How do I request someone I'm following on Twitter to follow me?

Question

How do I request someone I'm following on Twitter to follow me? I can't reply to them, so they must not be following me. Am I blocked from them?

Answer 1

When you follow someone, they can be alerted via email that you have just become their newest follower. In their settings, there's a section on Activity notifications, one of which is:

Email me when ☑ I'm followed by someone new

When they're sent this email, it prompts them to check out your profile. They can either leave it at that or follow you back.

Busy and famous people probably won't have this set up as it creates too much noise in their inbox.

If you want to reply to someone, you can check out one of their tweets and click the Reply link. That will give you a pop-up with their Twitter handle prefilled. Enter your reply and if you're not blocked, the reply tweet will show up in their @Mentions tab.

If you're looking to Direct Message someone, then they would have to follow you before you can do so.

If they don't reply or follow you back, and you haven't been blocked, they don't want to reply or follow you back.

Answer 2

If you are following the respective user, you are not blocked for him/her.

Can I block people from following me?

If you block someone, they won't be able to follow you or send you any messages.

From here: http://support.twitter.com/entries/13920-frequently-asked-questions

So, make sure is not one of these cases:

Replies/Mentions

If you're having trouble with @replies or mentions, check for the following.

1. Is there any symbol in or after the username?
   • If you write @emilyp.123, your message will be sent to the user emilyp, not emilyp123
2. Is there any symbol preceding the @ symbol?
   • If you write .@emilyp, ?@emilyp or !@emilyp, these will appear as regular Tweets, meaning all your followers will see them in their timelines, rather than just you and the intended recipient.
3. Is there any letter preceding the @symbol?
   • If you write 23@emilyp or word@emilyp, emilyp will not receive your Tweet. @mentions will not work with letters or numbers in front of the @ symbol. The @ symbol must be at the beginning of a Tweet or it must have a space directly in front of it in order for the mention to work.
4. Is your Account Protected?
   • If your account is protected, the person you're trying to @ mention has to follow you in order to be able to see your Tweets. So if @emilyp has a protected account, @justinbieber won't be able to see her Tweets unless he follows her.

From here: https://support.twitter.com/groups/32-something-s-not-working/topics/119-tweet-dm-problems/articles/370610-my-hashtags-or-replies-aren-t-working