My dear friend and Enterprise 2.0 Evangelista, Susan Scrupski, has posted an idea that I???m passing along to you. She???s titled it ???LinkedIn Pay It Forward Day???. She???s suggesting that next week, on October 29, 2008 we all go visit the LinkedIn Page of someone in our social network and write a recommendation for them.

Susan explained, ???Everyone has worked with someone in their network who is deserving of a positive recommendation. The randomness of the recommendation will make it satisfying for you and the recipient.???

Giving someone the ???gift of kind words??? is a wonderful idea. My daughter???s class did that one year around the holiday time. It was free, and you should have seen the smile on the faces of the kids when they came home with their gift. My daughter put hers up on her wall and had me read it to her for months.

The idea of paying it forward is very appealing. As Susan mentions, in this economic environment, so many of our friends and colleagues find themselves out of a job or fearing that they may be. A gift of kind words is a great gift indeed.

I???m endorsing her idea. I???ve just put a note to myself on October 29 to go write a recommendation for someone in my social network. Let???s all do that.

Pay it Forward on LinkedIn
kpearlson
Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:14:42 GMT

This is what happens when you put IT in charge of a job that should belong to marketing:

1. Near invisible call to action:

2. Impersonal landing page after sign up with NO links back to the e-store.

Subscription requested.
Please check your email for a confirmation message. You must respond to this confirmation message to join this list.

3. Impersonal and meaningless sender name in confirmation email:

4. And unclear instructions. Reply to this emailwith what? Doesn't compel me to visit the site. Doesn't give an idea of what to expect from future emails of interest.

Most retail emails I have signed up for have not asked for confirmation (double opt in). If the recipient doesn't take action on this email, he or she will not receive further messages - either the message doesn't get opened, or the recipient doesn't understand the confirmation instructions. I think a better approach is to send all subsequent emails with a clear unsubscribe link at the top of the email (rather than discreetly at the bottom, so people don't mistakenly mark your message as spam).

I'm disappointed at the lack of magic from this toy retailer, because shopping for toys is an emotional experience, and the FAO Schwarz brand has always been magical.

Check out the difference from Disney Shopping's welcome email:

Next Free Ecommerce Webinar...

Holiday Wish List for Mobile Commerce: October 23rd, 2008 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Bill Mirabito, Founder & Principal Analyst, B2C Partners
Register to Attend...

You may also like these similar posts:

• Consumers Believe Spam Means Unwanted, Not Unsolicited Email
• Registration Usability - Permission Email Dos and Donts
• Make Email Look Good In Gmail - 8 Design Tips for Images-Off
• Don't Put the We' in Welcome Emails
• Trigger Email 101

Tom Brokaw asked Hank Paulson on Meet The Press (I microblogged it here) what rules should be put in place for the splurge (that's my new favorite term for the wall street bailout). Hank was good at making the point that we need to act now, but he really punted on the rules that should be put in place. He acknowledged that rules and reforms are needed, but he wanted to stay on message and he did a good job of that.

Fortunately my friend Tom Evslin has come up with a set of rules for brokerages/banks/insurance companies that want to avail themselves of splurge-related bailouts. If, for some reason, you don't want to click thru to Tom's post, here they are:

Rule #1: Cut salaries now

Part of the bailout bill ought to be that any organization which proffers securities for government purchase must agree not to pay any employee or contactor more than $1 million per year for the next four years. No cheating with trips to events on the corporate jet or other perks with draconian penalties TO THE RECIPIENT for violations.

Rule #2: No new golden parachutes

Some executives have contracts which entitle them to huge golden parachutes especially if their pay is cut. These need to be annulled.

Rule #3: End payment on old golden parachutes

Payments on existing golden parachutes should be stopped.

Rule #4: No dividends for a year

This seems harsh to us shareholders who may have bank securities in our portfolio, but it's not. Clearly an organization which is being bailed out needs to conserve cash to survive.

I like these rules. I bet you all have ideas for more. Please leave them in Tom's comment thread if you can.

Pretty run of the mill stuff, except RockYou included every email address in the CC field, providing every recipient (and everyone it's been forwarded to, including us) with a complete contact list of every major application developer and potential advertiser on the Facebook platform.

Nice.

Hundreds of reply-all's flowed in. Some of my favorites:

Why, hello everyone in the world who makes Facebook apps.

LOL, did anyone else just get an email from Zynga asking if they wanted a job making games on FB? I love it. Also, which one of you is gonna sell to SpeedDate next? [several yes answers to the Zynga question followed]

Hmm, I didn't get one. Sucks. Well, we're hiring too: http://www.seriousbusiness.com. We have really big monitors. And nice chairs. And Ruby. And come on - hands down: WAY cooler logo.

zynga has even bigger monitors, even nicer chairs, and 2 chef cooked meals every day! and siqi is welcome, pending a grueling interview, of course

You fucked us RockYou!

I'm down for a meet up tooHows Palo Alto everyone? =)

Sounds good to me, I am in Palo Alto until Thursday afternoon if anyone is meeting up. The Rock You Errant CC Spontaneous Meet Up

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it's time for you to find a new Job2.0

There was a time when e-mail was the primary way for people to market products and services on the Internet. While things have changed, people continue to make mistakes when executing their e-mail marketing strategy. Many new marketing professionals forget they need to extend some respect the person they are targeting.

Since 1995 I have been experimenting with and learning about e-mail marketing. The following notes are based on my on-going experience. While your own experience will vary, I have seen these techniques deliver e-mail marketing results way above anyone's expectations.

As you plan your next e-mail marketing campaign, the follow are some of the classic e-mail marketing mistakes you may want to avoid:

- PRETEND you know the person you are soliciting:
Use a well formed SEND to address. If you are going to email me, make me believe it is an email from someone has me as an entry in their address book. emails sent to: jeff@pulver.com usually get much less responses than email sent to: Jeff Pulver )

- Always use a real FROM address:
Avoid anyone who suggests using a real name but fake FROM address. email from someone whose name I recognize becomes totally ineffective when the from address is not their real email address. If I was about to send out an email blast, Given the choice, I'd prefer to have my from address set to be: Jeff Pulver rather than: Jeff Pulver .

- Keep it PERSONAL.
email is much more effective when the email is being sent from a person who exists rather than a made up person. And yes, we can tell. Especially when it is from a company we have business with in the past.

- Avoid using e-mail Aliases as your FROM address.
Why do I want to read an email solicitation from: info@pulver.com or SocialMediaCamp2008@pulver.com? What I want to read is an email from a PERSON. I don't want to guess who is the person hiding behind the aliases.

- Be ONLINE and AVAILABLE.
The sender of the email marketing campaign should be plan to be online and responding to messages as they are received from people asking questions from the email they just received. The more available the sender is, the higher the probability the success rate will be higher. Avoid going dark if you can avoid it.

- Know the BUSINESS HOURS of your Target
For the most effective email messages, send the message during the business hours of the target. Group your databases based on Geography. Send out your email in batches if necessary. When you send a message off hours, the chances are higher it will get unread.

Exception: If the person you are sending a message to is a 24/7 e-mail person, this rule does not apply. In fact, some people are most productive outside of the typical business hours for their time zone.

- Send Messages DURING the Work Week.
Personally I avoid sending messages out on Fridays whenever I can avoid it. I have had the most success sending messages Mondays to Thursdays. (related to the above point.)

- SINGLE Subject Messages
If you are looking for the subject to take action, keep the message to a single subject.

- Don't assume the targeted person can READ the message. Sometimes a BIG problem when someone blindly sends out rich-text emails without thinking.

Triple Bonus points for people who can work some of the following points into their e-mail marketing strategy. Things to consider:

-- KNOW the DEVICE and Platform being used by the recipient to read their messages. This continues to be the BEST way to increase the chances your message will be seen in a way you intended it to be seen. The information about the default device/platform used to read e-mail can have a tremendous impact on the future effectiveness of future e-mail marketing campaigns.

And while this information is not always known, it is something you can track in your corporate marketing databases. Just ask the right questions and increase the effectiveness of future marketing campaigns.

-- Make the effort to create similar but different messages depending upon the ways your prospects are receiving messages.

If target is using a Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail account - you can generally assume they can read HTML and embedded videos. (But this assumption is broken when someone is reading their gmail account with a mobile device.)

If the target is using a wireless device like a blackberry, keep the subject to 15 characters or less and only send text in the message body. Avoid rich-text elements on blackberry messages.

Referenced Websites need to be EASY to Navigate
How many times do you find yourself trying to take an action from a message received only to discover how difficult it is to navigate a website? Too many times the destination website is too heavy with graphics and widgets and not very functional. Don't make the effort to bring someone to a cause of action only to frustrate them when they are trying to take that action.

When your cause of action includes clicking on a URL, be sure to support Mobile Devices and Mobile Browsers

Do NOT Frustrate the person you are pitching by sending them to URLs that they can't easily navigate to.

These days your websites to need to support Mac, PC and most Mobile Devices. No Excuses. You have no control over the device and platform your message will be received on. And not everyone has an iPhone or a Blackberry or a Palm. But your target demographic will vary. If you are only targeting an iPhone or Blackberry crowd, plan your marketing plan accordingly and deliver the best experience possible to these people.

---

The Bottom line is that regardless of the fact that you are using email to do your marketing in a Web 2.0 world, remember to R-E-S-P-C-T your prospects. Make it easy for your targeted customers to read your messages and be able to act when asked to a call to action. And remember they are people first. So don't use your marketing program to test someone's intelligence.

These observations and this list is a work in progress. Please feel free to add to this list and share your stories for ways for making e-mail marketing more effective. And feel free to give feedback to the person soliciting you the next time you run into someone who falls in to any of the traps described above.

Tags: marketing, Web 2.0, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Please consider leaving a comment. And feel free to find me on twitter and continue this conversation.

Kacie likes that the barrier to participation is low, but an investment is required of the audience. Matt points out that the lumiere videos often gives a glimpse of everyday life that is overlooked. Stephanie prefers photographs over lumieres, but may give them a shot. Finally, Cameron feels smug and points out some contradictions.

I'm thrilled that the manifesto and the videos are being used in classrooms (Adrian and Michael have done the same), but I must admit a bit disappointed that the ITP students have not made any lumiere videos. It is important to participate to understand the practice. I'll encourage all Shawn's students to create at least one lumiere video and submit it. Brittany, I and all the viewers will be happy to watch what you create.

The lumiere project is a reaction. It is meant to challenge people to think differently about how they produce online video. We use the the lumiere rules as a metaphor, by following the same rules as the Lumiere brothers we hope to instill the same humility towards the medium as they must have had.

The lumiere rules work well as a framework as they force you to work with the bare minimums needed to create moving images. Perspective, a camera, a start and an end point are all necessary. Yes, all of those are editorial decisions, but trimming, cutting, special effects are not merely an extension of that process as Cameron says. The lumiere rules allows for the filmmaker to choose a paradigm when he or she places the camera and starts recording, but the filmmaker is denied the usual privilege of creating a syntagmatic axis with post-production. That is a massive difference, not a negligible one.

As Cameron suspects audio is removed for almost all submissions because most modern cameras all record sound. We have chosen the lumiere rules as a framework so we must go all the way and remove audio. The pleasant side effect is that the videos become more easily accessible across the globe. A similar case is video compression. Most modern cameras record files that are simply too large to be distributed easily and each video must be compressed for consumption. You can create many special effects by changing your compression settings, but doing so would be going against the spirit of the rules.

Matt uses a Hitchcock reference to describe what role lumiere videos play and he is spot on:

Didn't Hitchcock say that movies are like life with the dull parts cut out? Well, if that's so, then these are the dull parts where it takes effort and patience to get something out of it.

As one of the poster children for auteur theorists Hitchcock stands for everything the lumiere manifesto does not. Don't get me wrong: My favourite movie is Rear Window and I think the guy was a genius, but today's filmmakers still see themselves as auteurs with a vision they must cram into the innocent heads of their audience. The lumiere manifesto is a reaction to that line of thinking.

You hear talk about Internet TV and cinematic theories and concepts are uncritically applied to video online. For once the world wide web gives the viewers a larger role and filmmakers should pay attention to them. We should not be forced to sit in a cinema or in front of our tv, bound by technical restraints and social norms, forced to accept the action as it unfolds in the order and pace the director has deemed perfect (for him - he does not know what is perfect for me). The filmmaker should acknowledge that his audience are composed of intelligent people who create their own interpretations differently from what the filmmaker intended. Communication theory has long ago realized that treating communication as a transmission in which the recipient is little more than an automaton waiting for input is a flawed and inefficient approach. It is sad that filmmakers and would-be filmmakers still think this way. The lumiere project is among other things a risk-free way for filmmakers to try to think their films differently. A chance to play in ways the regular thinking does not allow for.

Enough talk. Here's a lumiere video. Now you go make one and submit it.

Sending private messages through back channels is nothing new. We do it all the time with emails and direct messages on multiple services. However, sometimes information is just too sensitive to keep around once it's been sent. Wouldn't it be great to have messages self-destruct after being read a la Harry Potter style? Well Privnote is just the service for you.

This Message Will Self-Destruct in T-Minus 5, 4, 3, 2....

Developed by Insophia using Django and Python, Privnote allows you to send a message and have it be immediately deleted once it is read. Spotted by MakeUsOf, simply head to the homepage of Privnote and type in your message. Once your done click the "post it" button to grab a link to send to a recipient. Once the message is read or the link is clicked, the link is no longer accessible. You can also receive notifications for when a your link is clicked, which will include the ip address of the reader.

The best reason to use Privnote?

"If you send a note and suddenly regret having done so, you can click the link yourself which will destroy the note and prevent the receiver to read it."

You can't do this with email, IM, or Twitter.

Have A Little Fun With Privnote

Privnote provides security in numerous ways. You'll notice that all links generated begin with "https". This means that the link has a certain level of security associated with it to prevent ease dropping. However, I wouldn't recommend taking the service to seriously and start sending FBI classified files. For secret love notes, messages, and meeting locations, Privnote would be a cool and fun service to use.

Horacio (aka vruz) pointed me to this 2006 essay in Philosophy Now by Alan Kirby on "the death of post-modernism." I read it yesterday evening (on paper taking notes). Yes I am old school when reading anything over a page or two.

I am no expert in art, philosophy, and literature so the terms modernism and post-modernism don't run deep in my brain. But from a simplistic point of view, I understand that modernism and post-modernism define the 20th century in western culture. Modernism first emerged in the late 19th century and was a reaction against the romanticism that had defined western civilization in the 19th century. Modernism embraced the industrialization of society and the emergence of breakthrough scientific thinking. In art and architecture, modernism brought simplicity and and new artistic forms.

Post-modernism was the post-war (WWII) reaction to modernism. It re-embraced historical contexts but in a modern form. Post-modernism was complex, ironic, and ambiguous.

So with that backdrop, what comes after the "modernist" era (which in my mind includes both modernism and post-modernism)? Kirby suggests a new ethos is emerging that he calls pseudo-modernism. I don't like that word. But his observations ring true to me.

I believe there is more to this shift than a simple change in cultural fashion. The terms by which authority, knowledge, selfhood, reality and time are conceived have been altered, suddenly and forever. There is now a gulf between most lecturers and their students akin to the one which appeared in the late 1960s, but not for the same kind of reason. The shift from modernism to postmodernism did not stem from any profound reformulation in the conditions of cultural production and reception; all that happened, to rhetorically exaggerate, was that the kind of people who had once written Ulysses and To the Lighthouse wrote Pale Fire and The Bloody Chamber instead. But somewhere in the late 1990s or early 2000s, the emergence of new technologies re-structured, violently and forever, the nature of the author, the reader and the text, and the relationships between them.

And

the culture we have now fetishises the recipient of the text to the degree that they become a partial or whole author of it. Optimists may see this as the democratisation of culture; pessimists will point to the excruciating banality and vacuity of the cultural products thereby generated (at least so far).

And

Postmodernism conceived of contemporary culture as a spectacle before which the individual sat powerless, and within which questions of the real were problematised. It therefore emphasised the television or the cinema screen. Its successor, which I will call pseudo-modernism, makes the individual's action the necessary condition of the cultural product.

Kirby is right. We've moved into a new phase of society. One that emphasizes participation in culture and society and and technology and politics. If it weren't such a mouthful, I'd suggest we call it participatism. Kirby makes a bunch of additional observations worth sharing.

pseudo-modern cultural products cannot and do not exist unless the individual intervenes physically in them. Great Expectations will exist materially whether anyone reads it or not.....Big Brother on the other hand, to take a typical pseudo-modern cultural text, would not exist materially if nobody phoned up to vote its contestants off.

and

Pseudo-modernism also includes computer games, which similarly place the individual in a context where they invent the cultural content, within pre-delineated limits. The content of each individual act of playing the game varies according to the particular player.

and

The pseudo-modern cultural phenomenon par excellence is the internet. Its central act is that of the individual clicking on his/her mouse to move through pages in a way which cannot be duplicated, inventing a pathway through cultural products which has never existed before and never will again. This is a far more intense engagement with the cultural process than anything literature can offer, and gives the undeniable sense (or illusion) of the individual controlling, managing, running, making up his/her involvement with the cultural product.

and

In all of this, the viewer' feels powerful and is indeed necessary; the author' as traditionally understood is either relegated to the status of the one who sets the parameters within which others operate, or becomes simply irrelevant, unknown, sidelined; and the text' is characterised both by its hyper-ephemerality and by its instability.

and

Much text messaging and emailing is vapid in comparison with what people of all educational levels used to put into letters. A triteness, a shallowness dominates all. The pseudo-modern era, at least so far, is a cultural desert.

and finally

There is a generation gap here, roughly separating people born before and after 1980. Those born later might see their peers as free, autonomous, inventive, expressive, dynamic, empowered, independent, their voices unique, raised and heard: postmodernism and everything before it will by contrast seem elitist, dull, a distant and droning monologue which oppresses and occludes them. Those born before 1980 may see, not the people, but contemporary texts which are alternately violent, pornographic, unreal, trite, vapid, conformist, consumerist, meaningless and brainless (see the drivel found, say, on some Wikipedia pages, or the lack of context on Ceefax). To them what came before pseudo-modernism will increasingly seem a golden age of intelligence, creativity, rebellion and authenticity.

That was a lot of quoting of someone else's work. I fear not enough of you will click thru and read the essay so I've cut and pasted (is cut and pasting itself a fundamental part of participatism?) the best parts here so we can have a conversation about this essay. I think it's an important discussion. On to the comments. We embrace participatism here on this blog.

Everyone talks about Twitter. It's hard to describe why people like it and use it so much. You have to use it, and connect with some people, to really see why it's worth it. If you're looking at it from the outside, like watching the public timeline, it's going to seem stupid and useless. That's because, used like that, it is.

BUT.

If you know what you're doing, Twitter is a REALLY POWERFUL and REALLY COOL way to connect with people. You can find basic, entry level explanations about why you should use Twitter everywhere. I even wrote such a post a couple of months ago (which includes the excellent Twitter in Plain English video, which you must watch if you haven't already). The rest of this post is going to assume you have a (very) basic understanding of what Twitter is, and how it works. If not, go read my previous post, watch the video, and come back. I'll wait.

The Twitter Fu is Strong With This One

What I want to talk about here is some advanced Twitter Fu - techniques for power users (I hate that term), and people who are ready to start taking advantage of some of the really remarkable things you can accomplish with it. This isn't comprehensive, of course, but I do speak from experience. What I'm going to write about comes from my daily use and experience with Twitter (which started in July 2006, making me an old timer in the Twitterverse. Most importantly, I want to show some ways you can use Twitter to accomplish something REALLY remarkable - connect up people in a community (or build a new community) with strong ties.

Here's the reason I think all of this is so important. My job, and Intel Software Network's mission, is to build community. Community grows from connections made between people with a common interest. One way people make connections is through conversation. Real conversation in their natural human voice, with another human. You can't have a conversation with a corporation. You just can't. This is why I'm always harping on conversations, conversations, conversations! Twitter (and blogs, and other net tools, too) makes it easy to have more conversations, and thus build more connections, with other humans. You increase your human surface area - the ways people can connect with you. If you're a software person, think of it as exposing a new API endpoint for people to hook into and use. And when you have more and more of these human connections, a really cool thing emerges - community. See how that all ties in?

Enough philosophical background. Let's get on the the real, practical things you can do to become a high level Twitter Fu Master.

Grow Your Network, Carefully

Twitter is useless without following people. But it's worse than useless if you follow people you don't know. The public timeline, while it may be an entertaining peek into what the entire world is saying, isn't going to do anything to connect you to those other people. Your network is the heart of Twitter. Guard it jealously. Follow people you know (either in real life, or through online interactions, or whatever). Don't follow people you don't know, or who you don't have any reason to follow, other than because they followed you. Reciprocating a follow on Twitter is NOT required, and no one is going to get offended if you don't follow them back just because they followed you.

I did this in the beginning, and I found that it just added noise to my Twitter stream. So I pruned my following list down to people I had either met in real life, or knew from some other interaction. Basically, it came down to do I have to think for more than half a second to know who this person is? If they don't pass that test, I don't follow. You've got to keep the signal to noise ratio of your Twitter stream as high as possible. It's hard enough only following people you DO know.

Use a Desktop Client and Your Phone

There are two times you'll want to use Twitter: when you're at your computer, and when you're not. For when you're at your computer, I highly recommend using a desktop client application, which makes your Twitter stream kind of like an IM conversation. It's always there, you can pay attention to it, or hide it in the background. But having a desktop client has lots of advantages over using the Twitter.com web page to engage with your network.

There are lots of desktop clients to choose from. I personally use and love one called Twitterrific, from Craig Hockenberry and Icon Factory. It's Mac only, but I love it because a) it's beautiful, b) it uses Growl for notifications, and c) I've been using it since it came out, and I'm used to it (inertia is a powerful thing). If you're not on a Mac, or for some reason you don't want to use Twitterrific, there are some awesome clients that use the cross platform Adobe AIR runtime (Windows, Mac, and now Linux). Spaz, Twhirl, and Alert Thingy are worth a look. They all do pretty much the same thing, but some offer features like integration with FriendFeed, Jaiku, Pownce, etc. Try them all and find one you like.

A desktop client is for when you're sitting at your computer (which, for me, is most of the day). If you're anything like me, you have a whole bunch of browser windows or tabs open at any given time. It's worth it to have Twitter outside of that, in its own place. You can see the stream of conversation in your network flow by, hop in and tweet or reply to something, and get alerted when there's a reply or direct message directed at you. If you need to concentrate, and avoid distraction, just hide or close the app.

When you're away from your computer, use Twitter on your phone. Any cell phone that can do text messaging is a great Twitter client. Just enable your Twitter account to work via text messages on your phone. You have full control over what alerts/incoming messages you receive (all, direct, etc.). I follow so many people that the volume of tweets is just too much to deal with in text messages (not to mention expensive!), so I only get a text message from Twitter when I receive a Direct (private) message. But, even if you get no text message alerts at all, it's important to set this up, so you can SEND tweets from your phone. Then, get in the habit of doing it.

If you have a phone with a web browser (iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, or whatever), you can use the Twitter mobile web interface at http://m.twitter.com. It's fast, light, and provides an easy way to both read your tweets and post new ones from your phone. Depending on the device you have, there are other options. iPhone owners should check out an amazing web-based Twitter interface for iPhone called Hahlo (and rumor has it there will be an iPhone version of Twitterrific as soon as Apple launches the iPhone App Store - I can't wait!). For BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices, there are free applications you can install on your phone to use Twitter. I haven't used any of these, so I can't really make a specific recommendation, but do some Googling, ask around on your Twitter network, and you can probably find one that you like.

Integrate Twitter With Your Online Life

Remember how I said that the whole point of all of this is to increase your conversational surface area, to make it easier for people to connect to you by conversing with you? To aid in that, you'll want to include hooks/links to your presence on Twitter from the other places where you interact with people.

At the very least, put a link to your Twitter page on your blog and in your email signature and on your business cards.

Beyond that, there are a ton of great options for integrating your Twitter microposts (as I call them) on your blog, from a simple javascript badge to more complicated integrations (like the way I do it on my blog, which I explain how and why in this post). You can make this as simple or as complex as you want. Go nuts. But do it.

If you use social networks like Facebook, chances are there's a way to integrate your Twitter conversations. Facebook lets you connect your tweets with your Status updates on Facebook, and vice versa. I haven't used them, but there are ways to integrate Twitter with your MySpace page and I'm sure there are more. Again, do some Googling, and ask your new most valuable knowledge sharing tool, your Twitter network.

Don't Miss Any Conversations

Twitter lets you direct a message at a specific person in two ways. First is the direct D message, which sends a private message that only the recipient can see. This is kind of like a short email. The second, and far more common way is the @reply. You can indicate that a tweet is for a certain person by typing @theirusername. Twitter turns th