Twitter 101: Basic terminology

These are definitions for the terminology of Twitter. If you want to use twitter in your social marketing campaign you will need to be familiar with these terms.

Profile

• Your @name makes you easy to find, it’s completely unique. Nobody else on the internet is going to have the same name with an @ in front of it. If anyone searches for your Twitter name they will find you.
• Bio- make it personal & relevant. If it’s a personal bio and not a business than include more than just your occupation.
• Picture- use a current picture of yourself. It’s perfectly acceptable and often encouraged to use a candid picture.

Timeline

• A series of tweets in chronological order.
• It can be a page, something you searched for, or any set of tweets organized chronologically.
• Your homepage displays the timeline of everyone you follow

Personal Page

• Timeline of tweets you’ve made.
• Lists your name, location, website & bio.
• Displays your following, follower, listed stats.
• Your personal page is not your home page. It is what other people see when they view your account.

Following

• When you follow someone their tweets will show up in your timeline.
• You don’t have to follow someone just because they follow you.
• Follow people if you like what they have to say.

Followers

• If people like what you have to say they will follow you.
• Your tweets show up in their timeline.
• Sometimes referred to as tweeps, tweepless, or other names integrating the word Twitter.

Stats

• The number of people you follow, the number of people that follow you, lists you’re in, and how many tweets you’ve made.
• Looking through friends stats is a good way to find new people to follow.

Retweet (RT)

• Forwarding someone elses tweet.
• Your followers will see the RT and the original person that tweeted it.
• It’s a good way to introduce your followers to people you follow.

Direct Message (D)

• Private message to another user that only you and and the receiver can see.
• You can only send direct messages to people that follow you.

At Replies (@replies)

• These show up in your “public” mailbox.
• Any tweet that has @yourname in it will show up in your @replies box even if you don’t follow them the person that tweeted it.
• If you click an @name it will take you to that persons personal page.

Hashtag (#hashtag)

• A way to explain what the tweet is in reference to.
• If you are watching the Olypmics you might say: I’m excited to watch figure skating tonight #olympics
• Hashtags turn into links. The links display the timeline of any tweets with that hashtag in them.

Search

• You can search for any words that relate to any topic you’re interested in.
• A timeline of tweets with the words you searched for will appear.
• This is the best way to find people to follow when you begin using Twitter.

Applications

• There are a lot of applications (apps) you can use for Twitter on your computer and smartphone.
• There is no right or wrong app to use. Use ones that feel comfortable to you.
• Each one has different features and a different interface. If you are using an app you don’t like, find a new one.