A few months ago, Twitter made some changes to their @reply system that prevented people from seeing conversations out of context. Everyone freaked out and Twitter clarified on their changes. I personally like the changes Twitter made.

Now I just wanted to give everyone a quick refresher on the current status of how @replies work. I feel like I regularly come across other Tweeps having trouble following conversations on Twitter.

The Basics

Twitter’s @replies still follow a lot of their originally proposed functionality. One of the main things a lot of people forget is that when you click Twitter’s “swoosh” button, your reply is now directly associated with that tweet.

If you ever receive a reply that seems out of the blue, check Twitter for the “in reply to ..” text and click to see what the Tweet was a response to. Most popular Twitter apps also display the “in reply to ..” text as well. Remember that Twitter can only associate your replies to Tweets when you use the “swoosh” button. Once again, most of the more popular Twitter apps have also embraced this functionality so there are no excuses.

Replying to people in this manner will prevent your reply from showing up in other people’s timelines when they are not following the person you are replying to. This becomes especially useful if you find yourself replying to people all the time and you are worried about posting too often. In short, it is an easy way to filter out the noise.

However, just because you won’t see conversations out of context in your friend stream, doesn’t mean you can’t hop over to Twitter search and view all public conversations taking place. In fact, Twitter Search can even thread your replies to help organize your conversations. If you are looking to see threaded conversations in a normal Twitter-like environment you should check out TweeTree which also displays videos and unshortens links.

Mentions

Mentions were adopted by Twitter when people started using @replies to reference other Tweeps in their tweets. The difference between replies and mentions is that when you mention someone you might not be talking directly to them. In this case, all of your followers would see your Tweet regardless of whether they are following the person you are mentioning or not.

Mentions won’t have the “in reply to ..” text because they are not necessarily directed at anyone.

Advanced Tweeting

You will regularly see people adding a . (period) before their @replies or placing some other text before the @reply to prevent it from becoming a semi-private conversation. It’s not always needed however there are times when you may wish to reply to someone and you want ALL of your followers to see the conversation taking place.

Remember that in the end, you can use Twitter however you damn please.

- Photo by db*photography

So here is a solid little list of Twitter analogies I’ve found scattered across the web. Choose your weapons.

• Twitter is a Party
• Twitter is an Appetizer
• Twitter is a Text Webcam
• Twitter is a Tavern
• Twitter is a Hammer
• Twitter is a Coral Reef
• Twitter is a Cocktail Party
• Twitter is like Post-it Notes
• Twitter is a Virtual Coffee Shop
• Twitter is Telegram 3.0
• Twitter is a Conference Reception
• Twitter is Email Marketing 2.0
• Twitter is like Fishing
• Twitter is like Holiday Cards
• Twitter is a Line-A-Day Diary
• Twitter is like Sex

If you have a favorite analogy that is not on this list, please share it in the comments and I’ll throw it in the mix.

- Photo by OctopusHat

Sometimes however, you might need a little bump in followers to start getting the interaction you need.

How do I get my Twitter account up to par with the rest of the Twitter population?

A lot of people make one huge mistake when starting their first Twitter Account. They use a greasemonkey script or twitter adder to follow thousands of people in hopes of acquiring a quick following.

There are two things critically wrong with this approach:

1. Your Twitter stream is way crowded to engage in quality conversations and keep up to date on key users
2. Other Twitter users may write you off as spam and not follow you back

So here is an alternative approach that will help you develop a solid productive following that will allow for fruitful conversations.

Jon Bishop’s 5 Step Twitter Starter Program

Step 1: Set up your Twitter profile with a unique background, bio, location, URL and Photo. This is an important step to subconsciously show you are committed to using Twitter.

Step 2: Post a couple of Tweets to get the ball rolling. This can be anything from the standard “Finally on Twitter” to the more specific “Jon Bishop really helped me get this Twitter thing going”.

Step 3: Find some Local Tweeps. Check out TwellowHood and follow roughly 20 interesting Twitter users that live in your area. As they follow you back, it might be a good idea to check out their blogs and see what they’re about. This would be a good time to try out your @reply skills to comment on how amazing their blogs are or simply the fact that you guys are from the same area.

Step 4: Find some like minded Tweeps. I use Twitter Search to find other Twitter users who share the same interests as me. It’s also a great way to check up on who is talking about my blog posts or my company

Step 5: Interact, then repeat steps 3 and 4. As your following grows you should try and stay very active by participating in conversations as well as providing your own updates on life, thoughts and the world.

That’s really all there is to it. It might be a good idea to try and keep your Followers to Following ratio as even as possible. It gives you a sense of authenticity that is really crucial in a social media environment.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets”; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. – From Wikipedia

Commoncraft also has a pretty good explanation of what twitter is on youtube.

Here are some Twinterviews about what people love about twitter.

Who do I follow?

First thing you can do is invite all of your friends through Twitters Find & Follow page. Once that is done you can move on to websites like Who Should I Follow, Twittersearch and Twubble. (More Twitter Search Engines)

There are also lists you can scan through at TwitterPack and Twitterholic as well as some Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter.

It is probably a good idea to view a users Twitter page before you follow them to be sure they aren’t spam.

How do i update?

There are A LOT of ways to update your twitter status. The most obvious (and sometimes most reliable) is the Twitter site itself.

There is also an array of third-party apps to help feed your twitter hunger:

• TwitterFox
• Twhirl
• Twitterrific
• Snitter
• Twitkit

Or you can automate the process with TwitterFeed.

Where else can i put my twitter feed?

You can view your feed in any feed aggregator (Google Reader, FriendFeed, Outlook, etc). Your feed can be accessed at

• http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/username.rss – Your Feed
• http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/username.rss – Your Friends Feed

as well as by clicking the RSS button at the bottom of your Twitter page.

Another popular thing to do is add your Twitter feed to facebook. Twitter has its own Facebok App or you can just sync your facebook satus with Twitter. I personally chose to use FriendFeed because it was the least intrusive.

What are some cool apps I can use?

Check out the Twitter Fan Wiki Apps Page.

I hope someone found this informative. Please feel free to follow me: @spazcer