How does Twitter work?

[shortpail896]

I really want to use it but it makes no sense to me
how do you get someone that you are following, to see a message you sent them, even if they are not following you..
or do they have to be following you? and in that case how do you get them to follow you?

ughh!

[Sarah]

Sometimes people you follow will follow you back just because you're following them. If they aren't following you, there are two ways that they can see something you direct at them.
First, you can Direct Message (or DM) them; this allows you to send them a message that will not be viewable on your Twitter timeline. It's basically a private message.
The other way is to type their username into your tweet first. For example; "@username your message." This will let them know they've been mentioned in your tweet.

Hope this is helpful!