Twitter Tips - How to Send a Direct Message

Twitter is one of the most popular websites on the Web, with 175 million tweets being sent every day. Most of those tweets are freely visible to the public, but sometimes Twitter users want to send a private message to another user. The only way to do this in Twitter is to send a direct message, which can only be seen by the user you send it to, much like an e-mail.

You can only send a message to people who are following you, though. That's the only catch. If you want to send a message to someone who isn't following you, you'll have to send a public tweet and include the @ symbol followed by the person's user name. However, for anyone who is following you, sending a message is simple and can be done in one of two ways.

One way to send a private message is from your profile page. At the top of the page next to the search box is a generic picture of a person. 

How To Create A Social Media Will

Did you see it? This week the US government actually recommended that we all get our online houses in order for posterity. Now that Facebook has nearly a billion users, quickly followed by Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and other social sites, Washington is concerned that the Internet might end up with millions of accounts unattended do to disuse or death.

So a few weeks ago the government added a new section to their list of personal finance recommendations. It's called creating "a social media will."

The update brings up an interesting point. What happens to all those passwords and user names floating around in your head, if you're suddenly unable to access them or no longer have the ability to use them yourself?