UTweet

Did that make any sense to you? Because it’s okay if you didn’t.

At Wednesday night’s spectacular Mashable party, amid the flashing cameras, handshakes and frequent card exchange, I overheard this conversation:

Guy 1: You know, it was great to meet you, are you on Twitter?

Guy 2: Yeah, man, I tweet.

Guy 1: (whips out the iPhone) What’s your handle?

Guy 2: …. my what?

And it struck me – Twitter is growing at such an exponential rate, but at some point, we’re all new to to Twitter in some manner. There will always be words or applications or practices that you just don’t know about until someone tells you about it.

Here are some very basic Twitter words to learn so you don’t end up like Guy #2:

Tweet

(v) to make a post to Twitter; ex: “I tweeted out that link.”

(n) the actual message; ex: “Did you see my tweet about the party?”

Handle

(n) your twitter username. a.k.a. twandle (Twitter + handle); ex: petestweet, imdane or ingridcamacho.

@

(v) to reply to someone’s tweet. We’ll expand on this on another post.

DM

(v) to send someone a private, direct message; ex: “I’ll DM you directions to my house.”

(n) a message that is private between two people; ex: “I’ll send you a dm with my phone number.”

Tweetup

(n) an informal gathering of folks who are connected through Twitter; ex: “We’re having a tweetup at Trudy’s.”

OH

When placed before a phrase, it stands for ‘overheard’; ex: “OH: It’s 12:30, time to drink my lunch.”

FTW

For The Win, a way to express gusto for something; ex: “Taco Bueno FTW”

Check out the Austin American-Statesman article on Twitter or head on over to twictionary for a full list of Twitter words.

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