Conversations - how to join

I am relatively new to twitter but cannot get my head around conversations.

How does one join in a conversation as, if I understand it correctly, if none of the other posters follow me my message actually goes nowhere.

geffers @send2gl

 

If you mention someone they can see your message in their "Connect" tab. They also may be notified via e-mail that you mentioned them.

 

When you say 'mention' someone, does that mean just having their twitter address in the message or do I need to put a hash tag in somewhere.

Geffers

 

Mentioning is writing a Twitter account name with "@" before it, for example:

Then the user "dolor" will be able to find your tweet on their "Connect" page (http://twitter.com/mentions).

 

Thanks, getting there

Geffers

 

Just put @twitternamehere and then type your message after that

 

I am assuming that ONLY @twitternamehere will see the message though.

Geffers