“Welcome to Twitter 101”
Today, there are many social media sites that people use for personal use, business and many other reasons. Having these online accounts introduces a new way of promoting a business and sharing them to the proper demographics you’re trying to reach. At a rapid pace, social media and online campaigns are surpassing traditional advertising. So if your organization isn’t online, you better get started! This all seems like a pretty easy concept to grasp, if you can follow the social lingo.
We’re going to talk about the basics of Twitter language and the definitions of certain words. With Facebook, you’re allowed about 5,000 characters in a post. However, with Twitter you’re only given 160 characters, meaning you have to make it count!
Twitter Terms:
Tweet. A message sent via Twitter.
Tweet Back. Bringing an older tweet back into the conversation
Tweeter. A person who tweets.
Twitosphere. Twitter users or the community of tweeters.
Mistweet. Accidentally sending a tweet to the wrong person or wishing you didn’t send a particular tweet.
Nudge. An action reminding a user to update their status. You can only do this to someone who follows you and who has a device registered with Twitter.
Retweet (RT). A Retweet is a repeated tweet. It is sometimes used in a reply to allow everyone to see the original tweet. It is also used to forward a message onto one’s own followers.
Handle. Your Twitter name. This is how you’ll be seen online. Get creative with it!
Hashtag. The community-driven practice of tagging an individual tweet by using a hash in front of the tag. Hashtags allow the community to easily stream a particular subject.
Microblog. Twitter is often referred to as a microblog because it allows people to update their status using only 140 characters.
Written by Adam Gomes (adam@tracibild.com), National Digital Media Specialist at Bild and Company.
