Twitter has become an important communication tool. It some respects it can parallel the functionality of email and IM but it can also be used for things like marketing and social networking. The possibilities are really endless and are only limited by your imagination. If you have never used twitter before then it is important to know the Twitter Lingo. Here are the most common terms that I have run across during my first month of twittering:
Tweet - a short message of 140 characters or less that describes what you are currently doing.
Re-tweet (RT) - Re-posting someone else's tweet. This is usually done when you want to add a comment to someone else's tweet. Basically, when you are re-tweeting you are quoting someone else.
Reply - a public message sent from one person to another and distinguished from normal updates by the @username prefix.
Following - The process of subscribing to someone else's tweets. This means you will see their new message.
Direct Message - Private messages sent from one person to another. Direct messages can only be sent to a person who is following you.
#HashTags - This is a way to group tweets by keyword. For example if you are talking about puppies you could prefix the word puppies with a pound sign which will make it a special keyword. Hashtags are used to group similar tweets together.
Tweeps - People who tweet
TweetUp - Meeting your tweeps in real life.
URL Shortener - A tool that transforms a lengthy web address into a short URL. Since a tweet is limited by 140 characters you do not want to waste 100 characters with just a URL. Most twitter clients will automate this for you.
In order to enhance your twitter experience I would highly recommend that you download Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is very easy to use twitter client that has a lot of nice features for organizing and filtering your tweets. Tweetdeck also interfaces with Facebook and has the ability to filter out spam messages. Tweetdeck is 100% free and there is also a version of available for the iPhone!
Once you start tweeting don't forget to follow me!
Additional Resources:
Twitter Help
Tweet Deck - Twitter Client
