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Sending direct messages from Twitter

Posted by: Meg Thilmony

Thursday, April 9, 2009 12:01 PM

Here's a quick lesson on how to send a direct message on Twitter.

You first must have a Twitter account - it's not difficult to sign up at www.twitter.com . (You can find more information about Twitter and its uses in my previous blog entry.)

To send a direct message, you must first follow the person you wish to message, and they must follow you back. Follow them by searching for their account (Google is the best way to do this). Or you can just enter the Web address for their account. For example, find The News-Gazette's account at www.twitter.com/news_gazette . Click the button just under that person's photo or logo that says "Follow."

In most cases, they'll see you're following them and reciprocate. At that point, either head to the "Direct Messages" tab of your own Twitter account. You can select the username of the account you wish to message. Type in what you want to say, and press send.

Or, head to their Twitter page by either entering their Web address or clicking their username or photo/logo in your Twitter feed. Scroll down on their page and look on the right side for the word "Actions." Here, you should see a link for "message." Click it and type your message in the resulting box. Press send and you should be good to go.

Direct messages are private (unlike Tweets). However, you must still be concise - 140 characters is your limit.

Questions on this? Feel free to e-mail me at mthilmony at news-gazette.com