Twitter, the new kid on the block, has taken the internet by storm as the fastest growing social media site around: up over 3000 percent on a year over year basis, according to Comscore. If you’re been caught off guard by the sudden rise of this internet darlings, here’s a list of basic terms to get you started.
Tweet – tell the world (or at least that part of the world that is on Twitter and is following you) what you’re doing right now in 140 characters or less. It helps to be a woman of few words here. Abbreviations are most welcome.
Followers – I have no idea how VeganQueen and IronMetalBird found me (possibly through other people that follow me, or through Twitter Search, like Google but for tweets), but they signed up to follow my tweets (my screen name is Mogulette, in case you too get the urge)
Tweeps – your Twitter peeps, aka followers
RT – Did you like something one of your tweeps said? Then copy and retweet it so your other followers can also see it. Just make sure to give them credit.
@reply – reply publicly to your friend’s tweet about the new great site she discovered, or what she’s having for dinner.
DM – a private message. For when I want to let VeganQueen know her last recipe needed a little tweeking.
Twitterati – Twitter royalty. Ashton Kutcher broke the Twitter sound barrier by being the first to sign up 1 million followers (now 1.7 mil), followed by CNN (1.3 mil). Oprah is trailing behind with only 957K tweeps, but she gets points for getting there sooner – she immediately racked up 100,000 followers just hours after she sent out her first tweet live on air during her April 17th show.
Twittersphere – where a whole lot of Twittering is going on
Tinyurl; bitly – both let you shorten up those long urls so you can add links without going over the 140 character max. Luckily Twitter does this automatically.
