<pulls out soapbox, steps up on top, begins rant…> I am TOTALLY blown away by how inconsiderate so many tweeple can be! The eternal optimist in me wants to assume that their rudeness is nothing more than ignorance in disguise.

What’s got me in a kerfuffle you might ask? Let me give you the scenario, see if this may have happened to you?

You’re getting your day going, it’s time to check the DMs on your twitter account… Awesome, a bunch of DMs, some from people you regularly converse with and a few from people you just started following, thanking you!

This new followee not only says thank you but begins a dialogue! Awesome! Excellent, how nice! Not spam! yeah!

So you hit reply on your twitter client, “DM username …” and proceed to compose a beautifully elegant response in 140 chars or less… Then you hit SEND…

And you get a response something along the lines of: “unable to send direct message to non-followers”! WTF, they asked me a question! How in the hey do they propose I’m supposed to answer it????!!!!

Ok <steps down off crate, slides soapbox away for another day>, lets assume that this is strictly a case of ignorance, they just didn’t know that in order to respond to their query they must be following you… (benefit of the doubt and all that)…. <pulls out chair, sits down beside followee>…

Please, if you’re going to reply to a new follower and thank them for following you, AND you are proactive (an excellent tweeple) in beginning the dialogue; PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE remember to follow them BEFORE you DM them!

If you find this helpful, please feel free to comment below, or follow me on twitter @orionsweb!