Twitter for Beginners

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Double double, toil and trouble twitzer twhirl twitch and twubble . The language of Shakespeare’s era may be difficult to understand but so is internet speak; the vocabulary of Twitter adding to the frothing cauldron.

Where do you begin with Twitter?:

As you may know the basic Twitter interface is just that - basic. Type in a short message and press enter. There are some official twitter commands that you can use. For example the @ command before a contacts name addresses a message to that person:

From Sueblimely ” @Shakespeare Your rhymes are more revolting than Roald Dahl’s”
DHLawrence to Shakespeare - “@Shakespeare When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder That such trivial people should muse and thunderIn such a lovely language.”
replies from Shakespeare:
- @Sueblimely I thank you for your voice: thank you: Your most sweet voice. I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.
- @ DHLawrence Thou surly ill-breeding death-token!

Adding “Retweet: @” indicates that you are rebroadcasting a message made by someone else. e.g.

Retweet: @Hamlet I am struck with wonder That such trivial people should muse and thunder In such a lovely language.

A hashtag (#) before a word is a kind of tag, a word which identifies a topic, place, event etc.

#shakesepeare The Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet are showing in Stratford this season http://www.rsc.org.uk/content/5153.aspx.

#Hamlet @horatio O, I die, Horatio; The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit: I cannot live to hear the tweets from England;

Be careful you do not misquote It may help to take a look at The Art and Science of Retweeting for Twitteraholics by Blogging Bits.

Caroline Middlebrooke’s The Big Juicy Twitter Guide is worth reading if you are a newcomer to Twitter as is
How to: The Beginners Guide to Twitter - Part 1, the basics by carocat of Cat’s Blog .
How to explain Twitter and use it correctly, before it’s too late on New Media Bytes discusses twitter etiquette (twitiquette) and includes a video tutorial by Common Craft.
20 Things I Learned Using Twitter has some good tips on making the most of Twitter, finding contacts and using it efficiently/

There are so many applications, clients. scripts and extensions for interacting with Twitter (hereafter referred to as “thingies” - no that should be “thwingies”). Twitter is becoming far more than a simple messaging platform; with potential to provide us with valuable targeted multimedia information via computer and phone. Taking advantage of this means using more than the basic twitter site interface.

Where to find out more about Twitter thwingies:

Twitter Fan Wiki, which is dedicated to keeping up with Twitter thwingies and all sorts of other aspects.
ReadWriteWeb monitored methods used for interacting with Twitter and have produced a list of the top 20 (out of 142 possible ways). How We Tweet: The Definitive List of the Top Twitter Clients. The site has recently published The Most Popular Twitter Apps According to the Blogosphere. As I was writing this a Digsby popup informed me they had just published another - Top 10 Twitter Apps
Mashable list 24th May -Twittermania: 140+ More Twitter Tools! - includes links to their other Twitter tool posts.

How and why to use Twitter:

Maki of DoshDosh is cluey about Twitter and has written a number of posts on the topic including 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners
ProBlogger Darren Rowse is also a good source of knowledge. Take a look at 9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers for starters.
12 ways to use Twitter to increase your productivity on Simple Net.
Twitter Freaks Group on diigo

That is enough reading material for now. While writing this, I have been trying to think of new twitter terms. How about:

Twinkling - what the the Twitterati Glitterati do, whereas the rest of us tweet or twitter.
Twender - how you message your sweetheart.
Twyslexic - bad spelling in tertwit
Twenterhooks - when you are waiting eagerly for a reply

I will leave you to guess what these already coined unofficial Twitter terms mean.

Twisticuffs
Twitterrheart
Tweetheart

You can find the answers on the Twitter Fan Wiki Glossary and check out more Twitter terms and shortcuts on their Twictionary.

If you can think of any more of these, or know of good beginner’s guides to Twitter, please leave a comment or send a tweet to @Sueblimely.

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