Fitton Laura - Twitter for dummies

@: (at symbol) @ both indicates a username and activates a link to that users profile. When used preceding a valid Twitter @username, it creates a hyperlink to a popup version of that users profile.

#: (pound or number symbol), which is used to create a hashtag (see hashtag).

^: (caret symbol) This symbol is usually appended to the end of a Tweet preceding the initials of the person sending the Tweet. The caret and initials taken together are known as a Cotag.

$: (dollar symbol) When used along with a stock ticker symbol creates a hyperlink to other Tweets containing that stock symbol.

@mention: An @mention is when you mention someone in one of your tweets. By placing the @ symbol (traditionally used in email addresses) before a users handle, you can tag that person in your Tweet, and the user is notified in the Mentions section of his account. If you tweet Love this new blog post by @anum , for example, Anum is notified. Many people use @mentions to converse on Twitter.

@reply: An @reply is when you respond directly to a user on Twitter. This tweet can be seen in user streams by you, the person youre responding to, and anyone who follows both of you. On your Twitter profile, youll notice there is a tweets and tweets and replies section. Anyone who clicks the latter can see all your tweets.

@username: This is how you are identified on Twitter. Always used with the @ symbol preceding it.

AFAIK: Acronym for as far as I know.

avatar: See profile photo

bio: The 160 character self-description that Twitter users can add to tell the world a bit more about who they are.

block: The action of preventing a user from seeing your Tweets while also preventing yourself from seeing that users @mentions or @replies directed at you.

bot: An account run by an automated program. You can find good bots, such as the ones that pull in all breaking-news headlines from a media outlet. You also can find bad bots, which put out only generic Tweets, usually filled with links to marketing or porn sites. These bots often have a generic hot chick avatar or an uneven follower/following ratio, meaning that theyre following hundreds or thousands of people but have only a few following them back.

by: Appended at the end of a Tweet, usually indicates who the author of, for example, a URL shared in a Tweet is.

cc: carbon copy. Generally used before one or more usernames inserted in a Tweet so that those users see the Tweet on their @Mentions tab.

direct messages (DM): Private messages sent to specific Twitter users in your network. Only you and the recipient of the messages can view them. Before you can send a DM to a user, that user must be following you.

Discover: This refers to the tab on Twitter.com where you see Tweets you might be interested in because they were favorited by people you follow. The submenu on this tab contains Tweets, Activity, Who to follow, find Friends, and Popular accounts.

favorite: (v) To mark a Tweet as something you like by clicking the star next to the word favorite. (n) As a noun, it also refers to the Tweets you have marked in this way. Sometimes abbreviated fav.

feed: A constantly updating list of updates from everyone youre following that is visible to you at https://twitter.com . Unlike Facebook, which uses an algorithm to update your Timeline, Twitter simply updates your feed with every Tweet published by the accounts you follow, arranged in order by the time of Tweet.

follow: The action you take to subscribe to an accounts updates. When you follow someone on Twitter, you see her published Tweets in the mix of Tweets that you see in your feed on Twitter.com . Follow is used as both a verb (to follow) and a noun (new follows). Followers are the accounts that have subscribed to yours. Following is the act of subscribing to someones account as well as the state after you subscribe.

Follow button: (also, the Following/Unfollow button) The button marked Follow that appears on every users profile page, as well as in a number of different places in the Twitter interface where you are being shown information about a fellow user. Follow buttons can also appear on any third party website as a way to promote and simplify the process of following an account. Note that most times that you are logged into Twitter and see a Follow button for a person you are already following, the button instead says Following, and changes to Unfollow when you mouse over it.