Having twissues with your twerminology? Like any new technology, Twitter has its own vocabulary. There are some words you just have to know in order to interact on Twitter. Below is a compiled list of terms that are used most often on Twitter. Once you know these terms you can tweet with confidence, @mention often, and #hashtag like a pro.
Follower: On Twitter, a user “follows” another user to see his or her updates on their Twitter feed. If that user “follows” you, than he or she can see your updates on their homepage.
Tweet: A message sent out to a user’s followers on Twitter is called a “tweet.” Tweets are public and searchable. A tweet can only be a 140 characters or less, or Twitter will not allow it to be posted.
Retweet: When a user sees a tweet from another user and thinks that tweet will be interesting to his or her followers, than they are able to click the “retweet” button. When the retweet button is used, it will appear on the homepage of the followers of the person who retweeted it with the original author’s Twitter username.
@Mention: If a user wants to direct a tweet at a specific Twitter user than he or she must simply insert an “@” symbol followed by the username of the person they want to see their message. For example, if you wanted to mention Tate Design in a tweet than you would write: @TateDesign.
Direct Message: This is a private message between two Twitter users. These messages do not appear to anyone besides the specified Twitter users. These can be sent to only someone who follows you and is limited to 140 characters just like tweets.
Hashtag: A hashtag is a keyword relevant to the content of the tweet with a “#” symbol before it. For example, if a tweet was composed about this article one could hashtag “#socialmedia.” If a hashtag is added to a tweet, than users can search that hashtag and see the content you posted with that specific hashtag.
So if a user searched “#socialmedia” than the results would display tweets with that specific hashtag in it.
Trending: When a term with a hashtag in front of it is extremely popular on Twitter, it is called trending. Twitter’s homepage displays the top terms trending on Twitter for any given day. Many times popular events such as the presidential election or national disasters result in top trending terms.
#Followfriday (#FF): Every Friday, it is common to recommend users for others to follow by mentioning them in a tweet and then including the hashtag “#followfriday” or “#FF.” Looking at recommendations of others is great way to find new people to follow. Likewise, recommending users to others helps the recommended user receive more followers.
These are just a few of the many terms on Twitter.
What twerms in your twictionary do you find helpful when using Twitter?
