Twitter Speak

Part of what makes Twitter challenging and fun at the same time, is the need to cram everything you would like to say into 140 characters. This includes spaces, symbols and punctuation. This can be difficult at times, but can be through the use of some slang, abbreviation and creativity. Below are some commonly used terms you may come across while you spend time in the Twitterverse (a nickname for the entire Twitter community).

Terminology

When reading about Twitter or people’s updates (tweets), here are some explanations for commonly used terms. There are many more you come across as you follow more people, but this should get you started.

Autofollowing

To Autofollow simply means when someone choose to follow you, you follow them back automatically. Twitter has a setting for you to toggle on and off if you would like to try out this feature. Other automated services are also out there offering more features and options, Twollo

Some reasons you may want to autofollow people are:

• You CAN exchange DMs(direct messages) if you are following each other.
• You CAN see all of their updates (tweets) in your timeline

Some negatives of autofollowing are:

• Some marketers and many spammers count on this feature to help gain followers
• Autofollowing reduces the likelyhood of following people who share the same interests as you. This will dilute the relationship building aspect of Twitter.

Block

Blocking another user will remove them from your timeline (if you are followingthem) and does not let them follow you.

Direct Message/DM

A private message sent directly to one Twitter user. As mentioned before, you must be following each other for DMs to be possible.

Followers

If you follow someone, all of their updates (tweets) are available for you to read in your timeline. The same is true if they follow you.

Hashtags

Hashtags are keywords people use to track a topic. They are easily recognized by the [#] symbol, then a word or phrase after. Services online sift through all the tweets and sort them. One such service is hashtags.org. Here is an example, notice the [#] then the word [quote] after the actual text. “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” ~ Mark Twain #quote

Reply

A reply is a tweet which begins with the [@] symbol, then the username like this @twit101dotcom. A reply can be seen by anyone who views the receiver’s timeline. It does NOT go out to the sender’s followers. A reply is sometimes called an @mention.

Retweet/RT

To retweet is essentially like forwarding an email. By putting RT into the beginning of the tweet, followed by the @username, this “CCs” the original user and places the tweet into the timeline of all of your follows. The reason you may want to do this may be to forward a link to an article or

Timeline

The stream of updates (tweets) in near real time created by yourself and everyone you follow.

Tweet/Tweeting

Sending an update or post consisting of 1 – 140 characters to all of your followers.

URL Shortening

URL shortening sites are used to help with send a link to a website. Because many links can be quite long, being able to shrink the link down to 25 characters or so is a huge benefit when you have a 140 character limit. These shortened links redirect the viewer to the intended site. Some of these services even offer methods for tracking the number of times the link is clicked and even the part of the world the person is.

Slang

These are some of the words and abbreviations you may come across as you start to follow more seasoned Twitter users. Most of these abbreviations are common in SMS (text messaging) as well. Both have similar character limitations, therefore some of the same

OH – Overheard

FTW – For The Win

Blogosphere – the many blogs out there

Twitterverse/Twitterville – The relm of people talking on Twitter

Tweeple/Tweeps – sometimes people on Twitter are refered to as Tweeple or Tweeps.

Thx – Thanks

OMG – Oh My God

WTF – What the F%@k

NP – No Problem