You might be getting started on twitter because your friends use it, because your employer has requested that you do, because you want to promote your business, or just because you want to see what all the fuss is about.
But regardless of the reason, when you first sign up, it can seem as if there is something of a learning curve when you start seeing the first tweets in your tweetstream.
It can certainly seem bewildering - @, RT, #, hashtags, tweet-ups, trending topics - what ARE these things? Well, in this article I will explain it all.
Most of these twitter abbreviations stem from the well-known fact that every time you post on twitter, it has to contain fewer than 140 characters.
It is because of this that space is at a premium, so there just is not room, in most tweets, to add "for the attention of...
" or "I'm talking about...
".
Twitter Slang Guide @ - pronounced 'at', this will be familiar from emails.
On twitter, it is used as a way to direct a person's attention to your tweet.
So if you want to send a tweet directly to Ashton Kutcher, you start it with @aplusk Getting a tweet with @ in front of your username means that it will appear in the "@mentions" column on the twitter website, or in whichever twitter programme you use.
Similarly, when you use @, the person whose name follows it is less likely to miss it because it will appear in their 'mentions' column too.
RT - an abbreviation of 'retweet'.
A retweet is when you see a tweet that is so good, you want to share it with your own followers too.
Unspoken twitter etiquette means that it is inappropriate to just copy and paste it, rather, always retweet it to credit the original tweeter.
You do this by, if you are retweeting Bill Cosby, you begin it with RT @billcosby, followed by the original tweet.
Nowadays, the kind of RT that I have just described is known as an "old retweet".
This refers to the fact that those who use twitter from the twitter.
com website can no longer retweet posts in that way.
Now the only retweets available are the "new retweets", where you have no option to add your own words or commentary to the beginning.
Most of the twitter software that is available offers you both options, and even a newer "new retweet" which, ironically, is like an old RT but rather than beginning with RT @billcosby, it puts Bill's whole tweet between quotation marks.
Because of the structure of the retweet, including the @ from the original tweeter, any retweet will appear in their @mentions column for each retweet they get.
So, if someone retweets your tweets, you can find out by checking your own @mentions column.
# - a hashtag.
This is used on twitter as a shortened way of saying "what I am talking about is...
".
So, a tweet might read "This is so funny! #frasier" or "Check out our latest offers #cupcakes #baking".
Tweet-up - A tweet-up is when people who met on twitter meet up in real life.
Trending topics - When hundreds or thousands of people on twitter are all talking about the same thing - frequently a TV programme or a breaking news story - it can become a trending topic.
These are highlighted in the right hand column on the twitter website, usually in the form of hashtags.
So with these basics, you can now go forth and begin using twitter without fear!