I can't believe that so many people misunderstand a super fundamental piece of Twitter's functionality. It's shocking.

2. Twitter has been around since 2006.

3. And what really frustrates me…

4. Is that so many people still screw up
a really basic piece of
Twitter’s functionality.

5. Allow me to explain:

6. I have something I need to get off my
chest, something I need everyone to know
!

7. so I head to Twitter and I tweet this:

8. @Patriots I hate all of you.!

9. But there is a problem.
!

10. I want everybody to know.
!

11. But because the tweet
started with an @ sign…
!

12. ONLY the traitors people who follow BOTH me
AND the Patriots will see this tweet.
!

13. NOT all of my followers
(and I have a lot)

14. Which is EXCEPTIONAL for certain situations.*
*But that's another Slideshare
for another day.

15. But not this one.

16. So now a tweet like this:
!

17. So now a tweet like this:
!
The @Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl
since they were caught cheating.
#Justsaying #Truth

18. Will show up to all 1,000,000+
of my followers

19. WHY?

20. Because @ is not the first
character of the tweet:
The @Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl
since they were caught cheating.
#Justsaying #Truth

21. When that happens, all of your followers
see it no matter what else is in the tweet.

22. Let’s take a look at another example:

23. @wilfork75 really really really really really
really really really annoys me

24. Again, only going to the LIMITED number of my
followers who ALSO follow Vince Wilfork.
!

25. NO GOOD
!

26. EVERYONE MUST KNOW
!

27. But it’s an easy fix:
!
.@wilfork75 really really really really really
really really really annoys me

28. See that period at
the beginning?
!
.@wilfork75 really really
really really really really
really really annoys me

29. .
That
is the most misunderstood
piece of punctuation on Twitter.
!

30. Now that I tweeted starting with a period…

31. ALL of my followers can understand just
how much Vince pisses me off.

32. So clearly this is a really
important mechanic.

33. And to be honest, I am shocked that Twitter
hasn’t done a better job explaining it to
new users.

34. If I ran things, here is what I would do.

35. The first time you used the @
message, this would appear:

36. Pretty cool right?

37. Hey one last thing.

38. I’m actually not all about people using this
mechanic all the time.

39. I would prefer that you just change the
content up a little.

40. Just find a different way to
structure the sentence.
!
The @Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl
since they were caught cheating.
#Justsaying #Truth

41. It looks and feels a lot more natural.

42. But if you absolutely have to start a tweet
with someone’s handle.

43. Now you know what to do.

44. ;)