This is part 1 in my Twitter Guide. Feel free to add your input (It may be added).

First Things First, Join Twitter

It is simple, all you have to do is go to the Twitter website. When you get there sign-up, but make sure to pick a username that will catch someone’s eye. Preferably something to do with what you are trying to promote.

Why Join Twitter?

The number one reason why you should join Twitter is because it is a great marketing tool for any industry. You can reach people that you probably couldn’t of reached any other way. It is quick and easy because you have 140 characters or less to get to the point. You do not have to write a whole post or get someone to come to your website to promote your products. One of the best parts is that you can connect with a customer or a reader.

So why not join Twitter today? Build up your brand and beat out your competition. It only takes a couple minutes to sign-up.

But, What Is Twitter?

Well, let’s look at a couple definitions below.

Twitter’s Definition:
“Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time.”

Wikipedia’s Definition:
“Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.”

Basically, you are staying connected or connecting with other Twitter users. You are able to send and receive updates that are 140 characters or less (tweets). That is all Twitter it is. It is short, simple, and easy and that is why it is called micro-blogging. Where blogging is much longer, not as simple, and not as easy.

I Just Don’t Get It

Well, it gives you a chance to get in touch with and stay in touch with anyone else on the Internet. It is definitely another way for people to stay in contact with someone that does not have a lot of time on their hands to read your blog. The best thing about Twitter is that someone can come across your profile, take a quick look at your tweets and decide whether or not to follow you. It is likely they will check out your URL also. If they only follow you, then you can get them to come your blog by posting when you have a new post as a tweet.

Other Reasons to Join Twitter

It will allow you to build trust. Marketers are finding that people want to know you and have some sort of trusting relationship with those that they buy products or receive recommendations from. Twitter is a way to show that you’ve had success and failures. If you talk about both of them, then they are more likely to trust what you think.

You’ll be able to be personal. No one likes to feel like they are talking to a robot. Being able to have some sort of connection with a person will make it more likely that they will listen to you. Adding a picture of yourself is always a good spot to start.

You’ll be able to show your generosity which can go a long way. If you help someone for free it is more likely that they will help you out the next time you need something. This might mean that you do not have to pay for a product that someone could just give you.

It will allow you to establish expertise. You can show what you know by answering peoples questions. This one may take a while but overtime it is possible.

You can establish relationships in your niche. Since Twitter is on a more personal level, it is more likely you will build relationships. Getting to know other blogger’s in your niche will build you some credibility when they link and mention your Blog.

Have you ever wondered what could have possible gone wrong in your planning due to which there is hardly any traffic on your blog? You might be a king in content quality and its management but what good will this do if there is no kingdom to prove your supremacy.

The answer to all questions related to traffic on blogs, marketing your blog and seeking for a community dedicated to any help related to blogs is Twitter. Though it is simply a micro-blogging platform accompanied with numerous tools, plug-ins and support applications, yet its storming rage and popularity is unmatched. It has become the trend setter in suggesting innovative ways to increase blog readership.

Let us discuss all possible ways to market your blog using Twitter, some unique advantages of Twitter and best practices from a user’s perspective to get the most out of this wonderful gift.

• Invite more people.

• Complete your profile and have a clickable link on it.

It is very important to understand the dynamics of Twitter. As an enthusiastic blog-owner there are few tips you should keep in mind.

• Always make useful posts and not spam ones to sustain the interest of your followers.

• Follow other users on Twitter.

• Always engage in good conversations followed by summarized re-tweets (replies).

• Become an engaging member of Twitter Community to make your presence felt.

• Keep building an efficient audience by following your friend’s followers who in return start following you.

• Always include ‘Follow Me’ link with every informative post and invite others to follow you. The link can be added in signatures of mails and forums.

• Keep a check on follower-following ratio.

These tips would surely help you generate a good traffic.

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that has revolutionized the way folks communicate and share information online. Twitter has been around for a while, but until recently most folks labeled it overrated and useless for business. The truth is you can not only use Twitter to find friends and contacts, but also share information and drive thousands of folks to your blog everyday.

Twitter has been what all marketers and bloggers waiting for and more. But due to its nature, it drives away folks who try to deceive the community. The community of Twitter is intelligent and sophisticated, and they do not cherish folks who are out there only to make a few dollars on Twitter.

Bloggers have a lot to gain from Twitter. Twitter makes it easy to follow other super-bloggers and even get in touch with them. It’s not everyday that you get to directly talk to folks who have been in the business for years. You can also watch and learn a lot from super-bloggers on Twitter, something that was easily possible a few years ago.

The Twitter community is growing fast. Everyday, more folks take the Twitter challenge. But there is a right way and wrong way to succeed on Twitter. A few folks try to take a shortcut and start following everyone without truly providing any value. These folks usually end up being ignored by the community.

But the top Twitter users are those who provide real value to the community. These folks constantly share information with their peers and try to add to conversations going on in the community. Building trust is a must on Twitter. Twitter is not about following folks and spamming them. It’s about building relationships. If you are a blogger, you can find other folks in your niche and share notes. You’d be surprised how far you can build your relationship through Twitter.

You can also share your blog posts on Twitter to get some traction. But the best way to start is to build trust first. You can achieve that by twittering other folks’ blog post and articles. Once you have built the proper trust level, you can start sharing your own blog posts and get twitter traffic. As long as you don’t violate the community’s trust, you can expect to leverage the trust you have gained to get more folks to your blog. The key is to stay true your community and add value on a consistent basis.

Many bloggers have been talking about Twitter lately. I have posted a couple articles about Twitter here on my blog. I haven’t really talked about how I use Twitter and got 700 followers in three months. Well, I’m going to explain what Twitter strategy is.

I use to be like most people before ever making a Twitter account. I asked myself why would Twitter help my blog? Why be able to only write 160 characters per tweet? But I finally decided to sign up after continuing to read positive reviews from other bloggers.

When I began I didn’t even know where to start. I had been only reading positive things and not any tips on how to use it successfully. My first month was spent learning the ropes and watching other successful Twitter users. I learned quite a bit and I was able to use the information to get 700 followers. Now 700 followers is not a whole lot, but it is quite a bit since I started during the time where you could only follow 2,000 other Twitter users.

My Twitter Strategy:

• Add people that are interested in your niche. You are limited to following only 2,000 people so make sure that you choose wisely. I always pick the people that have the most followers but I make sure that their followers would be interested in my blog. Then I go through and add other people that I find interesting in my niche. Just make sure to not add people too fast or your account will be suspended.
• Reply to people that are interested in your niche. You should be able to easily find these people if you know the users in your niche that have some followers. If you reply to them it is likely that they will come to your Twitter page and hopefully follow you.
• Reply to people that have a lot of followers. I just make sure that the popular Twitter users have followers that would be interested in my niche. I find that spending more time trying to get people to follow me that are in my niche is better than people that are not. I know, kind of common sense. The idea behind this is that they will reply to back you and everyone following that person will click on your username to know more about you.
• Use Twitter search to talk to people about popular topics. When you go to the Twitter search page there will be a spot in the sidebar that says the most popular topics being talked about. If one is relevant to your niche then click on it so that you can find people that are talking about it. Then reply to other people’s tweets. It is likely that they will respond you and their followers will see your username. Then other people will likely reply to what you are saying about the popular topic since they will probably be interested in it also. It has worked for me anyways.
• Use Tweet Later to message people after they follow you. This will be done for you automatically if you sign up for the free service. Just don’t look spammy by telling them to go to your blog. I have found that this turns off a lot of new followers. Most likely they have already visited your blog when they went to your twitter page. Just thank them and go on your way.
• Use Qwitter to find out who quit following you and when they did. The most important part here is when they quit. You want to try and figure out if you have talked about something that someone did not like. I wouldn’t worry about why you lost followers unless you lost quite a few of them.
• I use it to help bloggers that have questions. I just make sure that I can answer questions in 160 characters. People will see your username when another twitter user asks you a question. Then when other followers see that you are answering peoples questions they will ask you questions. If they decide to ask a question then their followers will see your username and possibly come to your twitter page. It’s basically a chain reaction.
• I also make sure to use a Twitter plugin called Twitter Tools to automatically post that I have a new article on my blog. This lets all my followers know about my new post and it’s an easy way to bring people to my blog.
• I also post links to interesting articles that have to do with my niche. That way people want to stay subscribe to me and others will want to subscribe to me.

That is my simple Twitter strategy. I do not spend all that much time on Twitter like I use to since I started consulting companies about social media and blogging. I try to be a machine and do it all, but there is only so much time in a day. If you have any strategies of your own let me and others know about them. No secrets, right?

Your digg headline is important because how many diggs you get can depend on it. Even though some of the digg headlines can be really annoying, they still work. It is likely that people get annoyed of them because they see them so often. However, the reason they see them so often is because they work.

Think about it, that one headline that always says “breaking” is on the front page of digg everyday. It is no coincidence, the reason it is there is because people can not stop clicking that digg button next to the headline. Below are some of the basic digg headlines that work.

Digg Headlines

Breaking – [The story headline]

Maybe one of the most annoying ones because TV channels like CNN and Fox news always has some story as their breaking news. People are channel surfing and when they see the headline breaking they stop. This is the same for digg. People seem to stop scanning the headlines when they read breaking. And if you are able to get people to stop on your headline then they are more than likely to digg your article.

[Number] [ways to do something]

This is probably one of the easiest headlines to get to the front page. Put a number in front of your digg headline and you will likely get at least 75 diggs.

DIGG THIS: [article headline]

For a while people got so sick of this one that they would bury the article. However, it is coming back again. I guess people got use to not seeing it so they’re more willing to digg it if they see it now.

DIGG It: [article headline]

This one is similar to digg this, but isn’t as popular. Just recently I began to see more digg headlines like this. Guess what, this headline seems to be working.

Honorable Mentions

[Obama]

People are absolutely obsessed with Obama on digg, so as long as you have something good to say about him you will likely get quite a few diggs.

[Bush]

People are absolutely obsessed with bashing Bush on digg, who isn’t? Why not go ahead and relate Bush to something negative in your niche. If it works, it works.

Those digg headlines are some of the most popular ones that are being used. Do you know of any other ones that seem to always work? Would not want to have missed any of the popular ones.

Get all Twitter related posts and tools. Also learn what all Twitter does for me.

How I Use Twitter – I use Twitter to get to know people. Too many times people create blogs and never get to know people. Twitter is a way to get to know people and show that you’re not a robot. Companies I consult tend to be robots also. They expect to just write a post for their company blog and never have any contact with customers that read it. The more one-on-one contact you have with the customer the better chance you have to make a sale.

Twitter is a wonderful way to get to know your customers and get feedback. Same with a blog. You get to know people that read your blog or get to know people that you can convert into your readers. I always rather have loyal readers and Twitter has done that for me. I get to know people better and they get to know me better. They become more willing to read my blog because they tend to like me on a personal level. Twitter for me is more about building long-term relationships than anything else. It is an easy way to get your name out there and the more you get people talking about you the better. That is why I use Twitter.

Tools I Use:

Twitterfox – I love TwitterFox because it connects right on to the Firefox browser. It will let me know when users I am following have posted something or replied to my tweets. I am also able to post my own tweets and respond to other peoples.

Twitter Tools – I use Twitter tools because I like to show what I have currently been posting on Twitter. It makes my blog more personal and that is what I have been working towards since creating this blog. It shows my recent posts on Twitter in my sidebar. It also creates a new tweet everytime I post an article on the blog.

All Twitter

Twitter Articles:

How to Get More Twitter Followers: Some Methods That Work

Twitter Guide

200+ Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter

Why Is Twitter So Great?

17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners

Three Ways to Maximize Your Twitter Time for Networking, Marketing and Fun

Getting Noticed with Twitter (and Get Some Good Traffic!)

Using To Twitter To Leverage Facebook

Eight Mistakes Bloggers Make While Using Twitter

Twitter is Like Sex

5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence

How I Use Twitter to Promote My Blog

Twitter: Waste of time or social tool?

Think Twitter Sucks? You’re Wrong, Here’s Why.

Why Twitter Sucks…

How-To: Using Twitter to Build Brand Integrity

Twitter Tools Articles:

TWITTER TOOLBOX: 60+ Twitter Tools

Five Twitter Tools We Love

10 Best Twitter Tools for WordPress Blogs

Five New Twitter Tools You Should Know

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Have you ever wondered how you can get hundreds to thousands of visitors to your blog because of one of your articles? Well, you do not have to wonder anymore because I’m going to show you how to kick StumbleUpon’s ass and get tons of Stumbleupon traffic to your blog.

Last night the thought came to me that I should do a mini guide on StumbleUpon after I saw some users at Bloggeries having trouble with it. When you’re just starting out it is difficult to understand how to use StumbleUpon  and of course how to get the most out of it.

StumbleUpon Is Personal to Personal

• One thing that you always have to remember when it comes to StumbleUpon is that it is a personal to personal social media site. Even though you may never build in depth relationships with other users, you do build relationships as StumbleUpon users.
• What do you get when you are in a StumbleUpon relationship? Well, you will get many more stumbles to your blog and way more traffic. Even though a StumbleUpon relationship like that is a good one, you really want to make sure not to make any enemies on StumbleUpon. There are some people that would rather go about giving you a thumbs down because they are angry with you.
• If StumbleUpon is personal to personal then you want to make sure not to treat it as business to personal. Do not become someone that treats StumbleUpon as a business because this really can turn off other StumbleUpon users. Or in other words, do not become some robot. Instead, act like a human being.
• Of course other than StumbleUpon being personal to personal, there is the most important part of being a StumbleUpon user. You want to get traffic to your blog. I know what your question is so the answers are below:
• StumbleUpon doesn’t like to go into what works and what doesn’t work to get more people to see your stumbles. However, it is pretty easy to figure it out. Start off by putting all your information on your StumbleUpon page. Include a little about you in the about me section. Also add your blog address in the about me part also. The reason I say this is because when someone comes to your StumbleUpon page they will see your blog address right away. If you only put your blog address in the URL section then it will not show up unless they click on the tab. However, don’t actually forget to put your blog address in your URL. Some people will overlook your about me section and click on the tab to see if you have a web site.

Discover and Stumble Everyday

• Make sure you give thumbs up to different web pages and posts every day. When you discover a new post or web page then a new window will pop up. If this happens then make sure that you really want to submit the web page or blog post to StumbleUpon.
• The more people that give thumbs up to each blog post or web page you submit the more power your stumbles have. So obviously only discover pages that you no other StumbleUpon users will like. Try to stay within your niche, but obviously remember that StumbleUpon is personal. (So do not look like a business BY ONLY stumbling pages in your niche. StumbleUpon users are not stupid.)

Find Similar StumbleUpon Users

• Make sure to go through and find people that stumble web sites like your own blog. To do this make sure to get the StumbleUpon toolbar like I mentioned above. Go to the most popular blogs in your blog niche. This will make it easier to find StumbleUpon users who are willing to stumble your posts. When you get to a post click on the little quote icon on the StumbleUpon toolbar. It will then take you to a page that shows you everyone that gave that article a thumbs up.
• From here you want to subscribe to each one of these peoples StumbleUpon pages. Also try to bookmark it into whatever browser you are currently using. It is the easiest to make a folder so that you can keep all of your StumbleUpon pages in one.
• Also, become what I call a StumbleUpon stocker. Try to give thumbs up to the pages you like from their StumbleUpon page. After a while you will likely get noticed and they will stumble some of your blog posts in return. (By now you should be feeling that karma is on your side)
• Make sure to go through and find people that have blogs that are similar to yours and comment on their blogs. Use your StumbleUpon Web address as your URL when you are commenting. Try to do the same thing as I talked about above. You will have many users already saved in your bookmarks if you listened to me. So go back through all the StumbleUpon profiles that you bookmarked. Each user normally puts the web address to their blog on their page. So you can collect all these blogs and subscribe to them.If you’re like me, then add them to your feed reader and make a folder specifically for these blogs. Then make sure to comment on them. The reason I said to use your blog address as your URL is because they will go to your StumbleUpon page. This could get them to go to your web page since you will have your blog address on your StumbleUpon page. They might also subscribe to your stumbles. Of course the point here is to get them to your blog and stumble your blog posts. Just making people realize that you are a StumbleUpon user could get them to stumble your articles. Many other StumbleUpon users think the same way I’m teaching you, that is to stumble other people’s articles and hope they stumble your articles in return.

Appreciate Other StumbleUpon Users

• If you thumb something up and the discovery window pops up, then make sure to write a review for that blog post. When writing a review try to at least write three sentences. People like to know what the blog post is about before they go to the web page. So other users will really like you if you give them more information so that they do not always have to go to the web page. It also tells other users that you are just not stumbling a web site to stumble it. It shows that you have a reason and a purpose for your stumbles. Other users will appreciate this and may stumble your blog posts and other articles you submit to StumbleUpon.If you see that someone else has submitted one of your blog posts, then make sure to thumb up that same post. That will get you more traffic to your blog.You can watch and see if your page gets stumbled by looking at your stats a couple of times a day. I tend to use the Wassup plugin for WordPress. With this plugin I can tell when a person goes to a certain page because it shows what URL they are on such as: http://franklinbishop.net/a-unique-blog-design-and-free-sponsors/ and then below it will say where that visitor came from. So if a visitor came from StumbleUpon it will show you the URL to the StumbleUpon page. Once you see that your post is stumbled give it a thumbs up yourself. StumbleUpon users do not like you to stumble just your own posts so if you decide to discover your own article then make sure you’re still discovering other articles throughout the Internet.
• Make sure after four or five days to send a thank you to each one of the users that stumbled your posts. It can’t hurt you to let people know you appreciate their stumbles. Plus it is always good karma for yourself.
• For the people that stumbled your blog posts, make sure to try and go to their blog and stumble some of their best blog posts. People will usually do the same for you and of course it is good karma for yourself. Like your mom said, do for others as you would want them to do for you. If the other person doesn’t stumble your articles back, then don’t worry about it. You will have plenty of other users to try and get stumbles from. If you’re like me, then StumbleUpon will become a game.

Article Topics and Headlines

• Make sure to try and write good blog titles. Many StumbleUpon users quickly surf through articles. So make sure your blog title is towards the top fold of their blog. Do not write some boring title or headline that will not make a visitor want to read your post. Writing a good post title or headline is a whole article itself though.
• Make sure to also write content that will intrigue the reader. Make sure to write good content or no one will want to stumble your posts. The better content you write the more thumbs up you will receive. Try not to write just one or two paragraphs otherwise I can guarantee you will not get many stumbles.

Simplicity and Traffic

And of course you can always add a StumbleUpon button at the top or bottom of each post. This will make it more likely that your readers or visitors will stumble or thumbs up your post. Web surfers do not like to have to take the time to find something or do anything extra. However, if you make it easy for web surfers to do something, then you have a better chance they will do it. StumbleUpon users have told me that they sometimes forget to stumble a page or give it thumbs up. Obviously, you should make sure it to grab one of the StumbleUpon buttons with the code so that you can put it on each of your blog posts. Need help doing this contact me

Now to the best part, two or three thumbs up can get you anywhere from 300 to 1,000 visitors to your blog. Of course the more thumbs up you continue to get, the more visitors to your blog you get. If you happen to get a lot of thumbs up you could get constant traffic to your blog for weeks. It does vary depending on what category your article is stumbled under. I have three different blogs running right now and of course politics has taken over everything. However, after November 4 everything should go back to normal where politics is not such a big deal on StumbleUpon or similar web sites.

There are many things you can do to get the most out of StumbleUpon. If you just spend 30 minutes to 1 hour a day using StumbleUpon, then you shouldn’t have a problem getting traffic to your blog. I’ve been averaging around 6,000 visitors every month from StumbleUpon and you can too. The benefits of StumbleUpon are wonderful if you use it correctly.

Would you like to promote your blog while making relationships? Would he like to get more traffic to your blog? Would you like to create a blog where it feels like community because everyone is blogging? Well if your answer is yes then you need to be on Twitter because it is where the parties at.

Be a Somebody

Ben Walker has a video out called You’re No One If You’re Not on Twitter. And he is exactly right. And I know as a blogger you do not want to continue to be a nobody. So if you’re asking yourself why does it matter and finally somebody on Twitter?

Twitter Has Millions of Users

Well, there are thousands and thousands of users on Twitter. Never mind that, I mean millions and millions of users on Twitter. Over at Mashable, Adam Ostrow wrote a blog post about how Twitter Is Growing like Crazy: Up 422% in 12 Months. Twitter recorded 2.3 million unique visitors in the month of August. That should be persuasive enough to make you want to become part of Twitter. (Millions of users ready to come to your blog)

Show Your Genuine

With that many unique visits on Twitter, you should know that there are people on their that would be willing to read your blog. Over at Confessions of a Photographer, he explains how he is joined Twitter even though he has his reservations about what it could do for him. Even though he still isn’t convinced that it has any really use, he considers it fun. If you are having fun on a web site like Twitter, then you’re on the right track because that is when you’re going to be the most genuine. And from what I have learned over the years, people that read blogs like is author is genuine. (You will already be on the right track)

If you are one of those people that likes to use little expressions to have fun on instant messaging, then you can have fun on Twitter with Twitter Keys: Enhance Your Twitter Conversations. It’ll be just another way to make you more genuine. You don’t want to go on Twitter or a similar site looking like a robot.

So How Does Twitter Get Me Traffic Though?

Well, you have millions of users so you have to get them to come to your Twitter page. Most users on Twitter are extremists when it comes to Twitter itself. What I mean by this, is that these users use Twitter two to three hours everyday.

Make sure to add a picture to build credibility. It seems a little creepy if you have no picture at all. It is hard for anyone to really feel like they can trust you.

Add your blog URL so that when people come to your Twitter page they have the choice to also view your URL. Trust me, they will visit your URL because I consistently check my blog traffic every morning and night and Twitter is one of the main spots where traffic comes from.

Go ahead and start to follow people on Twitter. It is easiest if you can find someone that has a blog like you so you can follow its followers. You can only add up to 2000 people to follow and if you do that Twitter still might consider you a spammer like Balkhis (He is not much of a spammer though). So make sure you have just enough people to be able to respond to on Twitter (Respond to someone by clicking the little arrow by the Twitter).

You want to get people following you also so that you can update everyone when you have a new post on your blog. You can update your blog on Twitter with a WordPress plug-in. To get people to follow you so that they get your twits, then go to the everyone tab once you have logged in. Many people check to see if anyone replies to their twits, so make sure to respond to other people’s twits and you will likely get them to check out your Twitter page. Like I stated above, if they go to your Twitter page they will likely check out your blog. If not, they might follow you so they can see all of your twits.

And of course, you can always let everyone know on your blog that they can follow you on Twitter. People that come to her blog could possibly check out your Twitter page and be persuaded that you are genuine. Blog readers ike people who are genuine.

If you’re just sitting around a home why not get on Twitter and build relationships. Become an actual person on the Internet and not another robot. Twitter is where the parties at!

So you’re probably looking for some blog post that is long and sophisticated so it seems that it is important. However, giving a blog tip here and there doesn’t mean you have to write a long post. Yes, this tip is simple, but you’d be amazed how many people don’t do this.

As a blogger you should always have some sort of marketing plan. You should lay out all your options and pick out the best. This could be anything from advertising on different blogs, commenting on blogs, or anything else.

You also have to make it easier, for those people that come, to bookmark your post. Having people do this will allow even more people to come to your blog. Some of the main web sites you can use are Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and more. A lot of blogs just focus on a couple of these social bookmarking web sites as their main means of getting traffic.

What I see too many times is that people are not doing enough to get users to help you get traffic to your blog through those social bookmarking sites. What you need to do is take one of those web sites and then get the code so that readers have the option of bookmarking it.

For example, I really try to get a lot of people to my blog from StumbleUpon. So you see at the end of the post I have the StumbleUpon button that allows people to thumb up my blog. I know I already have the share/save add-on that allows people to choose a place to bookmark my post. The problem is, it does not stick out. The StumbleUpon button sticks out with the logo and thumb this up text next to it. I have been getting at least four more thumb ups since adding it. Which, in turn gives me around 300 to 600 visitors from each post.

You can do this with any social bookmarking site. Having their own little badge on your blog so that it sticks out will make many more readers either stumble your blog, digg your blog, buzz up your blog, or anything else you do with the other social bookmarking web sites.

Just try to put the actual social bookmarking script on your blog and I bet you’ll get tons more traffic. The point is, try to make it as easy as possible to bookmark your blog post. Visitors to your blog do not want to take the time to bookmark it themselves by going to the website.

On August 16th Twitter announced that the vestigal feature in the developer API.

Here’s some of the info.:

“I’m happy to announce a minor change to the API that should have a major impact on the Twitter community. The /statuses/update method now takes an optional parameter: in_reply_to_status_id. As you might guess, this allows API clients to specify which status a status to be posted is in reply to, rather than our system assuming that it’s in reply to the last message posted by the user specified by “@username”.

If your client posts statuses, please consider making use of this feature. By convention, we’d like to continue to use “@username” at the beginning of messages that are replies, but specifying the in_reply_to_status_id parameter will override the guess about the in_reply_to_status_id attribute that our system makes. Yes, this does mean that you could post a message that appears to be a reply to Alice while it’s actually a reply to Bob; that’s fine, as I’m sure there’s a use case for it out there.”

Many people have been blogging about this and decided that it might completely wipe out @username. It is one of the most loved things because it allows you to show up on someone else’s twitter page if you respond to their post.

Threaded conversations will make it difficult to use twitter for marketing. If you ask me, I believe the same thing. For a lot of bloggers we use this to market our blog. This allows people to see that someone is responding to a post we made on twitter and then their followers can see that and click on your username to see more about you. With that gone twitter becomes useless to me.