Get to Know Common Twitter Terms

By Kyle Lacy

Part of the Twitter Marketing For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Like any new technology, Twitter has its own vocabulary. If you're just getting started with Twitter, here are some of the terms and lingo you and other twitterers might tweet around:

hashtag: Tagging an individual tweet by using a hash mark (#) in front of the tag word. For example, #twittermarketing. The hashtag allows Twitter users to search for a particular subject.
twalking: Sending a tweet via your mobile phone while you're walking.
retweet (RT): A repeated tweet, in which twitterers send a tweet that they've received to their followers. An RT is much like a forwarded e-mail. Twitterers can also use RTs when they reply to a particular tweet, allowing their Twitter stream to read the reply.
tweeting: The act of posting a message to Twitter in 140 characters or less.
TweetDeck: A desktop application that allows you to manage and monitor your Twitter feed.
tweetup: When Twitter users meet in person — a meet-up organized through Twitter.
Twitosphere: A community of Twitter users.
Twitter stream: A collections of tweets, often listed in chronological order.
Twitterati: The A-list twitterers, also called the cewebrities.