Why You Should @Reply on Twitter

Did you know that if I start a Tweet with the @ symbol when I reply to somebody, for example:

@jamieforster Yes let's do that; good plan mate.

only people who follow both Jamie Forster and I will see the tweet in their Twitter stream.

A lot of people worry about being "too noisy" on Twitter and so don't want to reply to people or carry on a conversation with people on Twitter for fear of filling other followers' streams with the tweets.

By knowing this, more people will engage with each other in conversations on Twitter without having to worry about drowning the streams of their other followers.

You can watch the video below on this by Gary Vaynerchuk - "The @ system, do you understand it?" where Gary explains that most people he speaks to had no idea about this aspect of the @ reply feature.


You'll see that Gary is very passionate about this!!

So start to use the @ reply and don't worry about drowning your followers with your conversations. Actually, it's quite important that you do @ reply to people - one of the criteria I and many others use when choosing to follow people on Twitter is whether they have conversations. The @ reply in your timeline shows me that you engage with others and I like that.

If your Twitter feed is just full of broadcast message then I won't follow you back.

The screenshot below shows you what I mean:

However, if your Twitter feed has @ reply messages as well as content then I am way more likely to follow you back. 

The screenshot below of @thebrandbuilder shows you a good mix:

So don't worry about replying to your Twitter connections with the @ reply. In fact, I suggest you should do it more often. Not only does it show to potential followers that you'll engage in conversation with them; it will make your Twitter connections deeper and more enriched.