Twitter Vocabulary in use

Twitter Handle: Also known as a username. This is the name you select to represent yourself on Twitter.

To Follow: To subscribe to someone‘s updates on Twitter. You do this by clicking the “Follow” button on that specific person‘s Twitter page, which can be found at http://twitter.com/USERNAME.

(Insert the specific person‘s username into the URL, like http://twitter.com/ccvetsjvp). When you follow someone, their updates will be displayed on your Twitter homepage so you know what they are doing.

To Follow Back: To subscribe to the updates of someone who has recently started following you. In Twitter‘s notifications settings, you can indicate whether you‘d like to receive an email alert whenever a new person follows you receive. In the email, there will be a link to that person‘s profile. By clicking the link, you can check out who they are and decide to follow them back or not. It is not required to follow everyone back, but many people like to.

Follower: A person who has subscribed to receive your updates. You can view your total number of followers on your Twitter profile page.

Update: Also known as a tweet. Each update can be no longer than 140-characters. You can post an update in the white text box under “What‘s Happening?”

@Reply: A public message sent from one Twitter user to another by putting @USERNAME anywhere within the body of the tweet.

Direct Message (or DM): A private message sent from one Twitter user to another by either clicking the “message” link on their profile or typing D USERNAME. Think of it as Twitter‘s version of an email/inbox.

Twitter Stream: A list of a person‘s real-time updates. Every time you post an update, it goes into your Twitter stream, which is found on your account page also at http://twitter.com/USERNAME.

Tweet-Up: An event specifically organized for Twitter users to meet up and network, usually informally.

Hashtag (#): A Twitter tagging system used to aggregate the conversation surrounding an event, topic, or theme. Hashtags can easily be created by combining a # with a word, acronym, or phrase (#WORD) and used as a tag within tweets.

Retweet (or RT): To repeat what someone else has already tweeted. People do this if someone has said something especially valuable and they want their own network to see the information too.

Example: Retweet @USERNAME: Check out this cool resource

Twitter Lists: Public lists that any Twitter user can create. Twitter Lists generate Twitter streams that include specific Twitter users.

Example: One list HubSpot has created displays tweets from HubSpot employees who tweet: https://twitter.com/#!/list/HubSpot/hubspotters

Trending Topics: Displayed on the right-hand side of your Twitter homepage, trending topics are words, phrases, or hashtags that are popular (trending) on Twitter at a given time. These can be organized by location and are updated in real time.

Promoted Tweets: Tweets that have been supported and promoted by paid marketing. Think of them as the pay-per-click of Twitter.