Twitter 101: Key terms you need to know

· Following

To receive messages on Twitter you “follow” other people and companies you’re interested in – which mean you get their messages as they post.  Likewise, people get your messages by “following” you.

· Tweet

Users refer to an individual message as a “tweet”.  People sometimes use it as a verb, as in: “I tweeted about the stimulus package this morning.”  If “tweet” is hard for you to use with a straight face in a business context, try “twittering” as a verb instead. 

· @username

For companies, one of the useful things about Twitter is that it lets you exchange public messages with individual users.  Simply start a message with @username of the person you want to reach, like this: @suelawrence

· DM or Direct Message

Direct messages - or DMs - are Twitter’s private messaging channel.  These tweets appear on your home page under the Direct Messages tab, and if you’ve got email notifications turned on, you’ll also get an email message when somebody DMs you.  DMs don’t appear in either person’s public timeline or in search results.  No one but you can see your DMs.

· RT or Retweet

To help share cool ideas via Twitter and to give a shout-out to people you respect, you can repost their messages and give them credit.  People call that “retweeting” (or RT).  Retweeting is common, and it’s a form of conversation on Twitter. It usually looks something like this: RT@Username: Original Message, often with a link.

· Trending Topics

On the right side of your screen and on the Twitter search page, you’ll see ten Trending Topics, which are the most-mentioned terms on Twitter at that moment.  The topics continually update, reflecting the real-time nature of Twitter and true shifts in what people are paying attention to.

· Hashtag (#)

Twitter messages don’t have a field where you can categorize them, so people have created the Hashtag – which is just the # symbol followed by a term describing or naming the topic that you add to a post as a way of saying, “This message is about the same thing as other messages from other people who include the same Hashtag.”

· Tweetup

A tweetup is simply an in-person gathering organized via Twitter, often spontaneous.  Companies use them for things like hosting launch parties, connecting with customers and introducing like-minded followers to each other.

· Tweebinar

A Tweebinar is incorporating a webinar with a tweetup via Twitter