Twitter is becoming the new call center, with customers tweeting to companies to voice their complaints, comments and questions. But in order to get an answer, you’ve got to know how to make your 140-character concerns stand out from the crowd and grab their attention.
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You’re witty, well-versed in theoretical physics or some sort of creative wunderkind and your Twitter followers have no idea.

How can this be? Well, you’re not the showy type and this side of you only comes out when you’re @replying to certain folks – and as we all know, a tweet that starts with an @mention is only seen by you, the recipient and folks following both of you.

If only there was a quick and simple way to share those tweets with all of your followers. There is.
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Over the next few weeks, Twitter is rolling out a completely revamped interface. And your @mentions folder is getting bulldozed in the process.

While many are looking forward to the changes – which will see the addition of two new folders, the @Username folder and the Activity folder – others are concerned that they won’t have a single place to view all of their @mentions.

Well rest assured, we’ve got you covered. Here’s how to hold on to your @mentions (and even find some that your old @mentions folder was missing).
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Rumor has it that Twitter is experimenting with a “Facebook-like” wall for some of its newest users. This is apparently intended to make the steep learning curve for Twitter newbies easier.
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Wow… I don’t know of many other scandals that could have been prevented with a simple one-character change on a text message, but that’s exactly how Anthony Weiner got caught with his pants down (sorry, that’s my freebie, I’ll keep it above the belt from now on). The embattled representative accidentally shared a picture of his nether-regions on Twitter for all the world to see, and all because he didn’t understand the difference between a DM and a mention or reply.
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Last night, and in direct regard to the shenanigans of yesterday, Twitter made this announcement in their blog (“We Learned A Lot“):

This morning we received lots of great info about the replies setting we changed yesterday. Folks loved this feature because it allowed them to discover new people and participate serendipitously in various conversations. The problem with the setting was that it didn’t scale and even if we rebuilt it, the feature was blunt. It was confusing and caused a sense of inconsistency. We felt we could do much better.

Okay, fine. As I reported yesterday, the removal of all the options in our reply settings caused a huge response on Twitter, notably amongst early adopters and those who preferred the facility to see all replies. So, what will they do to make it better?

So here’s what we’re planning to do. First, we’re making a change such that any updates beginning with @username (that are not explicitly created by clicking on the reply icon) will be seen by everyone following that account. This will bring back some serendipity and discovery and we can do this very soon.

Uh, okay. So if I type @username – say, @NYTimes – as opposed to hitting the reply button, everybody who follows me will see it?

But… but… if I click on the reply button, then it will be treated as a reply, and only my followers who are following @NYTimes as well will see it?

Whaaaaaaa?

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The @reply function on Twitter is the core of the network. Without the facility to reply, the stream would not only be decidedly non-interactive, but almost certainly completely full of spam.

It is my opinion that all Twitter users should place the greater part of their focus on their replies. This is how you meet and engage with your followers, build relationships, solve problems and make business deals. Folk who rarely reply to others and instead use Twitter as a soapbox for their own ends aren’t going to earn a lot of respect.

There are good and bad ways to do most things on Twitter, including sharing links, knowing what to do when you’ve submitted a bad tweet, and how to correctly use the reply function. This tutorial will focus on how to word replies in a manner that will increase your own chances of a reply back, specifically if you are responding to a tweet submitted earlier in the day.

When Is A Reply Not A Reply? (Part One)

In Twitter we don’t just use the reply facility to respond to people – often we initiate conversations with it. This can be in the form of questions or the sharing of information and links.

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