the number one mistake everybody makes on twitter
DESCRIPTION
I can't believe that so many people misunderstand a super fundamental piece of Twitter's functionality. It's shocking.TRANSCRIPT
Twitter has been around since 2006.
And what really frustrates me…
Is that so many people still screw up a really basic piece of
Twitter’s functionality.
Allow me to explain:
I have something I need to get off my chest, something I need everyone to know !
so I head to Twitter and I tweet this:
@Patriots I hate all of you.!
But there is a problem.!
I want everybody to know.!
But because the tweet started with an @ sign…!
ONLY the traitors people who follow BOTH me AND the Patriots will see this tweet.!
NOT all of my followers (and I have a lot)
Which is EXCEPTIONAL for certain situations.*
*But that's another Slideshare for another day.
But not this one.
So now a tweet like this:!
The @Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl since they were caught cheating. #Justsaying #Truth
So now a tweet like this:!
Will show up to all 1,000,000+ of my followers
WHY?
Because @ is not the first character of the tweet:
The @Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl since they were caught cheating. #Justsaying #Truth
When that happens, all of your followers see it no matter what else is in the tweet.
Let’s take a look at another example:
@wilfork75 really really really really really really really really annoys me
Again, only going to the LIMITED number of my followers who ALSO follow Vince Wilfork. !
NO GOOD!
EVERYONE MUST KNOW!
But it’s an easy fix:!
.@wilfork75 really really really really really really really really annoys me
.@wilfork75 really really really really really really really really annoys me
See that period at the beginning?!
That is the most misunderstood piece of punctuation on Twitter.!
.
Now that I tweeted starting with a period…
ALL of my followers can understand just how much Vince pisses me off.
So clearly this is a really important mechanic.
And to be honest, I am shocked that Twitter hasn’t done a better job explaining it to
new users.
If I ran things, here is what I would do.
The first time you used the @ message, this would appear:
Pretty cool right?
Hey one last thing.
I’m actually not all about people using this mechanic all the time.
I would prefer that you just change the content up a little.
The @Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl since they were caught cheating. #Justsaying #Truth
Just find a different way to structure the sentence.!
It looks and feels a lot more natural.
But if you absolutely have to start a tweet with someone’s handle.
Now you know what to do.
;)