Twitter Cheat Sheet

This is a quick cheat sheet I’ve put together for the Social Media Marketing Workshop at Ometz tonight. All the content has been sourced from the Webopedia Twitter Dictionary (where you can get many more definitions of Twitter terminology).

You can also download this cheat sheet as a PDF if you like.

@reply: The @reply means a Twitter update (a tweet) that is directed to another user in reply to their update. An @reply will be saved in the user’s “Replies” tab. Replies are sent either by clicking the ‘reply’ icon next to an update or typing @ username message (e.g., @user I saw that movie too).

direct message (DM): Short for direct message, it is the function of the Twitter service that enables you to send a private message (direct message) to a person you are following

Hash tag: A hash tag or hashtag is a way of organizing your updates for Twitter search engines. Users prefix a message with a community-driven hash tag to enable others to discover relevant posts. One commonly used hash tag on Twitter is #followfriday where users network by providing the names of their favorite people to follow on Twitter.

Retweet: Abbreviated as RT, retweet is used on Twitter to show you are tweeting something that was posted by another user. The format is RT @username where username is the Twitter name of the person you are retweeting.

Tweet: Describes a Twitter update. A tweet is basically whatever you type into the Web box to answer that question, using 140 characters or less. People tweet personal messages, random thoughts, post links, or anything else that fits in the character requirements.