What Are Replies on Twitter?
Twitter's recipe for keeping social networking short and sweet in the form of 140-character or less status updates has made it popular enough to get the President of the United States to create an account. What is even cooler about Twitter is that anyone who has an account, including you, can reply to the President - or any other Twitter user for that matter - through the "@Reply" system. Obviously, there's no guarantee that the President will answer you, but Twitter's open communication system lets people contact each other without restrictions.
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Replies Overview
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Replies, also called mentions and "@mentions," are a way for you to talk with other Twitter users. You can send a mention or reply to anyone on Twitter, regardless of whether or not you follow him or he follows you. Subsequently, anyone can send you a reply or mention on Twitter regardless of whether or not you follow her. Replies are distinguished from other tweets by the "@" symbol before a Twitter user's username.
Sending and Viewing Replies
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To send a reply or mention to any user on Twitter, all you need to do is insert the "@" symbol in front of the username in your tweet. Alternatively, you can also hold your mouse over a tweet and click the "Reply" link that appears underneath or navigate to a user's profile, click the gear icon on the right and select "Mention." To view your replies and mentions, navigate to your Twitter profile and click the "@Mentions" link.
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Benefits of Replies
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One of the main benefits of replies on Twitter is that they let you contact people regardless of whether or not you follow each other. Replies are also a convenient way to make a small comment about a tweet, ask a question and chat with people in general on Twitter. An extra benefit of the reply system is that if a popular user replies to you, your username is visible to all of his or her followers, and you might acquire some new followers of your own.
Replies vs. Direct Messages
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Although both replies and direct messages let you contact someone directly on Twitter, they are not the same thing. Replies are public, appear on your Twitter stream, and are visible to anyone unless you have a protected profile, in which case they are visible to your followers. Direct messages are private and visible only between you and the person with whom you are communicating. Direct messages are also limited to Twitter's 140-character restriction.
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