I have just head the term 'subtweeting' - it's actually not very stealthy

Just posted this comment over at some random post at Business Insider, thought I'd post it here as it's relevant to my fascination with the way social media makes things surface that otherwise might be ... unsurfaced.

Subtweeting is apparently tweeting about someone without using the person's Twitter handle on the assumption that they won't hear about it. I'd not recommend relying on that.

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I'd be surprised if subtweeting (hadn't heard the term before) is of much use in stealth tweeting to be honest as there seem to be so many different ways in which the link can become obvious.

The simplest is looking at the (presumably public) profile of the person or people who might tweet about you. If it's private then you might search for tweets SENT to that person, in response to any tweet they might have sent.

If a tweet is sent in reply it forms part of a chain of tweets - even if people's names are removed from the next tweet the chain remains. Just click on any tweet to see the conversation it's participated in.

You can't even use short URLs to 'hide' a web address either as searching for the web address will bring it up along with any shortened versions (whether t.co / bit.ly etc).