Twitter 101 – Part C (Last one – I promise)
What does RT, MT, via, #whatever mean? As with any new enterprise there is jargon.
RT = Retweet. This is used when someone has written a tweet that you consider is great and want to share it with your followers. This is the basic premise of Twitter. The RT is a direct quotation. Some folks don’t like it when one messes with it to make it stay under 140 characters. If you do have to edit – use VIA then @ and the person’s twitter name. Edit at will, but do keep the same intent, that’s only fair.
MT = for some means mention, for others it means other stuff. I haven’t found a good shortform for it. There is a lot of confusion between text speak and twitter speak. So I write it out and just thank fewer people each time.
Via = see above under RT
Now for the great and powerful #. You luddites out there thought it meant pound, or number. Oh…how nineteenth century of you. It is the great and wonderful hashtag. This is the means by which folks can do quick searches that pull all the tweets on that topic. You need to use the # on your blogs too for searches. You can go on hashtags.org they tell you what many of them mean. I don’t suggest creating your own until you’ve been tweeting for a while.
Some of the hashtags I use and follow are: #amwriting, #ambeading, #tweetlikeapro, #whyIwrite, #justread, #follow.
When thanking someone for following, mentioning or RT I use #TY and #shoutout.
There are also special things for different days of the week. The three I use the most are #mentionmonday where I highlight special folks, #writerwednesday or #WW where I thank and say to #follow great authors, and #followfriday. For this I use www.followfriday.com to click on names and have tweets sent out with #follownow or whatever hashtag I want and highlight the folks I’ve tweeted with the most.
This is why watching what is happening on Twitter is so key. Look up the terms you don’t understand. Take your time to be polite and follow the etiquette. It is a great interaction chance. I’ve found some wonderful folks. Come on in. It is a time suck, but usually a polite one.
If you want more etiquette etc information check this blog out. It’s great.
Stephanie Jarkins
twitter: skjarkins
5 Comments
Wow. This is a lot of info, Stephanie. I love twitter, but after reading your posts, I’m by no means, a pro. Thanks for sharing. I think we need a program on this at Sleuths in 2012.
yes, i think #Sleuths needs to do a twitter day. It is a very interesting social medium but one needs to keep one’s goal in mind with it.
or like us you can create your own hashtag, we came up with #writercult as there were so many of us chatting with each other that all our names took up the 140 limit. *grin*
Hiya,
Um, that sound you just heard?
Yeah, that was my brain imploding with info overload. Next time, dearie, remind me to get my coffee BEFORE I read your blog!
Love you madly!
C
Yes, M’am. I’ll add a “have your caffeine before reading blog” warning done up pronto! S.