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ARE you one of those tweeps often getting into a twar with the rest of the Twitterville community? Not sure if this sentence is English or Greek? Then you need to acquaint yourself with the terms below.
- Avatar A profile picture on Twitter.
- Tweeps A term for people who are on Twitter. Instead of saying, “Hi peeps”, you’d say, “Hi tweeps”.
- Twoogle If you need to know anything and are too lazy to search for it on Google ask fellow Tweeps and they’ll hopefully enlighten you (you may get a whole lot of sarcasm though – these Twitter streets are not for the faint-hearted).
- Twar Twitter is at its best when there’s a debate between celeb tweeps – and this war of words can be hilariously entertaining. Twars that go on past its sell-by-date should be avoided (although on the flip side a twar can increase followers because people want to see who says what next).
- Twelebs Twelebs are ordinary people who are very popular and well-known on Twitter. Twelebs have many followers and even celebrities as we know them follow these “ordinary” citizens. Twelebs generally have a lot to say on everything and their humorous tweets are attention-grabbing.
- Sub-tweeting We’ve all seen it. The “I wish you could see how much you’re hurting me” or the “If only you weren’t so selfish all the time we’d be better friends”. Yes, those messages aimed at people we don’t know or things we can’t figure out are called sub-tweets. Basically, you can say anything about anyone without mentioning their names. Too much of it can leave your followers with a feeling of annoyance and a *SMH* (shaking my head).
- DM Stands for direct message. You can send someone a private message on Twitter so it doesn’t appear in their timeline.
- RT When you retweet someone else’s tweet make sure their name is in there with their Twitter handle. If you’re retweeting something with your name in take yours out or be labelled a novice.
- MT Some tweets are just too long to be retweeted so if you take out a word or two rather say MT for modified tweet to show you’ve changed the original. Some people get peeved if you retweet after changing or cutting to something they would never have removed because of context.
- Hashtags (#), used to indicate a particular topic that then allows tweeps to search and follow that topic, have become overused.
- #throwbackthursday If you’re feeling nostalgic Thursday is the official day to tweet your old pics.
- #FollowFriday (#FF) This hashtag* is a regular on the trends list. If you need more followers or if you want to recommend people others should follow on Twitter, add this hashtag. Of course we want you to #FF @YOUMagazine right now!
- Block When you’ve had enough of someone on Twitter, just block them. Celebs are pros at blocking so expect to be blocked if you say things they don’t like. You can also block pests. After you’ve given them the virtual cold shoulder you will no longer see their mentions or replies. They can’t follow you or see your profile picture on their profile page or their timeline.
