You may be getting started on twitter mainly because your friends use it, because your employer has requested that you do, because you intend to publicize your small business, or just because you want to work out what all the publicity is about. But no matter what of the reason, when you first sign up, it can feel like there is something of a learning curve when you start looking at the first tweets in your tweetstream.
It can undoubtedly seem confusing - @, RT, #, hashtags, tweet-ups, trending topics - what ARE these things? Well, in this post I'll reveal it all.
Most of these twitter abbreviations stem from the well-known simple fact that whenever you post on twitter, it needs to contain under 140 characters. It is for that reason that space is at a premium, so there simply is not space, in the majority of tweets, to include "for the attention of..." or "I'm speaking about...".
Twitter Slang Guidebook
@ - pronounced 'at', this will be recognizable from email addresses. On twitter, it is utilised as a way to direct a person's attention to your tweet. Consequently if you would like to send a tweet straight to Ashton Kutcher, you start it with @aplusk Receiving a tweet with @ before your user name means that it will appear in the "@mentions" column on the twitter web site, or in whichever twitter programme you use. Similarly, when you make use of @, the particular person whose name follows it is not as likely to miss it for the reason that it will appear in their 'mentions' column as well.
RT - an abbreviation of 'retweet'. A retweet is when you notice a tweet that is so great, you wish to share it with your own followers too. Unspoken twitter manners means that it is wrong to just copy and paste it, instead, always retweet it to credit the original tweeter. You do this by, if you are retweeting Bill Cosby, you begin it with RT @billcosby, followed by the original tweet. Currently, the kind of RT that I have just defined is often called an "old retweet". This refers to the fact that those who use twitter from the twitter.com website can now not retweet posts in that way. Now the only retweets offered are the "new retweets", where you have no option to add your own words or comments to the beginning. A lot of the twitter software programs that exists provides you with both options, and even a newer "new retweet" which, ironically, is like an old RT but rather than beginning with RT @billcosby, it puts Bill's complete tweet in between quotation marks.
As a result of the construct of the retweet, which includes the @ from the initial tweeter, every retweet will appear in their @mentions column for each retweet they get. So, if someone retweets your tweets, you can find out by looking at your own personal @mentions column.
# - a hashtag. This is utilized on twitter as a shortened way of expressing "what I am talking about is...". So, a tweet might read "This is so hilarious! #frasier" or "Take a look at our latest offers #cupcakes #baking".
Tweet-up - A tweet-up is when individuals who met on twitter get together in real life.
Trending topics - When hundreds or thousands of people on twitter are all talking about the exact same thing - frequently a TV programme or a breaking news story - it can develop into a trending topic. These are showcased in the right hand column on the twitter website, in most cases in the form of hashtags.
So with these essentials, you can now go forth and get started on using twitter without dread!
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