Beyond the Rhetoric

Generally speaking, there are three groups of people in the world. There are those who are already well-versed in Twitter and what the microblogging platform can provide; there are those who are new to Twitter and are still trying to learn the ropes; and then there are those who may or may not have heard of Twitter and may or may not choose to sign up for the service at some point in the future. By and large, this post is geared toward the second group, though people from the third group may be persuaded to adjust their perception of Twitter too.

If you’re not terribly familiar with Twitter, I encourage you to spend a few minutes and watch this terrific video of Twitter in plain English. It’s not completely comprehensive, but it does provide a great introduction into what Twitter is and what it can do for you. For example, Twitter can serve as a great source of traffic to your website and it can also be a great way to network with like-minded individuals (and celebrities).

A friend of mine had a series of questions concerning some Twitter terminology the other day. He didn’t really understand all the jargon and lingo. Instead of only providing that information to him, I thought it would be apt to provide a brief Twitter glossary to all readers of Beyond the Rhetoric. Listed below are some of the most common terms that you will encounter during your Twitter adventure. Don’t forget to follow me while you’re at it!

Twitter
This microblogging service can be defined in a number of different ways. In general, you could say that it is akin to the Facebook status update, but with more options and possibly a more robust community. You can send out your own personal updates, respond to other users, share links with friends, and so on.

Tweet
Each of your Twitter posts or updates is known as a tweet. Some people refer to them as “twits”, but the official term is “tweet.” Each tweet is no longer than 140 characters.

Retweet
A retweet is when you share the tweet of one user with all of your Twitter followers. If you happen to follow a Twitter news feed and they post a link to a story that you feel should be shared, you can “retweet” it. Similarly, if someone voices an opinion that you agree with, you can also retweet it. For instance, if user XYZ123 tweeted, “You should hire Michael Kwan as a writer for your site! He’s great!” I could retweet that as: “RT @XYZ123: You should hire Michael Kwan as a writer for your site! He’s great!” Retweets are usually prefaced with “RT @username.”

Reply
Are you responding to a particular user? To reply to any given Twitter community member, preface your tweet with “@username.” If you wanted to send a message to me, for example, you would tweet, “@michaelkwan Good morning, Michael.”

Direct Message
Whereas replies are completely public, a direct message is akin to a private message that you send through a discussion board. To send a direct message to someone, he or she must be following your account. Send a direct message by prefacing your tweet with “d username.”

Follower
While Facebook necessitates that all relationships are bilateral, Twitter allows for one-way relationships. If you find Twitter users who are interesting, you can “follow them” to subscribe to their tweets. They do not necessarily have to follow you back, though the more social users will want to follow you back.

Following-Follower Ratio
In looking at the relative ratio between the number of accounts being followed and the number of followers, you can get a good sense of what kind of Twitter user someone happens to be. If he follows a lot of people but gets followed by very few, it’s likely that he is a spammer or not very interesting. If he follows very few people but gets followed by many, it’s likely that he is interesting but does not have the time to keep up with a lot of people. Celebrities, like Jimmy Fallon, are a good example of this. If the following-follower ratio is approximately 1:1 (like my account), it means the user is reasonably interested in equitable networking.

Twitter Client
While you could certainly use the Twitter website itself for all of your Twitter interactions, your experience will be greatly improved by using one of the many Twitter clients available. These work in a similar fashion as instant messenger programs, collecting your Twitter information and presenting it in a more streamlined fashion. Two of the most popular Twitter clients on computers are Twhirl and TweetDeck, both of which are free. There are also mobile Twitter clients, like Twitterfon for iPhone and TwitterBerry for BlackBerry.

Other Twitter Terminology
Are there any other Twitter terms that you would like to see defined or clarified? Feel free to ask through the comment form below or, better yet, send me a tweet! Just remember to keep the rules of Twitter etiquette in mind.

Filed under Technology.