It’s a common practice on Twitter to mention the source of cited content, most often by including a “mention”, the inclusion of the person’s Twitter name, i.e., @twittername.
It’s a great thing to do. You get a chance to not only share great content, but to mention the author or contributor. Doing so potentially helps build the author’s Twitter following and let’s that person know you tweeted something that referenced her.
That opens the opportunity for dialogue between you and the person you cited. They’ll see you mentioned them. They might thank you, explore your profile and contributions, choose to follow you, or reach out to you in some other way. On the other hand, they may do nothing, and that’s all right, too; you shouldn’t mention another user in a tweet simply in pursuit of what’s in it for you.
I really try to include a mention when I find and tweet good content. If the person’s twitter name isn’t immediately available, I’ll click on the author’s name to see if her profile page mentions her Twitter name. If I don’t find it there, I’ll try a search on twitter for the person’s name. Sometimes the search ends without success.
I think one of the best ways to do this is to change your author name on your blog posts to include your Twitter name. Most blog posts note the author of the post right under the post’s title. Instead of simply the author’s name, also include the author’s Twitter name. This way it’s always there. And if you have a multi-author blog, it’s super simple to set up. I changed ours this morning. You can see it right under this post’s title.
If you’re writing articles or posts that get published elsewhere, make sure your byline includes your Twitter name.
Most people want to mention the contributor of good content, not just the content itself. Why not make it easier for them to do so?
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