Do You Tweet?

Do you even know what a Tweet is?

Well a tweet is message posted on Twitter containing 140 characters or less.

I’ve been on Twitter for quite a while now, and can thoroughly recommend that you sign up if you haven’t already. I’ve made some really good friends on Twitter and from a work perspective I’ve also found a lot of useful Tweeters.

So if you’re just about to venture into the world of Twitter for the first time or you’ve already signed up but are struggling to understand some of the concepts, here’s a wee overview of some useful terms/features:

Twitter

Provides the ability to view and post messages of 140 characters or less. Your messages (tweets) will be viewable to all twitter users via the Twitter timeline (if you have a public account) or only to those who Follow you.

Follow

To follow someone means to subscribe to their Tweets or updates on Twitter.

@

Used to refer to the person/username that follows the @ sign. e.g. If you wanted to refer or reply to me on Twitter, my username is Dot12b, so you would type @dot12b. N.B. The username is not case-sensitive.

Direct Message

Also called a DM. These Tweets are private between the sender and the specified recipient

Hashtag (#)

The # is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. e.g. If your tweet is about someone’s birthday you could add a hashtag of #birthday to your Tweet.

#ff

#ff is a commonly used hashtag (see above) which stands for “Follow Friday.” Twitter users often suggest who others should follow on Fridays by tweeting with the hashtag #FF

Lists

Groups of Twitter users that you have grouped together into a list definable by you. You can give your Lists whatever name you wish, and they can either be public or private lists.

Mention

This means including the @ sign followed immediately by the username (see also @ above).

Reply

A Tweet posted in reply to another user’s message.

Retweet (RT)

A Tweet by another user that you then forward so all your followers can see. Often used to spread news or share valuable findings.

Timeline

A real-time list of Tweets.

Unfollow

This means you stop following another Twitter user so that their Tweets will no longer show up in your home timeline.

 

So there you go, there’s my very quick overview of Twitter and how to use it. I hope it may be of use to you.

Happy Tweeting!