Twitter’s Glossary of Terms – Twitter 101
| May 25, 2014
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read
“tweets”, which are text messages limited to 140 characters. Users can read and post tweets. Users access Twitter through the website or mobile device applications. It is a very powerful newsfeed that has not only made a significant impact on business but on the world. Instantly, millions of people can get real time news. Before we get into strategy, here is a brief decoding to make you comfortable with the twitter lingo.
• A user’s “Twitter handle” is the username they have selected and the accompanying URL, like so: http://twitter.com/username. @HANDLE
• A Tweet is a message posted via Twitter containing 140 characters or fewer.
• The # (hastag) symbol is used to identify keywords or topics in a Tweet. It can be used next to any word that is important to the content in the tweet. We recommend never having more than 3 # in any tweet, it waters down its importance.
• The @ sign is used to mention a user in a tweet, like this: Hello @Twitter! When a username is preceded by the @ sign, it becomes a link to that Twitter profile.
• An Avatar is an image that you have uploaded to represent your Twitter profile.
• Click on the Connect tab to view who has favorited or retweeted your Tweets, who has recently followed you, and all of your @replies and @mentions.
• Direct Message is also called a DM, these Tweets are private between the sender and recipient. Tweets become DMs when they begin with “d username” to specify whom the message is for.
• To favorite a Tweet click the yellow star next to the message. The person that tweeted it originally will be notified.
• #FF stands for “Follow Friday.” Twitter users often suggest who others should follow on Fridays by tweeting with the hashtag #FF.
• Mentioning another user in your Tweet by including the @ sign followed directly by their username is called a “mention”. Also refers to Tweets in which your username was included
• Reply is when a response to a posted tweet is sent usually posted by clicking the “reply” button next to their Tweet in your timeline. Always begins with @username.
• Top Tweets and Trending Topics are determined by a Twitter algorithm to be the most popular or resonant on Twitter at any given time. LinkedIn & Social Selling For Business Development,
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