Want a few extra tips on being a good Twitter citizen? (note, I refuse to say Twitizen) and getting more out of Twitter? Here’s some quick tips to mull over while you’re waiting for the next batch of Five Minute Missions.

How to leave a trail when replying

Now, you might have picked up this good habit automatically, but it was one I learned through experience myself (and having the habit pointed out indirectly) so I thought it worth a mention.

You can just reply to someone’s tweet by typing their name, and then your reply. What that gets you is a tweet that looks like this:

At the time you send out that tweet, it will make sense to anyone following you and the person you’re replying to. (if someone you’re following sends a reply to someone you’re not following, you won’t see it. So your followers will only see a reply you make to someone they’re following as well. More on this in a second)

If you use the reply link that appears on the webpage, or the appropriate mechanism in your Twitter client, what you get is a tweet that looks like this:

Note the very sexy ‘in reply to’ link under the tweet. This lets readers click the link, and go back to the original tweet being replied to. Super-useful and considerate to your readers. Particularly when you can’t find the spare characters to give some sort of context on what you’re replying to.

How to let everyone see a reply to someone they’re not following

So, if someone is following you on Twitter, they won’t normally see replies you send to people they’re not following. If you’re replying as part of a conversation you want to draw attention to – one you think your followers might be interested in, you can broadcast it by putting characters directly before or after the name of the person you’re replying to. For example:

.@neilhimself Congratulations on the engagement!

Note the ‘.’ right before the Twitter name. That way, your message can reach the five people not following Neil Gaiman on Twitter, and apprise them of Neil’s recently having gotten hitched. All in one handy tweet.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way on Twitter of connecting with people talking about the same thing. In addition to whatever you’re tweeting, add a topic prefixed with a ‘#’. Some examples:

#lrnchat – Jane Bozarth, an online learning maven, uses this hashtag each week to run a chat over Twitter about online learning. It’s a deluge of tweets, but really interesting reading.

#dailyawesome – our very own @CatherineCaine uses this to share the little things she finds to rejoice in every day. (she also encourages you to do the same!)

#lofnotc – started by @amandapalmer. It stands for Losers Of Friday Night On Their Computers – it’s a loose party of people hanging out at home, eschewing the outside world and all it has to offer. If you find yourself at home on a Friday night, it’s a good one to use to find random people.

Hashtags also get used a lot in viral games. Because of the wide audience that some tweets get, these games can spread really quickly through Twitter – just like any other kind of information. One of my favourite examples of this (although it’s hard to find search results for it now) is #firstdraftmovielines, where you’d tweet an iconic film line, only more clumsily worded.

Find these extra tips useful? Let us know in the comments.

Also, we’d love to hear your extra strength Twitter kung fu!