Teacher Tech blog with Alice Keeler

Paperless Is Not a Pedagogy

Alice Keeler

Twitter Tip: Start Your Tweet with a Period

Twitter Tip: Start Your Tweet with a Period

period at

Saturday morning someone asked me why some of my tweets start with a period. I was participating in the New Teacher to Twitter (#nt2t) chat. A twitter chat is an hour long conversation on a particular topic. This means that I am replying quite a bit. When you reply to a tweet it starts the tweet with the @symbol. Twitter assumes that when you are replying that you are talking to that person and not all of your followers. A tweet that starts with the @ symbol does not go to the Twitter stream of your followers. It can still be publicly seen through the hashtag or on your profile, so it is not private, but it does not get as much exposure as a regular tweet does.

Twitter Stream

The Twitter stream is the stream of tweets from the people you follow that you first see when you are logged into Twitter.com. In theory the stream shows the tweets of people you follow. UNLESS the tweet starts with the @ symbol.

Alice Keeler Twitter Stream

Follows Both of You

If a tweet starts with the @ symbol it only goes to the Twitter stream of followers that follow both of you. If you follow me and @HollyClarkEDU then you would see in your Twitter stream a tweet that says

@HollyClarkEDU Thanks!!

If you do not follow Holly you would only see that tweet if you looked at my profile.

Hashtag

If a tweet starts with the @ symbol and includes a hashtag, that tweet IS visible to anyone searching the hashtag. (Note, if you have a new account, Twitter requires you have a certain number of followers before your tweets appear on a hashtag search.)

Start with a Period

When you reply in a Twitter chat oftentimes you are sharing information not just to the person you are replying to, but for everyone in the chat to see. Probably that reply is good for all of your followers to see. Insert your cursor at the front of the tweet and place a period so that the first character is not the @ symbol. This will allow the tweet to show up in the Twitter stream of everyone who follows you.

Twitter Links

If you are new to Twitter here is a getting started guide: CLICK HERE

If you are new to Twitter chats here is a guide: CLICK HERE

 

 

2 thoughts on “Twitter Tip: Start Your Tweet with a Period

  1. Would this apply to a reply in a chat with the # of the Chat? For eg.
    @HollyClarkEDU Thanks!! #NT2t
    Would this be equally effective as
    .@HollyClarkEDU Thanks!!

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