A Beginner's Guide to Twitter

Many of ReadWriteWeb?s readers are old hands at Twitter, but the service gets thousands of new users every day. That includes a lot of folks who suddenly need to use Twitter as part of their job. If you?re just being introduced to the joys of Twitter (or introducing it to another user), here?s a short and friendly primer on what you need to know about using the site.

After posting ?10 Tips on Using Twitter Wisely? in December, I had a few notes from folks who said (basically) ?thanks for the tips, but I didn?t know all the jargon.?

Digging deeper, I realized that what seems obvious after using Twitter for several years isn?t so obvious to new users. Folks in the press, PR or marketing that are steeped in traditional media often get thrown into the Twitter/social media pool with little guidance. Whatever role you?re in, if you?re new to Twitter, read on.

Tech folks tend to love acronyms and jargon. At least, it must seem that way, given how much we use them. When you spend a lot of time in any community, you tend to internalize the jargon and forget that new folks may not know what the bleep you?re talking about. Tip to older tech folks: you can experience the same effect by simply skimming the current top 40 albums or listening to kids in their teens talking about their favorite music.

• Follow If you?re on Twitter you probably get this one already, but let?s cover it for the sake of completeness. If you subscribe to someone?s updates, you follow them.
• @reply When you want to get someone?s attention on Twitter, you use an @reply, which will show up in their @connect menu on Twitter or under Mentions in a client like HootSuite.
• DM A direct message (DM) is sent between users, not shown publicly on the timeline. You can only DM another user if they follow you.
• RT A re-tweet (RT) is when you share something someone else wrote.
• MT Less common, a modified tweet is when you share something written by someone else but modify it. Usually this is done to fit the tweet into 140 characters.
• Twoosh A tweet that is exactly 140 characters. Not used often these days.
• Hashtag The hashtag is a way to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. For example, if you were tweeting about the St. Louis Cardinals? impressive World Series win in 2011, you might use #cards as a hashtag.
• #FF One of the most common hashtags you?ll see is #FF which is short for Follow Friday. Basically, this convention is for suggesting folks that you should subscribe to (follow) on Twitter.
• Geolocation or geotagging Using location data to display where a user is when a Tweet is sent.
• Lists Twitter allows you to add users to lists rather than following them directly. This is useful if you want to check in on a bunch of people periodically, but don?t want them in your ?stream? all of the time.

Page 2: Why 140 Characters, and Helpful Twitter Clients

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/wISriqWsfYU/a-beginners-guide-to-twitter.php

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