Says who?!

You tweet because you want people to see you do so.   Basically.  Maybe you’re here to engage and have nothing to promote – even better – but still, people need to be able to see you, right?

I’m here to help.  It’s difficult enough to get noticed in a sea of over 500 million users (so says StatisticBrain, though the number of users changes daily), and unfortunately for you, standing out is something you need to work on on your own.  I can’t help you to be more fun, outgoing, interesting, or helpful.  I CAN increase the number of eyeballs that are able to see your tweets.

This is so simple, you’re going to have the biggest “duh” moment right there at your desk (or in the bathroom, for you over-sharing bridge trolls that insist on bodily-function twitter alerts).  Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.  We’ll pretend you’re the uber expert most people already think you are.  😉

Here it is:  If you want everyone that follows you to be able to see your tweet, do not start it with “@”.

I’ve tried in vain to explain this time and time again, and I’ve found that apparently my words are destined to never come out right.  So I’m going to do the good little blogger thing and I’m going to SHOW you what I mean.

1.  Tweeting directly to (or “at”) someone.  The original point of the “@” function was to tweet “at” someone.  Essentially, this was meant for public communication (not DM’s, or direct messages, which are a completely different blog post).  So yes, some other people can see it.  For example:

@IamGoalsetting Enjoy the fight last night? #TheOne #Anticlimactic

— Amy Barton (@amesbelle) September 15, 2013

Here I am, tweeting AT Dwayne.  This communication is from me to him.  I asked him a question.  The “@IAmGoalsetting” at the beginning of the tweet is essentially a virtual “Dear Dwayne,” – it’s there to direct my tweet to his account mentions.  If you follow me on Twitter, and happen to also follow Dwayne on Twitter, you may see this tweet go by in your timeline.  If you follow me, but you do not follow Dwayne, you will not see this tweet go by on your timeline – because you don’t follow Dwayne.

2.  Tweeting about someone.  Here’s where the problem begins.  Let’s say I wanted to tell my Twitter followers that Dwayne was surprised I didn’t stay up to watch the Mayweather vs. Canelo fight.

Quick – why won’t the example above work?  RIGHT!  See, you’re getting the hang of this after all!  This doesn’t work so well because the only people that will see this tweet are Dwayne and my Twitter followers that happen to follow both me AND Dwayne.  No one else will see it.

Fixing this is simple.  As long as you put ANY character before the @IAmGoalSetting that starts the tweet, it becomes a public tweet.  Anyone that follows you will see it go by on their timeline.  It doesn’t matter what you put before.  Perhaps I want to tell my followers that Dwayne was surprised I didn’t stay up. There’s the ever popular .@ :

.@IamGoalsetting seemed surprised I didn’t stay up for #TheOne. I was tired! And much like Jon Jones fights, no suspense. Floyd always wins.

— Amy Barton (@amesbelle) September 15, 2013

The cleaner-looking “Hey @IamGoalsetting…”:

Hey @IamGoalsetting, which makes less sense: Beiber walking out with Mayweather, or Lil Wayne walking out with Mayweather? — Amy Barton (@amesbelle) September 15, 2013

And even the basic in-tweet mention

I’m not hating. Just get a little bored & lose excitement when one person winning is ALWAYS the forgone conclusion. @IamGoalSetting

— Amy Barton (@amesbelle) September 15, 2013

No matter which of these options suits you best, you can rest assured that your tweet is making it through to the eyeballs of all your followers.

While you’re at it, go say hello to Dwayne.  He’s a cool cat – and local, for my Orlando friends reading.

Happy Tweeting!