Twitter Terminology – What You Need to Know

PLN – Professional Learning Network

·    Microblogging – Twitter is considered this because it is such a small amount of text

·    140 – This is the number of characters that you have to type a Tweet

·    Feed – This is what you Tweet and what others Tweet you are following.  Your Twitter Feed is like an email inbox plus seeing the emails you send

·    Tweet – A Tweet is the term given to typing a post on Twitter

·    Following – These are the people that you want to read Tweets from

·    Followers – These are the people that want to read YOUR Tweets

·    @Replies – When someone Tweets something, and you like it, you can reply to them.  Just like replying in an email

·    Retweets/RT – This is when you “forward” a tweet that you like.  Just like forwarding an email

·    Direct Messages/DM – Like sending a short email.  Private Tweets

·    Hasthags# - This is a Tweet organization tool.  If I had a Tweet about math, I might add #math to my tweet.  Then I can search #math and see every Tweet that is about Math

·    Lists – Organizing people you follow into list.  For Example you might label teachers into certain subjects, or have a list of people you follow that are administrators.  You can then view that list and see only those updates if that is all you are interested in.  You will also see the list that others have you on as well.

·    Blocking/Unblocking – I won’t lie.  Sometimes people will follow you that are marketing people, or self-promoters.  You have the ability to block them so that they cannot see your tweets.  Can they recreate an account, sure, but you just block them again.

·    Favorites – Saving your most important or most favorite Tweets.  It is the tiny Star icon.

·    Saved Searches – You can search for a hashtag or topic and then save that search to see it later.  It will not be the same search, it will contain new tweets.

·    Trends – This is what is most popular on Twitter at certain times of the day.  I rarely look at it unless something major in education has happened to see if it is a trending topic

·    Twitter Clients – These are desktop and cell phone applications that allow you to access your Twitter account

·    Home – This is where you can see your Twitter Feed

·    Profile – This is what others see when they visit your site – Notice they cannot see others reply to you.

·    Tweeps – Your Twitter Peeps – People you follow and follow you on Twitter