Twitter masterclass: Advanced tweeting

Be direct

DM stands for 'direct messaging', which sends a private tweet when you want to respond to someone but don't want it to show up in your feed. You need to be following each other to send and receive DMs. Careful with this one -- the potential for broadcasting something incriminating or embarassing to your entire list of followers is quite high. A blog called dmfail.com was around for a while at the end of last year, broadcasting said accidental tweets, but it's since been shut down.

To send a direct message, simply type 'd username' at the start of a normal tweet. An easy way to do this is to hit the reply arrow on someone's tweet so their username appears in the tweet box, then replace the '@' with a 'd'.

If someone sends you a DM, you can see it by clicking on 'messages' in the sidebar. Twitter handily shows you how many DMs you have, but, again, this is only on your homepage. Unlike @replies, DMs can be deleted. You can reply to DMs here, or send a new one by choosing from a drop-down menu listing your followers.