When you go through the list of your followers, you probably see a great deal of different tweeting styles.
Some followers may tweet all links. Some may talk about their life through a lifestream. And some could have all conversation using @ replies.
The @ reply is one of the most important parts of the Twitter experience. Without using them, a user misses out on the conversational, collaboration-focused part of Twitter, an important and often overlooked part.
Here are three reasons why you should use @ replies in your tweets.
- @ replies are attention grabbers.
Most users will be intrigued by you and your profile if you include @ replies in your stream. Think about it: if you had to choose between a stream of all links and a stream with mostly links but @ replies included, you’d probably be more intrigued by the second profile.
In third party applications like TweetDeck and Seesmic, @ replies come up in a separate stream. If you are trying to grab someone’s attention and engage with other tweeps, there is no better way to do this than through an @ reply. As long as the @ reply is not spam, conversation or a retweet would do the trick.
- @ replies build relationships.
Think about it: 140 characters is not necessarily enough to make a new friend. But through @ replies to a few select people, you can easily begin to build Twitter relationships and connections. People are introduced daily to one another through @ replies, as some Twitter users click through other peoples’ streams to find other interesting users to follow.
- @ replies encourage conversation and interactivity.
Twitter is like a 24-hour cocktail party. You can engage in conversation with anyone at anytime on the platform. So take advantage of it.
If you were at a real-life cocktail party, would you sit alone in the corner and not talk with anyone? Would you try to push your product on anyone you could get the message out to? Conversational and retweet @ replies are the best way to show others there is someone behind the username.
Do you use @ replies often in your tweets? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
