Stealth Fanout on Twitter

Sure, on Twitter you can use the ".@" convention to start a Tweet with a username but still have it delivered to all your followers. Like this:

.@geuis is the guy behind jsonip.com. everyone say thanks to @geuis!

— Isaac Hepworth (@isaach) September 13, 2012

Turns out, though, that instead of a "." you can use a zero-width space. It has the same effect—your Tweet is delivered to all of your followers—but the leading character is by its nature invisible:

​@jobvite makes me angry.

— Isaac Hepworth (@isaach) February 27, 2013

A side effect which you may or may not enjoy is people's surprise:

@isaach how'd i see that tweet if I don't follow them?

— Samir Mezrahi (@samir) February 27, 2013

<hears knock on door>*OPEN UP, ITS TWITTER* *YOU MAY HAVE SEEN SOMETHING YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO*<door slams open><samir flat lines>

— Samir Mezrahi (@samir) February 27, 2013