Ask Auntie Social: How can I engage with my customers when I don’t understand Twitter jargon?
In essence, this is the beauty of Twitter. Less is more. It is sharp and to point, providing you with a practical platform for engagement. However, for some businesses Twitter jargon can throw people into a spin of worry, especially if the acronyms and abbreviations are alien.
To combat this confusion, we’ve created a one stop guide users can refer to if ever they are stuck with any of the Twitter-related terms. Before entering the world of shortened words, however, we have some tips for your business.
Tweets should be clear and easy to understand. Do ensure that if you’ve any shortened words that they are still coherent for your audience.
Prior to tweeting, think about what you want to say and whether you can say it another way while still getting the same message across, if you find your tweet is too long or doesn’t make sense. Further to the less is more idea, the aim of the game is to convey your targeted message in the punchiest way possible.
If you wish to include links in any of your Tweets, Twitter will shorten the link for you thus ensuring it won’t take up too many characters. Bit.ly is a great tool to shorten links.
Paste the link in and bit.ly, like magic, will shorten it for you. What it equally impressive with bit.ly is that you can measure the number of clicks you get with that link. You can also access the data on all of your Bitlinks over the past 30 days.
This can help you determine whether the content you’ve shared has resonated with followers, and how effective the engagement has been. These metrics can form an important part of the evaluation and planning of campaigns and ensuring you make better business decisions.
Similar to Google becoming a verb in the Oxford English dictionary, Twitter has contributed to the emergence of a range of new words that invariably start with ‘tw’.
A tweetup is a meeting or other gathering organised by means of posts on Twitter. A twibe consists of a group of Twitter users who have interests in a particular subject and Tweeple or Tweeps are in indeed people on Twitter.
Another symbol on Twitter that might throw business owners is the asterisk sign before a word or phrase. In this context it relates to a physical action the user is doing in real time, for example *dancing, *laughing *hugs.
As promised, please find the list of acronyms and abbreviations that will help you understand what is being said on Twitter below.
The Twitter jargon List:
= Shaking My Head. For example you can include SMH when you read something that you don’t
agree with, or something that repulses you.
= Hat Tip. This is a way to give credit when sharing content you’ve heard through someone else,
it is nice to give credit when it’s due.
= Retweet. When you retweet, you are taking someone else’s tweet and putting it on your own timeline so that your followers can see it. Retweet can mean someone said something you perhaps agree with, found hilarious, or wish you thought of first.
= Modified Tweet. This is when a tweet is copied and you add your own comment. However you may have to shorten the original tweet to make everything fit.
= To Be Honest. Other variations include, TBQH (To Be Quite Honest).
= Direct message. It allows you to privately message someone who is following you.
= Not safe for work. This indicates that the content is potentially inappropriate or graphic.
= On twitter it doesn’t relate to ‘Other Half’. On this platform is means ‘Overheard’, you can use
this if you feel like highlighting a humorous or eyebrow-raising comment.
= Thanks for the follow. If people do follow you, make an effort, just an abbreviation is perhaps not the best way to build a relationship.
.@MyEverydaySavvy TFTF! I think my sister lives near you and she makes AMAZING baked goodies - Elms Treats https://t.co/sJLIP4yuW6
— 𝙱𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜 𝙴𝚕𝚖𝚜 (@BrooksElms) November 14, 2015
= Thanks for the retweet.
= Translated tweet, this indicates that an original tweet has been translated into a different
language.
= With.
We hope this list and little nuggets of information on Twitter jargon will better equip you and your
business to engage with your audience more effectively. Social Media guru Mitch Joel’s summary of
how Twitter should be approached is particularly relevant - “Spend some time getting to know the
people and terrain. Think about becoming a part of the community, instead of how to sell to it”.
With a better understanding of the jargon you can now focus on spending time building relationships with the people and the community you want your business to engage with.
Now you know the lingo, start the conversation and see where it takes you.
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