These days, having your business involved in social media is a necessity. Twitter is definitely one of the more important sites, and mastering it is simple. The most critical step is understanding the basic Twitter terms.
1. Tweet: A tweet is simply your post’s name. Think of it as Twitter’s version of a Facebook status. Each tweet must be 140 characters or less. As you write, Twitter lets you know how much space you have left, so you can always know how much space you still have left.
2. Retweet: A retweet is when you read another user’s tweet and you share it with your own followers. To retweet, you simply click “Retweet” and it allows you either to retweet or to quote the tweet. Retweeting is sharing the user’s tweet as is. Quoting the tweet puts their username and tweet in quotes, allowing you to add your own two cents. Retweets drive traffic to that user’s account, since it provides a direct link to their account on your timeline for your own followers to check out.
3. Timeline: A timeline is basically your public profile. It lists all your tweets and retweets, starting with your most recent at the top. This is what people see most prominently when they click on your page.
4. Favorite: Favoriting a tweet is similar to retweeting. On each user’s profile is a tab marked “Favorites”. This is a stockpile of your all-time favorite tweets. To favorite a tweet, you click “Favorite” on the tweet, and it is automatically added to your tab. One drawback to favorites is that they don’t appear in your timeline when people visit your page. People have to click on the tab in order to read your favorites. This makes it less immediate and easier to drive people to that user’s page. A retweet provides that direct link on your public profile/timeline, whereas a favorite acts as more of a bookmark.
5. Hashtag: A hashtag is simply a word or group of words with a # sign placed before it/them. People tag words that are popular topics at the moment so they can easily join the conversation. Hashtagged words are automatically added to that trending topic, and when people click on a specific hashtag, they can read every single tweet with that hashtag. Hashtags helpfully group your tweet with other users’ similar tweets, and they make it easy to see what users are talking about the most. When creating hashtags, do not use punctuation or spaces between words. This cuts off your hashtag, meaning only the word(s) before the punctuation or space is included.
6. Direct Message: A direct message is a private message you can send to a follower. You can only send a direct message to somebody who follows you, but you cannot send one to somebody you follow who does not follow you back. This makes it easy to avoid unwanted messages or spam.
Now that you know these terms, you have all the components you need to master the next step in maximizing Twitter for your business. Comment below to let us know all about your Twitter business experiences.