Twitter for Dummies - Laura Fitton [37]
Be patient about expecting replies to questions that are easily answered using Google or other resources. Also please be patient with people that a lot of people talk to. Demi Moore, for example, does a great job of conversing with the hundreds and hundreds of people who write to @mrskutcher every day, but if she tried to answer everyone, she would have no time to be with her family (or for that matter, to be beautiful and entertaining in her films!). To see how busy her @mentions tab is, just search @mrskutcher (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%40mrskutcher).
Direct Messaging
Private messages on Twitter are called direct messages (DMs). Like any other kind of tweet, they’re limited to 140 characters in length. You can’t send a DM to someone unless that Twitter user is following you — likewise, only your own followers can send you DMs.
What do you do if you want to get in touch with someone privately on Twitter but that person isn’t following you? New Twitter users are often tempted to send @replies to that person saying “tried to DM but you don’t follow” or something of the sort. Some Twitter users don’t mind receiving those kinds of tweets, but many others see them as rude or as blatant attempts to get new followers.
So, if you’re trying to get in touch with someone who doesn’t follow you, you have some options:
Check the user’s Profile page. See whether he has made available some other form of contact information — a Web site URL, an e-mail address, or a blog. You can often find this info in a user’s short bio section.
Conduct a Web search. Try searching for the user on your favorite search engine.
Tweet a polite question publicly to the user. While the you-don’t-follow-me approach is a little obnoxious, most twitterers will make a reasonable effort to respond if you respect their time and make it clear why they should answer you. Send a message to @username expressing why you’re requesting their time and attention, and ask that they respond privately. Just try to differentiate between the ability to reach out to someone and the right to demand a response.
Direct-messaging shorthand
When you’re truly connected, you start to find going to the Direct Messages page every time you want to send someone a message a bit tedious. Thankfully, the folks at Twitter have come up with a shorthand. To send a DM without going to the Direct Messages page:
1. Click in the What Are You Doing? window.
2. Type d, followed by a space, and then the username of the person to whom you want to send a direct message.
3. Type a space after his username and then write a message.
The update should have this form: d dummies Hey, there!
4. Click Send button to send the DM.
We cover other shorthand tricks in Chapter 7.
One word of caution if you plan to send direct messages from a phone or by typing d and the username of the recipient: On a small keyboard, you can very easily make a typing error, such as misspelling the username, accidentally posting a letter other than d, pushing two d’s, or something else. Look twice before you send your message to make sure that it’s truly private and not a public tweet by accident, especially if it contains personal information that you don’t want the whole Internet to know (such as a phone number or address).
Should I @ or DM?
When you try to decide whether to respond to somebody on Twitter by using a public @reply or a private DM, you should consider the following criteria:
Questionable content: If your mother, grandmother, boss, or kid were looking over your shoulder at what you just started typing, would they be in any way embarrassed or disapproving? If the answer is yes, perhaps a direct message is in order.
Volume: If you’re a power user who posts