Reply to a public Tweet they have posted. Ie what did you think of my show? Will my DM appear in their in box. I know that they may not read it of course. I am a bit slow at this, a simple Yes they will or No they won’t would be helpful from u please. I apologise if u have answered for someone else, I’m slow at figuring out but ok once I understand the facts. Ps I’ve set account so no-one can follow me. I can see replies from celebs to questions from tweeters which they in turn answer or RT buy when i look at celeb profile they are not following them or anyone. Do I need to alter my account settings to be followed? Thank u.
Probably what you mean when you say “set your account so no one can follow you” is you set your account to “protected” status. If so NO ONE can see ANY of your tweets, unless they follow you. Click here for Twitter’s explanation of what that means.
If that is true, and you unprotect your account and continue tweeting as you have been, I would say that most of the time celebrities won’t see your tweets, but some of the time they will.
What will probably happen is that someone else—like a personal assisant—will read their tweets for them, and then show the celebrity just a few of them. Sometimes yours might be one of them.
Hi Dave,
I’m new to Twitter but I’m starting to get the hang of it. There is, however, one question that’s been on my mind for quite a while now…
Say i made a reply to the tweet of a famous person I’m following (Lebron James for example), I cannot see my own reply on his profile page.
Is this actually how Twitter works or am I doings something wrong here?
I can see replies of other people but I can’t see mine on his profile page.
I’m guessing they will only appear when he also follows me?
Greets
The same thing happens to me also. I know that my Mentions pass trough fine, as they have been retweeted, but i have never been able to make my direct replies to someone elses twit (hit the reply button) appear on that person’s conversation tree. I’m not sure it’s related to following though as visiting the profile page of the targets of my replies ,while not logged in, i can see the conversation tree opening and there’s messages visible also from peoples that, like me, are not followed by them and that has not been retweeted by anyone. Hope some expert can clarify if this is the normal behaviour of the software.
I’ll use Lebron for examples. What you probably mean is either the “timeline” or the mentions or activity tab. Lebron’s “profile” page is where all the tweets he sends appear. And of course, your profile page is where all the tweets you send appear.
Let’s look at a couple of examples:
• This is where Lebron sees the tweets of everyone he follows. This is called Lebron’s “timeline.”
• This is Lebron’s profile page, where you can see the tweets he has sent.
Although in theory, you can use Twitter search to see all the tweets that mention @KingJames like this, in practice, Twitter won’t show all tweets there. Twitter’s free search results are imperfect, and not all users show up in search (users who are very new, or kind of spammy won’t show in search, for example).
But search is the only way to see your Tweet to him if he doesn’t follow you, because Twitter doesn’t offer to show you other people’s mentions or activity tabs, where the tweets of people Lebron doesn’t follow show up when they mention him in a tweet (e.g. “Hey @KingJames!”)
Ok thanks, now I finally have an answer to the mystery
.
Greets
Thanks alot, i’m also starting to get it…anyway, using your example, how come that if i go to the url you gave for Lebron’s profile page and i click on one of his tweets, on some of them i can see the conversation tree opening with various replies to it, and some of those replies has been made also by people that he don’t follow ? Which is the discriminant factor for the replies that get visualized there ? or it’s just a random pick of the replies he received to that twitt ?
Hi,
I accidentally clicked “report spam” on an account I want to continue following, is there any way I can undo this?
Thanks
You can go to the account and select unblock from the drop down.
Hi Dave, how are you? Here is my problem on twitter. Sometimes i type in a new tweet and after I’m done, i send it but instead of showing the normal “your tweet has been sent”, it tells me instead that “your direct message has been sent”. I know i didn’t send any DM, i was just posting a regular tweet. Why does it do that sometimes and who the heck does it send the tweets to as DM’s. Very confused and upset. Thank you
What is the result? Do you see a tweet sent, or a DM? What interface does this happen on? Twitter.com, or mobile.twitter.com or which mobile app or website?
In most cases, this happens because people are confused about which box they are typing into, the tweet vs. the DM box. Although theoretically it can also happen if you start your tweet with either “d @user…” or “dm @user…” but unless the “d ” or “dm ” was a typo, in most cases you wouldn’t do this accidentally.
Dear Dave,
I was trying to follow my friend, and it said it was forbidden. What does that mean?
If your account has not run afoul of the 2001 limit, it sounds like a Twitter error, and you should keep trying.
Hello Dave,
Thank you for starting this blog with your expertise. Wow, you are an expert. I am new to twitter and I have a business as my name in twitter.
The issue is that I answered to a trending topic, a few days ago, several times as it was trending and it never showed up in trending topics, I tried lower case, upper case, spacing was correct, I spelled it correctly, I even tried with a hash tag in front of it and without, still I did not see my tweets show up. When I finished tweeting it still was trending. So I got my dummies book out and read it and went into my profile to see if anything is wrong. I clicked on edit my profile, my location was there. Everything checked in notifications, protect my tweets is unchecked.
Then I answered someone by replying and I looked in their replies on that tweet and it did not show up there either. What could be wrong. I joined twitter about two months ago. Please help
You’re very welcome, Yasmain!
You’ll want to check to make sure your Tweets are showing up in Twitter search. (You didn’t mention what your Twitter username is or I would check for you.)
Simply type “from:username” (without the quotes) into the Twitter search box. If none of your tweets show up, you’ll need to read Twitter’s help article here.
Hi Dave, thanks for answering, you are very knowledgeable! I did what you asked. And all my tweets showed up. But the problem seems to be when I am tweeting another person it does not show up on their page (I guess it is called the tweets pertaining to her particular tweet on the right navigation of her page) and more importantly is when I am tweeting a trending topic —it does not show up in the trending topic tweets on the left (body) navigation.
And even though the trending topic lasted for all the time that I tweeted and an hour later as I watched it still trending my tweet still did not show up in the trending topic tweets. it is frustrating casue I see many others tweets showing up and mine does not get on the list for example: #WhenImSadILikeTo ….it was trending on Jan 17. I tweeted #WhenImSadILikeTo listen to Stevie wonder.Others peoples tweet showed up but mine did not and I refreshed my page. What do you think?
First, I see in doing a search on tweets from you, all your tweets show up. So, that’s good!
When viewing Trending topics though, near the top it says “Tweets Top” and you can click the word “Top” to see a list of other options drop down. Be sure to click the link from the options that drop down labeled “All”
• Here is a trend with only “Top” results
• And here is a trend with “All” results.
See the difference? You need to look at “All” results, since your account is not a top tweeter…yet!
You can’t always see whether someone else can see your tweets or not. There are several scenarios, and Twitter doesn’t make them all visible. I’m writing a blog post about this and I’ll add the link here when I’m done
)
Thank you Dave, that was a good trick. Makes a difference. I find when I use IE I do not see the dropdown options but in Firefox I do…so I clicked on “ALL” and saw all of them, so I tweeted to the trending topic….and unfortunately (even though it was still trending) I was not in the list…. How long does it take to show up…it shouldn’t take that long?
thanks for your expertise…you are very good!
Tweets show up very, very quickly in most cases. However, Twitter states that it can take up to 20 seconds or longer. In darkmode cases, or cases where new issues appear, it can be minutes or even days.
Trying to see a tweet among those trending can be very difficult though, as there are so many, and you don’t know exactly what second yours will be added to the search results.
Mainly, if your tweets are showing up in search generally, they will also show up in trending topics. There isn’t anything you need to do to make them show up. And if they are missing, it’s likely due to a temporary Twitter error, and again, there isn’t anything you need to do.
I just signed up to follow someone on Twitter.
I’d like email notification everytime this person sends out a new tweet.
Is this possible?
One of my email accounts is linked to my smartphone, and thus I’d receive instant notification that this person has tweeted – or it would be even better if the email would include a copy of their tweet.
Can this be done, and how?
I’ve written up a guide to a simple method for achieving that just for you Rick
See: “How To Know Instantly Whenever Key Accounts Tweet.”
Hey!
I’ve been wondering about a weird twitter quirk for a while, and maybe you can help me. It’s not really a big deal, I was just wondering the reason for it.
When I get an email that someone has favorited one of my tweets, I usually follow the link back to there page to poke around and read some of their tweets, etc. and in the process view few some of their other favorites as well. The weird thing is, when I look at their favorites list, my tweets never show. Are your tweets just omitted since they’re, well, your tweets?
Like I said, not a big deal, I was just wondering. It struck me as weird. Thanks!
No, you should be able to see your favorite as well. You might try http://bit.ly/QuickTwitterFix when checking via Twitter.com to see if it’s a browser issue (of which Twitter has many).
Hi
I only tweet once in a while. I only follow 5 people and no one follows me.
I’ve recently tweeted someone who I dont follow (and who doesn’t follow me). I got animal thT the person replied to me, so I saw the reply in the email from twitter, but the reply to me isn’t in their time line and doesn’t show up if I do a search for my twitter name. Why arent replies to me visible in twitter?
When a single tweet appears and then disappears, it’s usually because it has been deleted. If it happens with multiple tweets, it’s usually because Twitter is having some errors.
Thx Dave
Hi Dave,
I recently created a Twitter account for my company and have been tweeting very actively. I would get mails everyday on having acquired 1-2 followers at least on a daily basis. After almost a month, when my inbox shows that I have 60 followers, I see that my company page has only 20. Do you know why? I find it odd that 40 would suddenly stop following altogether.
Also, I had followed by company page from my personal account a month back. But when I was going through it today, it showed that I didn’t follow the account. Is Twitter automatically making people unfollow the account? I’m confused. Please help.
That can be very frustrating!
Here’s a list of five things that could have happened. It could be due to any or all of them.
1. While it’s impossible to say for sure, most accounts get a lot of people—often automated accounts or spammers—that follow hoping for a follow back. If they don’t get followed back, they then unfollow. (Many unfollow regardless.) So that could be one cause.
2. Another is that Twitter has long had trouble showing follow numbers accurately. (It’s one of the things that is often at least a little broken.) To check for that situation, visit http://www.doesfollow.com/ to see if an account follows, even if it shows as not. There are other ways to check also, such as trying to DM someone that you believe is following you even if the interface shows they are not.
3. It’s also not uncommon for there to be a lot of accounts trying to follow many users before they get suspended. Once they are suspended they will disappear from your follower count. These are spammers, hoping for a follow back so they can DM you spam before they are caught and removed. This is similar to situation #1
4. While this is the most unlikely cause, if you have blocked anyone, they are then forced to unfollow you. I saw one case where the child of an adult’s account had been playing with the interface and blocked a bunch of people, causing them to automatically unfollow. As I say, this is probably not relevant to your situation.
5. Finally, Twitter has never admitted it publicly that I know of, but another error that has happened before is that they accidentally unfollow users for you without your knowledge. This can be confused with #2, so you need to make sure that it isn’t just the appearance of being unfollowed.
hi i have a dbt “do protected tweets even though we mention the people’s user name as @soandso be visible to people who don’t follow us?” for example i follow a celebrity and i tweet him/her but i want my tweet to be visible nly to him/her and be protected to rest of the ppl who dnt follow me. Is it possible..Please Reply! Thanku in advance
Nope, not possible the way you describe it. A solution that I don’t particularly recommend, but that I know some people do, is to create a second, anonymous account (that is public, not protected) and send tweets from that additional account.
Holy cow, Dave, what a great article! This page is definitely going to be bookmarked as I’m trying to figure out Twitter. I never had a use for it before, so I never really studied how to use if effectively. Now, trying to establish a presence there to build relationships is cumbersome as I feel like I’m way behind the curve. This post will definitely serve as reference material as I continue to learn and grow.
Thanks for the great information! It will be extremely valuable for me!
~Barry
You’re very welcome, Barry! Tweet us anytime if we can help in any way.
Thanks for the tips, they have helped answer a few questions I have about twitter. Much appreciated.
You bet, John! Tweet us anytime if we can ever help in any way.
I have a question. I follow someone and she does not follow me. If I post a tweet that has @herusername in it, will she be able too see it? Thanks
Any tweet with a username in it is shown to that user (unless your account is hidden/protected). That doesn’t mean people actually READ all the tweets with their usernames in them. The more popular someone is, the less likely they are to read all the tweets with their username in them.
Thank you. And I do have another question. How can I know whether my account is hidden/protected or not?
The box called “Protect my Tweets” on your settings page will be unchecked.
Even simpler: If you never hid it, it isn’t hidden
Hi, Im new to twitter and have found your tips a great help. I’m confused about replies though. Why is it that I can see other peoples replies to someone’s tweet but when I reply it doesnt appear?
Replies can be hard to figure out, because it depends on who follows whom, and that usually isn’t obvious.
Generally, unless Twitter is having a problem, you are NOT seeing all the replies that people you follow make, only the ones they are making to someone you already follow.
When you say your reply “doesn’t appear” where is it that you are expecting to see it? Do you mean you are asking other users if they are seeing your replies?
Dave, if you delete a tweet, it is no longer listed under your tweets, but it is still showing on my followers feeds. Is there a way to delete a tweet forever from all places on twitter? Thanks!
Deleting is permanent, but if it is being viewed on a screen somewhere, it will stay there until the user refreshes.
Just wanted to know if am following a certain person but he doesnt follow me back does he get to read my tweets,though am uploading a normal public tweet not addressed to that person in particular?
Anyone can read your tweets. However, Twitter only displays them to people inside their timeline if they follow you.
Thank you Dave! that really makes alot of sense. I get that they always have a ton of responses from fans all the time, and I thought to myself, maybe I’m not the only one who doesn’t always get that immediate attention that we all crave so much. I realize that I don’t always have to have like you said a “Souvenir” of a response but that I’d still like to continue on supporting or helping them in things that are really important, whether if its someone who’s in need of prayer, or just trying to do things to make a difference in the world. Thank you so much and have a blessed day!
You’re doing it right, Sandy! Positive, focused tweets may not be always responded to but it’s certainly a pleasure to anyone who receives them. Sometimes putting out positivity is its own reward…and people who read your tweets, wondering whether to follow you, WILL see what you are putting out there and respond by making a connection. “Karma” is funny that way on Twitter—sometimes the positivity you put out for one person comes back to you through someone else
I just have a question, If I were to follow someone, famous or not, and whether if they follow me or not, and I were to tweet them not everyday but maybe once in a while saying something like “Hi, or how are you? hope you enjoy your day!” something like that and I get that they can’t delete any of my tweets, retweets, messages, etc…. but I wouldn’t be able to see any replies on their timeline or page. Seeing as though they get so many responses from thousands of people and somehow a few only get retweeted, replied, and all day. Why is it that I get jealous? or upset when I don’t get that in return? its not like if I post anything inappropriate. I hope that it doesn’t mean that they hate me even if I had already met a certain famous person or band. What can I do to be creative as far as coming up with something unique for them to pay attention to my tweets? I’ll understand if I don’t get a response back.
Lol! Don’t worry—you’re getting a response! The art of connecting with important or popular people hasn’t really changed that much just because social media exists. If you can’t get their attention in real life you’re not going to get their attention on social media.
In fact, it can actually be HARDER to get the attention most popular people on social media than it is in real life. This is because of a problem you might not be aware of: there are hundreds of thousand of people who write to popular users trying to get them to reply back just so they can get that “souvenir” of a response. That’s one reason that most popular users don’t even read all the tweets that mention them. So most of the time, your tweet won’t even be seen at all.
So if you’re just trying to get someone popular to notice you, it won’t work. But if you’ve got goals and interests that are important to you, and connecting with someone is part of pursuing those things you care about, then put in the time to learn about them, and help them with the things they care about, and they might then notice you and help you with the things you care about.
You might like to read How ANYONE can become incredibly popular on Twitter, or ANY social network which explains this in more detail.
Hi, Dave
I’m a beginner on twitter:) and even if I ve read your post and almost all of the comments here, I still cant understand,I guess the problem is with me:)
My problem is that; When I reply to the tweets of people I follow but not following me, I can see my replies just on my profile or timeline. I cant see them on their profile even if ı click on the arrow sign nearby.But I can see someone else’s reply on that person’s profile when I clicked on arrow. Why cant I see my own reply as I see the others’?
Twitter keeps changing what you can easily view and when and where you can view it. There isn’t any particular rhyme or reason to it in my opinion
Also, different apps and tools work differently. For example, the “view conversation” link in HootSuite, a free, web-based app.
ok,I see
thank you Dave, anyway. I’ll follow you on twit:)
I’m having the same above problem. For instance, check serend1p- reply and mention to chrisspooner. It doesn’t show up even in search http://twitter.com/#!/search/to%3Achrisspooner
but if I specify my twitter name in search to check whether he received any menition from me, it shows up in the result:
http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/to%3Achrisspooner%20from%3Aserend1p
I don’t know whether he received my replies or ignoring :-/
I use safari on ITouch.
I asked @support but did not get any help. Plz help me to understand the problem.
Thanks
Note that your first search was for only “Top” results, while your second search was for “All” results, so the results will differ.
See the “realtime” part of the second search? That is what Twitter adds to the URL when you click “Top” and choose “All” from the results that drop down. Hope that helps
Hi, can you please advsie me. I am fairly new to Twitter, and would like to find out if there is a way to clock another user from seeing my tweets.
Scenario: I tweet with a specific company, and this company is promoting a product and followers are requested to tweet to get points. Another twitter user who follows the same company seems to be copying my tweets and tweeting most of my tweets, hence getting points for my tweets. Can I block this person from seeing my tweets or searching for me on Twitter (where he/she can see all my tweets).
Many thanks
Unless you protect your tweets, they are public. However, you can block users from following you, so they can’t see your tweets in the usual ways.
I would report that user to Twitter via http://bit.ly/TWICKET, however. Provide plenty of details and example tweets using http://bit.ly/LinkToATweet
Thanks Dave…I will try the blocking option.
I have raised the matter with the promoting company and await a response.
This person copies word for word my tweets,even my spelling mistakes and incorrect words…so I will have a lot of detail to provide
If I protect my tweets,will the company I am sending the tweet to be able to see my tweet so that I can get the allocated points?
Many thanks again, have a super day.
If the company follows and keeps following you, they will see your protected tweets. Otherwise not
One of my friends told me that my replies to her have not been showing up in her mentions she also said she accidentally marked one of my replies as spam once and yet is shows that I’m still following her. Does twitter still let you follow someone after being marked as spam but blocks your replies?
So she said she marked you as spam, but didn’t say that she undid it later? If you’re marked as spam, Twitter causes the person who marked you to unfollow you, and prevents you from following them. Unless Twitter is having errors…or she is mistaken and only thought it was your tweet she marked.
Dave,
I believe you solved the problem for me. When I have been entering my tweets, on several
I removed the @intended recipient. I suppose that by doing this the tweet was never sent to that person. On the instances I left the @ intended recipient in place, the tweet reached its intended destination.
I’m new at this. Thank you.
No problem, James!
Tweets are very content-oriented—whatever you want to achieve generally needs to appear in the tweet somehow. Of course, this can be inefficient too! It would be nice to send a tweet to someone without having to “waste” the characters by including their username. But that’s how it is.
Hi Dave,
I have been tweeting with this person who I also follow who also replies, but not each time. I noticed today that when I observe my tweets in the my list of tweets lately they aren’t addressed to the intended recipient. It appears as if I had made a remark in “What’s happening”. This occurred once before where I was able to see the intended name in “My tweets” list. Now, I can’t again. Does this mean that my tweets have been blocked even though I can still follow that person ?
Thanks,
JA
First, realize that you can NOT follow anyone who has blocked you. So if they block you, Twitter automatically unfollows them for you (if you were following them).
When you say your tweets “aren’t addressed to the intended recipient” I assume you mean you meant to include their username, but somehow did not. From all interfaces that I know of, you can see your tweet before it is sent, so if you look more closely each time you send, you may be able to figure why your tweets are missing the username you expect to be there.
If looking more closely before you send your tweets doesn’t help you figure out what the issue is, it would help me to know what site or app are you using to tweet from.
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