Following on from our last post about the do’s and don’ts of Twitter, we promised to come back to you with a list of useful Twitter words and explain them.
When we gave our workshops last week on Twitter at the Building a Better Business Event near Oxford, there were lots of raised eyebrows as we talked through these. And it can make Twitter sound quite clicky.
Rest assured it’s not. Twitter is open networking. You’re promoting yourself to the world – well, if you use it well, you’ll be promoting yourself to a targeted group of potential customers, valuable resources, and informative, interesting people. But it’s for everyone, not the in crowd, no invites needed.
We talk a lot about Twitter because it has become a huge opportunity for businesses to communicate, grow and promote themselves. We think it’s a great tool, although not quite enough to want one of these….
Image Courtesy of Zazzle.com
Anyway, onto the slang….
1. @reply The @ symbol is placed in front of a username. So add @publicityoxford to send me a message. Anytime you send a message to someone like this it is visible to everyone who is following you.
2. Tweet is the word given to the 140 character update you post. This appears in the feed of anyone following you. It’s like your Facebook status update. Use it to give informative advice, ask a question, post a useful link or recommend someone to another Twitterer.
3. Your timeline is the ‘feed’ of updates you see in the middle of your screen at Twitter.com or on the left in an application like Hootsuite. This is a constantly updating feed of all the tweets from the people you follow. Browse and scan through, but don’t try to read everything, you’ll end up frustrated and with a mounting pile of ‘real’ work to do.
4. A Re-Tweet (RT) is a way of re-publishing something that someone else has Tweeted. You may do this and include another person in your RT if you think it’s interesting to them, or simply RT it for all of your followers.
Here’s an example. @traceyjefferies has re-tweeted a link that myself and @Thirlwall_Assoc tweeted.
RT @publicityoxford @Thirlwall_Assoc Great post and will definitely be checking out Evernote, sounds good! http://post.ly/V7Sv // Like!
5. Direct Message (DM) is a way of sending a private message to someone. It may be that you start a conversation and then want to discuss a part of it privately. Add D and a space, then the username to send a direct message. Or click on the direct message icon in applications like Hootsuite.
6. #Hashtags are placed in front of a word or phrase to categorise them. This makes it easy for people to search for conversations on given topics. At the moment there are lots surrounding the election for example #ukelection. This then becomes a link which you can click on and see all conversations on Twitter using that hashtag.
7. #FridayFollow is an extension on the use of hashtags. It occurs on a Friday (surprise!), and is a way of recommending other Twitterers who you find interesting, helpful or entertaining. Start your Tweet with #FridayFollow or #FF and list the names of the people you follow who you want to promote. It’s a way of networking, and again you can click the link to see everyone who has been recommended.
8. Favourites are a way of bookmarking Tweets you want to read (usually with a link to an article, website or blog), that you want to save for later. Click on the star icon in Twitter to save the Tweet to come back to.
9. Short URLs are a way of conserving your 140 characters for more of you and your opinion. If you want to share a link to a fascinating article but the URL is way too long, choose to shrink it in applications like Hootsuite or use a website like Tiny URL to shorten it for you. Then go ahead and paste it into your Tweet.
10. Bio is your short biography which you write when you set up a Twitter account. Make sure to include keywords such as your industry sector and geographical location to help people find you when using search sites like Twellow. Here’s mine:
Head of Oxford based PR agency Publicity Oxford. There is a better way to do it, we like to find it. Love salt & vinegar chipsticks.
Location, profession, motto, and personality….!
11. Following/Followers are the numbers of people you follow, and the numbers of people that follow you. Don’t panic when people start following you, that’s good – that’s what you’re here for! Don’t be tempted to follow thousands of people, go for a small quantity of really useful and interesting people. Only block people who are wearing too few clothes or spam you with Viagra messages.
12. Finally, mistweet – a Tweet that could be taken the wrong way or offend. You can delete a Tweet, but the damage may already be done if people have seen it. Never tweet in anger, try not to name and shame unless you’re saving people from a huge scam or something, and never ever drink and tweet! You have been warned!
And, if you haven’t already got one of our ‘my little Twitter hints’ cards get in touch and we’ll post you one when the new batch arrive!
