Twitter Dots Absolutely Annoying, Absolutely Essential

Okay, for months I have noticed with absolute disgust the number of Tweets – be them from big businesses, celebrities or even our HMA_PR feed – that (I assumed) “accidentally” started with a dot or period, like so:
.@hanner_66 provides insight on how to be productive today: www.hmapr.com/being-productive
See that blasted dot? It makes me crazy.  
But, as it turns out – it is there for a reason.
Twitter is smarter than it seems, but not quite smart enough. When you start a tweet with someone tagged (like in the above, @hanner66), it appears to Twitter that you might be having a conversation with said person, not simply attributing something to him/her or tagging him/her in the post. As such, it places less importance on the tweet, meaning the algorithm might hide it from some followers’ feeds. With the dot, it doesn’t, or is at least less prone to.
The Muse recently wrote a great story detailing the mystery dot better than I, and provides some additional examples. Head on over there by clicking here and take a look.