Whenever I talk to people about Twitter the most popular answer I receive is, “I have an account but I haven’t touched it in six months.” When I ask why, the response I typically get is, “I don’t understand it.” To make your experience a little easier and to help you understand the Twitter platform, here are some key terms that you should familiarize yourself with:
Following- To receive messages on Twitter you follow other people and companies. When you follow other users, their tweets show up in your timeline on your Twitter homepage and vice versa (if someone follows you then your tweets show up in their timeline).
Follow- Choosing to sign up to receive another user’s tweets on your Twitter homepage
Tweet- The act of posting to Twitter. A tweet is basically an update or a post to your Twitter account which all of your followers see on their timeline.
@username- A person’s Twitter handle. If you want to tweet at someone, start with the @username of the person you want to tweet at:
“@DiscoveryCG How is your day going?”
If DiscoveryCG is one of your followers then your tweet will show up directly on their Twitter home page. If they aren’t one of your followers, your message will appear in their @username mentions in the right hand column on your Twitter homepage.
DM (Direct Message)- Twitter’s private messaging channel. Keep in mind that you can only send a direct message to someone if they are following you. Your DMs will appear in the right hand column on your Twitter homepage.
Retweet (RT)- When you repeat a tweet from someone else. “RT @DiscoveryCG We love social media.”
Hashtag (#)- You cannot categorize your tweets on Twitter. The hashtag was created (which is just the # symbol followed by the topic) to put all the tweets that have the same hashtag into a category. For example, if I am tweeting about the Boston Celtics and I want people that are also talking about the Celtics to see my tweet, I can tweet: “What an intense basketball game! #Celtics.” My tweet is now part of the Twitter search results for “Celtics.”
Trending Topics- You can find trending topics on the right hand column of your Twitter search page. These are the most mentioned terms on Twitter at the current moment. The trends often include hashtags, as described above.
These are the basic Twitter terms that should help anyone new to Twitter navigate through and gain a bit more of an understanding on how to communicate with other users and get involved in conversation. It takes time to understand Twitter, but it is well worth it!
Follow The Discovery Communications Group on Twitter: @DiscoveryCG
Written by: admin
The Discovery Communications Group is an award-winning, fully-integrated marketing agency located in Salem, NH, that specializes in professional web design, search engine optimization, and social media marketing strategy. DCG also provides printing and mailing services to meet every advertising need, servicing clients throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
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