TWERMINOLOGY 101

[TheWorldNewsOrg]

#Hashtag—Once called a pound sign, the # identifies what people are saying about a topic or event. Put one in front of a phrase (no spaces!) and that tweet shows up in a list of others with the same hashtag. Use sparingly.

Retweet—This is really just a fancy word for “share.” When you “retweet,” you are sharing someone else’s tweet verbatim with your followers.

Direct Message—Get with the lingo! These private messages are often called DMs. The messages can be longer than 140 characters and even include photos and video.

@ Reply—To get in touch with someone, put @ before their username. But when your tweet starts with a name, you need a period in front of it (example: .@WSJ) if you want your followers to see the tweet in their feeds.

Hearting—Once upon a Twitter, there was a favorite button on tweets, and people “favorited” things. Now there’s a heart. Twitter says it means “like” but “hearting” and “hearted” seems to be catching on as a verb.