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Welcome to Twitter! There’s a lot of confusing terms. What does the abbreviation Twitter RT mean? How do you reply to someone on Twitter? What are the definitions of all this slang stuff? Here’s the answers to your Twitter questions.
If your question isn’t answered here, ask me on Twitter – I’m @BrentO. I’ve been using Twitter for a couple of years now. I’m a professional tech blogger for a software company, so that means I’m a geek, but I’m a friendly one. Promise. Don’t ask me to fix your computer though, heh.
Twitter RT means ReTweet
RT is an abbreviation for ReTweet, which is like Repeat. It’s like forwarding, but for Twitters instead of emails. If you see something really cool from one of the people you follow, you may want to ReTweet it so that the people following YOU (and not the original person) can see it. In the example above, amateria is repeating something from kfoxaz about a new music service.
This is only useful if you have followers that the original person doesn’t have – meaning, if you’ve only got a couple of followers, you probably shouldn’t bother with ReTweets.
Twitter RT is ReTweet
If you’re going to tweet something, and you want it to be retweeted (like if you’re asking for help with something or you want to alert others) then you need to keep it shorter than 140 characters. When someone RT’s you, they’re going to put RT @YourName in front of the space. My Twitter name is @BrentO, so when people repeat something I said, they’re adding “RT @BrentO ” to the front of the tweet, which adds 11 characters – meaning I gotta keep my tweets at or under 129 characters if I want ‘em retweeted.
The length thing can present a problem – if you’re retweeting someone else who already retweeted, you’re probably going to run out of space if you keep putting RT @UserName at the front. I tend to leave out people in the middle. It’s also okay to slightly reword people’s tweets to get them to cram into 140 characters.
RT is slang, not a system function. Twitter doesn’t do anything special if you put in the RT.
If you liked that tip about RT, you’ll probably like My Simple Twitter Book – free download for a limited time!
Who are some of the best people to follow on Twitter?
When you’re just getting started with Twitter, here’s a few of my personal favorites:
- BrentO – me, of course! I’m a geek, but I’m a nice guy. Promise. Feel free to ask me Twitter questions – I’ve been on Twitter for years, and I love helping people.
- LanceArmstrong – he posts pictures & notes from his travels and training events.
- DealsNJokes – tweets funny (safe for work) jokes and sends alerts when there’s a huge sale online. Companies do a lot of last-minute-deals online, and if you follow DealsNJokes, they can clue you in while the deal’s still open to the public.
- SQLRockstar – a funny father in the New England area with a serious addiction to bacon.
- GaryVee – a wine expert and host of Wine Library TV.
Why don’t people follow me back?
Just because you follow someone doesn’t mean they’ll turn around and follow you back. Some people are paranoid because they think you’re a twitter spammer, or maybe you don’t have your Twitter profile set up completely. Here’s a few pages where I explain why I follow people back – or don’t follow them back.
- Top 10 Reasons I’m Not Following You on Twitter
- Top 10 Reasons I *AM* Following You on Twitter
- How to Add More Info to Your Twitter Profile
What’s The Best Book to Learn Twitter?
I’m a big fan of The Whuffie Factor, a book about social media marketing. I wrote a review of the Whuffie Factor, and I’ve got nothing but great things to say about both the book and the author, Tara Hunt – she’s @MissRogue on Twitter.
Twitter OH is an Abbreviation for OverHeard
Twitter OH is OverHeard
If you hear something funny or insightful with your ears (as opposed to reading it on Twitter) and you want to repeat it, you can prefix it with OH. Generally, this is used anonymously, not for quoting people, so you tend to read things that might be personally embarrassing to whoever actually said it.
In the example above, nmyra overheard a funny slam, but she’s being polite and not telling us who slammed who. It’s enjoyable to try to reverse-engineer who she’s around at the moment, but that is left as an exercise for the reader.
This is slang, not a system function. Twitter doesn’t do anything special if you put in the OH.
How to Reply to a Tweet – Start with the @ Sign
Reply
If you start a Twitter with a user’s name, like @imelda, the message is considered a “reply” to that user. The reply shows up in the user’s Replies page on Twitter.
In the example above, TheFuzzball is telling Imelda about a place with a great veggie burger.
Here’s an interesting side effect: this reply will only show up in your Twitter page if you follow both TheFuzzball AND Imelda. If you follow just one or the other, this conversation won’t clutter your incoming Twitter stream. This is Twitter’s way of keeping “personal” Twitter conversations out of the mainstream. You probably wouldn’t find this conversation interesting unless you could hear both sides of it – for example, if I was only following TheFuzzball (not Imelda) and this Twitter came into my list, I’d have no idea what restaurant they were talking about. But since I follow both of them, this remark is useful to me, because I can see what Imelda was talking about before TheFuzzball replied.
Otherwise, if TheFuzzball had just put @imelda anywhere else in her tweet other than the beginning, the tweet would be visible to all of TheFuzzball’s followers, not just those who follow both TheFuzzball and Imelda.
In the example below, since KeviKev started his post with something other than a username (“Hey”), everyone who follows him will see his post – not just people who follow both him and amateria:
Name Dropping
This is a real system function, not slang.
Using Twitter Through Your Company Firewall
If your company doesn’t allow access to Twitter through their web filtering systems, check out NutshellMail. It’s a free service that sends you a periodic “highlight reel” of your Twitter, Facebook or MySpace activity via an email. You can reply to the email and update your status or reply to tweets.
Even if your company DOES allow Twitter, it’s not a bad idea to try out NutshellMail just so when they run web reports it doesn’t look like you’ve been sitting around tweeting all day. Plus it helps you confine your Twitter use to short bursts, because you can pick exactly when you want the emails to come in. I get mine at noon (just before I break for lunch) and at 4pm when I’m in the doldrums anyway.
How to Delete Messages on Twitter
You can only delete your own tweets – things that you’ve posted, not things that someone else has posted. When you’re on Twitter.com, and you’re looking at one of your own tweets, you’ll see a trash can icon when you hover your mouse over the tweet, as shown in this screenshot:
Notice the Trash Can Icon
If I click on the trash can icon, it’s as if my tweet never happened – it’s deleted. Be aware that if you tweeted something you now regret, it’s probably too late – people on Twitter tend to grab screen captures when somebody does something pretty stupid, like I did with Rod Sloane.
Twitter isn’t like email where you have to worry about cleaning out your in-box. The list of Tweets you get will always keep coming, and they’re always archived on your Twitter home page. It’s like trying to drink from a firehose: you have to stop trying to drink it all in, and stop trying to “keep up”. You won’t be able to do it.
Instead of deleting your old tweets or your read tweets, you’ll want to learn to use the tabs in Twitter’s web page, OR use a Twitter program that runs on your desktop to help you filter it all. If you’re using the web page Twitter.com to read your tweets, then check out the @Replies tab. That gives you a recap of anyone who’s started a tweet with your name, even if you’re not following them. Which reminds me….
How to Send a Message To Someone Who Isn’t Following You
Want to tell someone a secret, but they’re not following you? Well, uh, you can’t, because you can only direct message people if they’re following you.
Instead, send them a reply – this works even if they haven’t sent you anything first. Just start a message with @theirname, like @brento, and ask them to follow you so that you can send them a direct message.
Another method is to send them a reply and say, “Please direct message me your email address so I can send you something private.” Since you’re following THEM, they can direct message you with their email address without the entire internet seeing it.
What’s the Best Twitter Client?
I use a couple, and I’ve recorded a Twitter client review video showing the differences between TweetDeck, OrSiSo and Seesmic, my three favorite cross-platform apps. All three of those work on both Windows and Macs.
Twitter Manners for Following and Followers
When someone follows you, you don’t have to follow them back. Don’t feel guilty. Take a look at their Twitter page, see if what they’re saying interests you and decide whether or not to follow them back. There’s no rules on Twitter, and don’t worry if someone gets offended because you don’t follow them back – they’re probably not the kind of friend you want anyway!
I like to think of it as newscasters: I watch the news on TV, so I’m kind of “following” the newscaster. However, the newscaster wouldn’t bother following me, because I’m not doing anything newsworthy. (At least, I hope I don’t end up on the news!) I’m not offended that the newscaster isn’t following me back, and you shouldn’t be offended if you follow someone who doesn’t turn around and follow you back. Spammers take advantage of this feeling of guilt.
Spammers On Twitter
Spammers will try to take advantage of you by following you, then hoping you follow them back. If you get a new follower, and their only tweet says something like “Get a Free Macbook Air!” or “Lose Weight Fast!” then they’re probably a spammer. They have automated systems that go out and follow thousands of people in the hope that a few will follow ‘em back just out of guilt. Don’t get suckered into it – all they’re trying to do is push advertising tweets into your Twitter stream.
The FailWhale
Over time, Twitter has gotten better at trying to catch these types of spammers before they get too far. There’s a limit now that you can’t follow more than 2,000 people because the spammers were just trying to follow everybody, and taking the Twitter server down. Speaking of which…
What’s the Fail Whale?
When Twitter’s servers get overloaded, they show a cute picture of a bunch of birds trying to lift a whale out of the water. This is more load than the birds can handle, obviously, so they’re going to fail.
When you see the Fail Whale, it’s time to take a break from Twitter for an hour or two. Something big is happening, and Twitter’s going to take a little while to recover from the pressure. This seems to happen during major events like earthquakes or when Twitter gets mentioned on TV.
The Fail Whale was created by artist Yiying Lu.
Using Twitter to Update Facebook
If you use FaceBook, you can have Twitter automatically update your status on Facebook whenever you post a tweet. It’s free – just go to the Facebook Twitter application setup page, log in, and give it your Twitter information. Facebook will ask if you want to update your status automatically whenever you post a tweet, and you’re all set!
If you use more social networking services like Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace, Friendster and so on, then consider using Ping.fm to update your status. When you post a message on Ping.fm, it automatically posts that message across all of your social networking sites.
Ping is only used for posting, not for reading, so it may not make sense at first. Here’s how I use it: when I sit down at my computer in the morning, I post a message on Ping.fm saying what I’m up to today. That way, the message goes across all my social networks. Then I go into Twitter, and I use Twitter as I normally would. When something really big happens, like if I get news that I want to share with everybody on all my networks, then I’ll go back into Ping.fm and post another message, but otherwise I only go in there when I’ve got something important to say.
How to Search Twitter
To search Twitter, go to http://search.twitter.com and type in what you’re looking for. It does more than just search, too: it stays on top of hot Twitter topics, things that a lot of people are mentioning. Here’s an example:
Trending Topics on Search.Twitter.com
In the screenshot here, the Trending Topics section includes “TGIF”, so you can guess that the picture was taken on Friday – everybody’s happy the workweek is over. Plus, a lot of people are mentioning things like #Earthquake and #watchmen – why are they prefixing words with the # sign? I’m glad you asked.
Twitter Hash Tags (#)
Hash Tags (#)
Hash tags or pound signs (#) help to designate topics that people might search for – especially when they want to distinguish the word from a common phrase. In the example above, BrentO (me) tweeted about a conference in Seattle. The problem is that the name of the conference is PASS, which is a very common word. If people just searched for PASS, they’d get results about passing a test, passing a football, passing a policeman at high speed, yadda yadda yadda. That’s why we start certain terms with # tags.
Anytime someone uses the phrase #PASS in their tweet, it will be much easier to find in search.twitter.com than if you just searched for PASS, because the word PASS will match all kinds of stuff like football passes or people saying they’ll take a pass.
Advanced Tip: at search.twitter.com, you can set up an RSS feed for any given search phrase. This helps you stay on top of news when you’re interested in a specific topic. You can also find hot hash tag topics at Hashtags.org, or look up hash tag definitions at Tagref.
This is slang, not a system function. Twitter doesn’t do anything special if you put in a # phrase.
#FollowFriday – A Twitter Tradition
On Fridays, people post a tweet that includes a list of other people they think you should follow. If you like following one person, and if they list other people on #FollowFriday, then you might like following those people too. It’s like book recommendations from a friend. Here’s an example:
#FollowFriday
In this example, BenMoorehouse is giving a list of people that he recommends. (I’m one of ‘em, hahaha.) If there’s people that you find funny or interesting, then on Friday, post a list of them along with the hash tag #followfriday.
This is slang, not a system function. Twitter doesn’t do anything special for #followfridays.
#TCOT – Top Conservatives On Twitter
Tweets that have #TCOT in them are politically conservative. The #TCOT Report is a web site styled to look like the conservative pundit Drudge Report site, but it’s driven by people who tweet with #TCOT.
Twitter HT means Heard Through
If you found out about something through a Twitter user, and you want to name ‘em by name, you Heard it Through them. This is different than RT, because it usually means you heard it in real life, not over Twitter.
How to Shorten Your Links for Twitter
Twitter posts can only be 140 characters long, and sometimes we want to post longer URLs or post URLs along with a long description. You can shorten long URLs with a service like TinyURL.com or Bit.ly. People aren’t trying to hide or obfuscate their links (usually, anyway) – they’re just trying to cram more info into 140 characters. Here’s an example:
Short Link
In the example above, alexknowshtml is telling his followers about some improvements to Anthillz. He did a great job of explaining what he’s linking to and why he’s linking to it – plus the link – all in 140 characters or less.
When posting links with these services, please be polite and include a description along with your tweet. Your followers may get hundreds of tweets per day, and before they click on a link, they want more information than just “Check this out!” or “Wowsers!”
How to Add Info to Your Twitter Background
On my Twitter page, I’ve got a little sidebar on the left side showing more information about me like the things I tweet about and the places to find me online.
To build one of these for yourself, I wrote a Twitter profile tutorial post.
Marking a Tweet as a Favorite
When you hover your mouse over a tweet on Twitter.com, you’ll see a star icon. Click it, and the star will light up, indicating that this tweet is one of your favorites. Here’s an example:
A Favorite Tweet
You can then click on the Favorites link on your Twitter home page to see the list of tweets you’ve favorited.
Gotta be honest here – not a lot of people find this useful. I like it because I do a lot of presentations, and I favorite tweets when I want to take a screen capture of ‘em later and use them in presentations. I favorited this one because @way0utwest said something brilliant that I plan to quote a lot!
“I’m at” Posts From BKite.com
BrightKite Location Post
BrightKite is a location-based social networking site where you can “check in” at a physical location, see who else has been there, and get alerts when other users check in. In the example above, Jeremey is checking in outside of Houston. When you see something like this, you can click on the bkite.com link to see a map of where he’s at and what else is going on near him.
To use this integration, you have to sign up for a free BrightKite account and set it up to post to Twitter.
Download My Free Twitter Book
Searching for people to follow on Twitter?
On the Twitter.com web site, click on the name of a person whose updates you find interesting. You’ll be taken to their Twitter page, and on the right hand side, you can click on “Following”. That gives you the list of people THEY follow. Sometimes (but definitely not always) you’ll find them interesting too.
More of My Twitter Articles
- My Simple Twitter Book – free download for a limited time!
- Top 10 Reasons I’m Not Following You On Twitter – wondering why nobody’s following you back?
- Top 10 Reasons I *AM* Following You – how I pick who gets past my virtual bouncer.
- Twitter T-Shirts and Coffee Cups – you can get Twitter shirts with the fail whale, or get your own Twitter profile on a shirt.
- Twitter RT, OH, HT: The Slang Explained – I talk about what these cryptic terms mean and how to use them correctly.
- Twitter Client Demo Video – I show you TweetDeck, Seesmic Desktop and Orsiso, three different Twitter clients.
- How to Make a Bigger Twitter Profile – when people glance at your Twitter profile, they make a snap decision about whether to follow you. Give them the information they need to make a good decision.
- Browse All Posts Tagged “Twitter”
- How To Start a Blog – decide why you’re blogging, because that’ll affect the type of blog you start and how you build it.
- Browse All Posts Tagged “Blogging”
Want More Blogging & Twitter Tips? Follow me on Twitter. I tweet whenever I post a new blog entry, so you’ll always know when I’ve got new stuff. See you online!
Thank you! Found this via @amateria and you answered so many questions. I finally know what the heck Jamie is doing when she starts something with RT. Of course, I probably could have just asked her, but I’m totally lazy and this required only one finger movement via the click of the mouse. Well, until I typed this comment anyway.
I’ll shut up now. It’s past my bedtime.
Thanks again.
BrentO! What a great primer with great examples! Now this is something I can share with my mom and sisters to help get more out of Twitter. Thanks for writing this very simple but trueli helpful post.
PS: Love the new photos in the banner!
Thanks, Natalie and Imelda! I felt the same way – I kept noticing people asking what RT was, and I went searching for a page that I could point them to – and I couldn’t find one! Heh. Hard to believe.
Yes, this was a great idea! I love it when I can be unintentionally helpful!
lol Natalie!
~amateria
finally, RT defined. Thank you!
Thanks! I get a lot of the same questions and now I can just point them here : )
Awesome post! I will link to it lots.
@jeremey
Great post! You just tweeted RT and your blog popped up after I Googled “Twitter phrases, RT” to find out what it meant. Very funny that you were the one who ended up explaining it to me via this post.
Hahaha, funny, Krystal. At the same time you were commenting, I was walking out of a local coffee shop and somebody introduced me as “Mr. Twitter”, hahaha. That’s a little over the top – I’m hardly the biggest Twitter user in my local circle – my favorite is The Bloggess, who’s done less Twittering than me but has far many more followers because she’s infinitely more interesting:
http://twitter.com/thebloggess
And I should note that her blog is even funnier:
http://thebloggess.com/
This was SO helpful, thank you!!
Hmmm, I see @replies from people I follow to people I do NOT follow even though my setting is "@ replies to the people I'm following." And you're right. It's hard to make sense of them.
Thanks for this guide.. I'm with my first twitter steps and I was confused by all this slang. Take Care.
I got made fun of for not using the RT and ampersand tag on twitter during lunch today.
I am now armed to the teeth with correct Twitter etiquette. Thank you.
THANK YOU! As a Proud Geek yet a late-comer to Twitter, I was perplexed by the acronyms and “traditions” there. You’ve just explained many of them so clearly, and on one page too.
Thank you…been searching all over for a FAQ like this one. Much appreciated!!
Great article dude, I’d wondered about OH and HT for a couple weeks! Cheers.
Aha, now it’s all coming into focus! Many Twitter mysteries (twysteries?) solved in one compact page. Thank you, BrentO!
Thanks for this guide
I asked Demi Moore @mrskutcher what RT means, but she never answered 
I always thought H/T meant hat tip? for use when you post a link from someone else’s tweet but don’t actually RT their exact wording.
Just started tweeting and was so confused by these terms. Now I know
Thanks!
Thanks for the guide, it’s really helpful and yes, it’s still one of the best places to see, if you want to know something about Twitter
Thank you!!! Very helpful…especially the ping.fm info. I just signed up & tested it…it’s wonderful!
Thanks, Brent! That cleared up a lot of things for me. Having Twitter handle your Facebook updates is a great suggestion, and I’m going to try it out.
Thanks for the info!! Now to find out why some large twitterers want to follow me. E.g., I started to follow Barack Obama and then got a request from “him” to follow me. Weird. (I declined. If The Man wants to know what I’m doing he’ll have to do it the old fashioned way with a warrantless wiretap)
Hi Brent!
This is an excellent article, it really helped me with some issues I always wondered about.
I recommend you, as a shortening url, http://is.gd/ it is the shortest on, really useful when posting a great amount of links
Thank you. This HELPS!
Does anyone know how we could use a stream for #hashtags? We want to publicise our degree show on twitter and then when others mention it on twitter, we’d like their tweets to come up on our website filter…
Does anyone know if this can be done, maybe some sort of coding? Brent?
Cheers
Luke – yep, there’s a ton of ways to do it using the Twitter API, but the exact method will depend on the tools you’re using to run your web site. Your best bet is to contact a programmer who’s got experience with your blogging platform – there’s nothing free on the web for it right now.
Ok, cheers Brent its good to know there is a way. We are using Tumblr so I’ll ask around.
Thanks for your help.
An abbreviation you might add to your list is “FTW” — as in “pepperoni pizza FTW!”
I initially thought it was “f— the World.” I’m glad to know better now, but you might consider adding it to your frequently-abbreviated list.
Thanks! Great article!
For those curious about Buck’s comment…
FTW = For the Win. You may also see FTL – For the Loss/Lose
For those wondering about Buck’s cryptic acronym…
FTW – For the Win. You may also see FTL = For the Loss/Lose
You answered all my questions on Twitter. I finally feel like I actually know what’s going on! Thanks for the great tips.
Thanks for posting this. I’m a Twitter newbie and I found this invaluable! Certain tweets I’ve been reading make much more sense now.
Thanks, your breakdown was awesome!
Thank you very much. This is a very informative article.
great information, it alway thought that the RT was a function, i just spent a little while looking for the button, then found your blog that explained it all.
thanks for sharing saved me time in the furture and I loved learning about the # marks.
-Katy
http://www.southpawonline.com
Best one pages on twitter I’ve come across. Thanks for this. Can I use this as a reference source?
Best one pages on twitter I’ve come across. Thanks for this. Can I use this as a reference source? I’m on #tomroyblog
Helpful site! still have a question though: If I reply to an update using the arrow button below the trash can symbol, but don’t use the @ sign, does the person still see it? I don’t get the difference btwm using the @ symbol, and not using it.
@Jenny
If you are seeing a trash can icon, then you’re hovering over one of your own Tweets. That’s the only time you’ll see a trash can since you can’t delete others’ posts. However, the arrow below the star/favorite icon on someone else’s post will reply to them for you. What it does is insert the @username for you automatically in the status box and then you can type your @reply message from there. I find it most helpful when people use the reply button since it links their reply to my original Tweet and I can click to see what they were replying to if necessary. You can, however, manually type in @username to reply or message someone in their public stream.
If you want to be sure your reply shows up in someone else’s stream or in their @reply list, you must use the @ symbol. Just using their name won’t guarantee they’ll see it unless they’re doing a search on their own name. (But if they have a common name, it’s not likely they’re searching on it.)
If you’re using a Twitter app such as TweetDeck, it will have more icons that will allow you to Retweet or Reply automatically. TD does have similar-looking arrow icons so be sure you’re using the right one – hover over the icons and your computer should tell you what each one does.
BTW – Nice article, Brent.
Jenny – the arrow is a retweet, not a reply. Read the description of RT above.
I appreciate the time you took to write these twitter tips. Thank you so much.
Great article. Now I know what RT means. LOL
Thanks! “There is no reason whatsoever that not – maybe soon, maybe later – someone will produce a masterpiece using Twitter …” ! http://tinyurl.com/mstrwrk
Please, don’t post under my name. Thank you.
Thanks Brent! You saved the day for a beginner T’er!
Great info! Very helpful to newbies and as a refresher to to those more tech inclined.
I’m newbie in Twitter, and thanks for the answer
It’s really helpful
Brent,
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain how to use twitter in such detail! I searched so many sites and this one has been the most useful, informative and eyeopening! Great stuff!
Hi Brent
I asked the question, “I’m on Twitter and still don’t know what the hell it’s all about”. My friend replied with a link to your page, which was most helpful. Thanks for good tips! : )
Kind regards
Martyn
I will need to read up on this stuff….so fun, yet confusing!
a really infomative insight on how to use twitter,.. helpfull especially for newbies!
Ravi.
Brent, Great post! You have a section – Finding people to follow on Twitter – I found a cool site exectwitter.com – its pretty good.
great site! Really helpful. Is it possible to keep my tweets sent right to an email address. I have a blackberry but instead of getting phone texts, I wanted to get emails like they do if you have a follower.
thanks a bunch for writing this..
Excellent post! Buy I ask why SQL Server and not MySQL?
Scott – I’ve been using SQL Server since the late 1990s. Not sure what you mean by “why”, heh.
Pam – yes, use NutshellMail.com.
Great work. Thank you very much for this help.
Excellent information for a newbie and a great reminder for an oldie
Thanks!
Brilliant man! I got all my answers n more on one page. Thanks Brent!
this is still great information, not everyone has been tweeting since the beginning. i’m sharing the info
thank you!
Oh you are clever!! I noticed that the blocked out function was greyed out on your page..hahahaha I am sure you wouldn’t want to force yourself on someone, because I do use that a lot!! but this page of course is the most intelligent description of techie issues I have seen so far, it’s probably because you really do know what you are talking about!!
well that’s how techies learn by screwing up first!! lol
Hello Brent:
Is TWTTR an acronym? If not, do you know why these 5 letters where choosen to represent the word twitter?
Thanks,
Ash
This is good info, thanks.
Quick bio:I am a high school teacher (health, psychology, math and biology- although not all at once!) working on my doctorate (at dissetation stage). My students me seriously when I said that i wanted to be a guest on the Ellen Degeneres Show, and over a few weeks in March, started surprising me with online accounts they had created. They watched her show, found out she was tweeting, so the opened twitter, same with facebook. They also have a website and youtube channel. I had to create accounts just so that I could keep an eye on them, (make sure they were appropriate and that they weren’t being contacted by the wrong people.) I am really pleased with the way they have conducted themselves online and although I don’t think they have any real chance of achieving their goal, I would hate to see them be disappointed. Do you have any tips for how they can maximize their effort? I am trying not to be too involved, because this is their personal project (I mean it’s summer and they are still plugging away at this, so I cannot ignore their level of commitment.)
Any advice you have would be appreciated.
Thank you, Brenda
Hmm – I think it would probably make more sense to contact the show directly. I’m not an expert on that kind of thing though. Good luck!
Thank you so much. This was an incredibly useful post.
Hi, great information. Could you include more information about public and private accounts? I’d like to set up a public account so that people don’t have to ask to follow the account but I don’t want just anyone to reply back and have it be visible to others. Is there a way to set up an account so that people can’t reply or at least have the replies only be visible to me? The reason that I’m asking is that I want to set up an account for a church youth group to send out updates but I don’t want the account to be open to having someone reply with “undesirable” content. Thanks
@ArtV – no, sorry, it doesn’t work that way.
Wow, thanks for the comprehensive info. I am overwhelmed by the twitter lingo
Awesome tutorial!!
Thanks!! 
Have Twitter rules now changed & can everyone see even the tweets that start with @someonespecific? Or do words typed before that just get invisible?
Or is the ‘invisible for others’ function only on with a ‘real’ (arrow-used) reply to their tweet?
For example, I could read your @posts even when I wasn’t following you yet!
How do I get onto trending topics ?
Andrew – you have to have thousands of people talking about your topic.
Thank you!! Thank you!! I’m feeling smarter already!!
hi how are you doing
I’m good, Buffy.
Thanks man! I wished I saw this article earlier… just made a boo boo because I thought RT stands for Reply To… haha but everything’s cool =)
Do you know if we can successfully put an opt-in page/form in twitter?
Thanks Ozar. I just wanted to know how to get onto those topics that were already on, not start a new one. I did manage to get onto those with a hash in front of them by typing the same topic with the hash and on my tweet and then clicking on it. But what about those topics that dont have a hash symbol before them?
Hi, Andrew. Sorry, I don’t think I understand your question. What are you trying to do?
Brent:
Sorry to bother, but I just wanted to know how to make a comment on a topic that is on.
Thanks
There’s no real “commenting” on Twitter. We’re all just talking.
OK Brent. I guess I want to talk and see it on a topic page…
Gotcha. The problem with that is it’s just a keyword search, and there will be thousands (or millions) of people using those same words, especially without the hash tag (pound sign). You can use those words in your tweet, but they’ll drop off the trending topics page instantaneously.
Twitter is a lot like a firehose. Individual tweets get lost in the crowd pretty easily. Instead of trying to talk with the entire Twitter population via topics, build your network of friends and just pay attention to what they’re talking about instead. You’ll probably find that even amongst a small circle of friends, it’s easy to get lost in the firehose now and then. Hope that helps!
Thanks a lot Brent. That was helpful.
Andrew
Thank you. I was so confused and now I’m empowered. Keep up the great work.
excellant, thank you
How about +1 RT?? What does the +1 mean??
It means there’s one more person who agrees. It’s like slang for “I agree too.”
Thanks Brent! Im a newbie, and really into it, but was a little bit confusing till I found your page!
Thanks for your Twitter FAQ’s they are very helpful and well explained
Yes thank you… i jumped on the twitter band wagon a few months ago… and im being bombarded with all this stuff. and im lost.. and i feel a tad ashamed cuz im a web designer. haha
Thank you for the informative page on twitter. I’m a complete idiot with tech stuff, and it was really helpful!
Thanks for the great article. I got here by doing a Google search for RT Twitter. Now I know more about Twitter.
Appreciate the tips. One question: I use TweetDeck, and it never lets me get rid of “mentions” or what used to appear as “replies.” I clear them but they always come back the next time I open it. How do I permanently delete these things?
Rich – go into Settings, and check the box “Hide previously loaded tweets (after restart)” and that’ll do it.
Very informative, TFS.
One question though. What’s the difference between HT and OH?
HT means you heard it through a named source, and you put their name after the HT. It’s like “on the record.”
OH means you heard it through an unnamed source, and you don’t attach a name. It’s like “off the record.”
This is SO helpful! Thanks! By the way – is that a hulk hand in your photo? Nice!
Thank you for this!!!
helped me a lot ^,^
Thanks for this tutorial, really appreciated @edinburghlove
Thanks, this was very helpful (I’m a total newb at twitter).
Btw, about the @ function. I see twitter starting with an @name even when I only follow one of the ppl. Right now I only follow 5 ppl so it’s ok, but I guess it might become a hassle later on. Is there something I can do about it?
And another question, when it come to twitters with an @name somewhere else in the post, will the person mentioned still be notified about the twitter?
Hi, Linnea. First, no, there’s nothing you can do about that first one. You should only follow people whose conversations you’re genuinely interested in.
Second – yes, they’ll see the tweet in their “Mentions” page if they look.
I thought your article said that if a friend’s tweet starts with @name (and you don’t follow @name), then this tweet won’t appear in your stream. But it looks like here you’re saying that there is nothing you can do about it. Can you clarify?
Right, if a friend’s tweet starts with someone’s name that they’re not following, you won’t see it and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Okay, thanks for the info and fast reply!
how do i see the public timeline form twiiter website …
and were can download ubertwitter ..or should i use twitterberry
Hi. You can’t see the public timeline anymore from the Twitter website. To download applications, I’d suggest checking your favorite search engine.
Best Twitter Client? Destroy Twitter is also excellent. Also, if you have a disability, or just want an easy web-based client, use me, Accessible Twitter: http://www.accessibletwitter.com @accessibleTwitr
Please forgive me if this has already been asked and answered: How do I ensure that my Twitter background is consistent for different monitors? Mu background covers the full screen on my monitor at home, but not so at work. Thanks!
Sadly, you can’t. Different users have different resolutions, and no one Twitter background will work for all. That’s why you should only put content on the left side of the background, not both the left and right sides.
Thank you, Brent, for a great tutorial. Like one of the previous writers, I couldn’t figure out the Twitter slang. Now I know.
Thank you! I’m a social media addict and trying to develop a strategy to actually use it for something useful, like building my business, rather than just frittering away countless hours of my life. BTW, what is it about you tech geeks and boats?
Thank you so much Brent for this easy to use tutorial. Honestly I have learned a lot through it, I mean the way you have explained all the nitty gritty stuff of Twitter is commendable. Thanks once again (Y)
You’re quite welcome.
Great page. Really not intuitive to figure these things out but very simple once explained.
Thanks! I looked ALL OVER the internet for an explanation – Twitter is like a new language.
Hi Brent,
Great article. What’s the deal with #fact?
It has no definition in tagref and whilst it’s trending, there doesn’t seem to be any useful theme to it.
Well, remember, you’re on the internet: there’s no strict organization here. Sometimes something just catches on and gets used randomly. If you try to define and categorize everything you see here, you’ll be frustrated in no time. Just relax and enjoy what you see. Have fun!
Very Very Nice information.
Thank you.
@HiddenBrains
Hello,
i dont see here what means !foobar
several times i saw !Firefox, !Linux etcc
but i didnt undersrand why the ! Was at the beginning
of that words
regards
That’s not Twitter-specific terminology, actually: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar
Hi,
I dont speak about the terminology “foobar” but about the “!” before a word in twitter
regards.
OK, the exclamation point isn’t a Twitter feature.
Great job Brent explaining in simple terms!
thank you so much ! ur explaining helps me a lot !
The ! Sign before a word means this is a group
eg !foobar is a kink to the foobar group
it is identi.ca specific
Hi Brent
Thank you for a clear, concise and helpful post. I’ve been working in the internet for years, but new to Twitter. This is a truly great help – I’ll send the page link to clients and colleagues.
Best wishes
Steve
BrentO
O’ what a helpful webpage to newbie tweeters!
Thanks for the v. helpful guidance, need to bookmark this page until I’ve mastered the ways of twitter!
Guess I just need to follow you now!
cheers
@coreArchitect
Thanks a bunch BrentO. Very Useful for me =o)
PROPS
Thanks Brent, this article explained Twitter better than a lot of other things I had read
.
I am new to twitter as you can imagine lol! I wanted to know what RT is and found out lol!(thx btw) and found myself browsing your posts! I know i probably don’t fit any of the reasons you’ll follow me ha ha!! but i’m still following ya coz you’re funny and you follow lots of funny peeps!!
An issue of contact. I have several people who have asked to follow me. Their accounts are protected so I can’t see their profiles. Is there anyone I can personally contact them, before I add them as followers.
If they’re following you, you can send them a direct message, but they won’t be able to send you a direct message back. Generally speaking, I just don’t follow back anyone with protected updates unless I already know them personally.
I’m no twitter expert, but RT is generally “usefull” even if the followers are all the same. I follow just a dozen peeps and I don’t read every tweet. So, most relevant stuff should keep comming back, and RT can help in this function.
I believe twits should be done wenever, whatever, regardless of anything else just for the sake of registering something you want to register online.
Caue – unfortunately, your followers will pretty quickly unfollow you if all you do is repeat much more famous people, and do it later. People don’t want to keep re-hearing the same message. I had a really good friend that I unfollowed for that specific reason. I said to him, “Look, if I wanted to hear BreakingNews all the time, then I’d follow them.”
Beautifully written
Very useful. Thanks
Hi Brent,
I am a new business owner and tweeter. Having scoured the internet for plain english explanations, came across this. Thank you, you have saved my sanity and unravelled it quickly and painlessly. I’m taking your advice and following you straight away, thanks again.
Useful. Thanks
With these great twitter tips I should be able to improve my business.
Thanks. You made twittering abbreviations make sense to me!
What does =P or =D in a tweet mean?
If you turn your head to the left and look at the screen, the first one looks like someone sticking their tongue out, and the second one looks like someone smiling.
Great resource. Will difinetly RT this
Thanks so much–this was very helpful to someone who is new with Twitter. Bless you!
thank you. its very useful.
This was awesome! Thanks for demystifying this stuff for us. Cheers!
I really appreciate this crash course on Twitter. From the lingo explanations to the etiquitte, you really covered all the basics.
I was just trying to read someone’s Twitter page and felt so d@mn old! Thanks for bringing me back up to speed.
After reading your article Twitter makes sense now and easier to understand.
Thanks!