Twitter Tip: Why are my tweets not being seen?

I thought this was a well-known twitter tip, but lately I've been seeing a rise in tweets by brands and publicists that are not being seen by their followers. If a tweet begins with @{username}, only the mutual followers of the user mentioned will see it. It will not appear in your other followers' streams. To ensure your tweet is seen in the streams of all your followers, the tweet must have a character preceding the @ symbol. It can be any character even a period, for example:

             .@ChicLuxuries featured us in #FavoriteThings {note the dot preceding the @ sign}, or:

             We were featured in @ChicLuxuries #FavoriteThings

rather than:

              @ChicLuxuries featured us in #FavoriteThings

Hope this helps. Follow @ChicLuxuries and RT the tweet below to be automatically entered to win a $500 goodie box when we reach 10K.

#Win a $500 goodie box from @ChicLuxuries awarded @ 10K Details: http://ChicLuxuries.com #Follow and RT to enter #Giveaway #Contest #Sweeps