21 Jun A Cheat Sheet for Twitter Terms

So you’ve been using Twitter for a while, but you’re still not sure why people put the “#” sign, or how to talk to someone specifically without sending them a private message… and what the heck is a #FF? French fries? Why are they trending?

Here’s your cheat sheet… study hard!

# – called a “hashtag”. This symbol is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. When searching for a specific topic or event, this is a very handy way to filter through your search and find the exact conversations you’re looking for!

@ – The @ sign is used to speak to other Tweeters, for example: Hello @IdeaViews! Usernames preceded by the @ sign are a link to a Twitter profile.  When other people use the @ sign before your username, it is called a “Mention” or “Reply”.  Always check to see who is talking to and about you and reply accordingly – it’s great Twitterquette!

Avatar – The image uploaded to your Twitter profile. You will get a greater response with a picture of a person (namely you!) over a company logo or generic image.

DM – A private, direct message between only the sender and recipient.

#FF – This stands for “Follow Friday.” Twitter users often suggest who others should follow on Fridays by tweeting with the hashtag #FF. It’s a great way to grow your network organically.

Fail Whale – this is the annoying “Twitter is over capacity” error page that shows up when the site is having trouble keeping up with traffic. Grrr!

Follow – To follow someone on Twitter means to subscribe to their Tweets or updates, therefore they will show up in your live feed.

Geolocation/Geotagging – The use of location-based data in Tweets to tell us where you are in real time.  We’re not a huge fan of this for many reasons!

Listed – To be included in another Twitter user’s list is an honor. It means you are considered a reliable resource for the topic they created a list for. The number of lists your on are found at the top of your profile.

Promoted Tweets – A fairly new feature, some businesses have paid to be promoted at the top of search results on Twitter.

Retweet (RT) – Sharing another users’ Tweet with your network, usually to spread news or share valuable findings on Twitter. If someone Retweets you it is also an honor and the person should be thanked!

Timeline – A real-time list of Tweets from people you follow.

Trending – A topic determined to be one of the most popular on Twitter at the moment.

URL Shortener – URL shorteners are used to turn long URLs into shorter URLs, so you can meet the 140-character limit in a Tweet.  There are many different sites that can do this for you.

What do you think? Are there any that we forgot? Let us know some terms that confuse you and we’ll clear it up!